Chapter Summaries

Lu Yao’s City-State Alliance connected its member cities through trade, while Botu and Shibao’s planning made mathematics central to alliance decisions. In Dragon Nest, Pasha announced the first sub-dragon and asked to take it to White Fortress to demonstrate the Dragon Race’s power.

• Lu Yao converted the Wonder into the City-State Alliance Council, and trade routes brought prosperity to Canopy City, Elf Village, and Strait Pier.
• Nivd told Lu Yao that Prophet Shibao and Mayor Botu had devised the alliance strategy, and Lu Yao learned that Botu had returned as a ghost to serve as Mayor YC.
• Lu Yao learned that Botu’s proposal and Shibao’s mathematical calculations had persuaded settlements to join the alliance and made mathematics a sought-after field.
• Snowman Jimmy informed Lu Yao that the first sub-dragon had appeared in Dragon Nest, and Lu Yao inspected the Young Dragon Beetle.
• Pasha asked Lu Yao to let the sub-dragon visit White Fortress so its people could see the power of the Dragon Race.

Shang Meng overcame discouragement to become a mathematician whose equations helped design the New Furnace Dragon, while her husband Sen Lu gave her lenses that restored her sight. At the White Fortress test, her blunt assessment of a Sub-Dragon provoked the Dragon of the Dark Sun into demanding a Dragon Blood Ritual battle.

• Shang Meng nearly abandoned mathematics, but Prophet Shibao encouraged her to keep learning, and she grew to love the subject.
• At twenty-nine, Shang Meng discovered the equation, earned recognition as a scholar of White Fortress, and married engineer Sen Lu.
• A White Fortress scholar summoned Shang Meng to witness the New Furnace Dragon test, and Sen Lu gave her anniversary gift: a pair of lenses that made distant objects clear.
• At the testing grounds, Shang Meng introduced the New Furnace Dragon and told Mr. Pasha that his Sub-Dragon was too small to defeat it.
• The Dragon of the Dark Sun angrily challenged the New Furnace Dragon to fight the Sub-Dragon under the Dragon Race's Dragon Blood Ritual.

White Fortress tested its New Furnace Dragon against Dragon King Pasha’s Sub-Dragon and won decisively, demonstrating the strength of its collaborative engineering and Shang Meng’s calculations. Pasha conceded and asked White Fortress to make him a flying Furnace Dragon, while Shang Meng reunited with Sen Lu after realizing she had forgotten their wedding anniversary.

• Philes arranged a contest between Pasha’s Sub-Dragon and White Fortress’s New Furnace Dragon, and Shang Meng started the machine.
• The New Furnace Dragon pushed the Sub-Dragon aside and outperformed it in a dead-pull test, carrying 60,000 stone against the Sub-Dragon’s 1,000.
• Shang Meng explained how White Fortress’s engineers and scholars had improved the Furnace Dragon, and Philes credited her calculations and the Dragon Race Equation.
• Pasha accepted the result, asked White Fortress to build him a flying Furnace Dragon, and left with Snowman Jimmy and the Sub-Dragon.
• Shang Meng recorded the experiment’s data until night, then realized she had forgotten her wedding anniversary.
• Sen Lu waited for Shang Meng with her favorite meat pies and Sour Raspberry, and she excitedly told him about the victory as they walked home.

Lu Yao watched Pasha accept the Furnace Dragon’s superiority and travel to Sand City to seek new Dragonkin candidates. He then discovered Sun-Forging Bay, chased the fleeing Divine Kingdom across the Crawling Zone, and brought it into the Vortex World after it surrendered.

• Lu Yao observed the upgraded Brass Furnace Dragon defeat the Sub-Dragon and recognized the Yao Clan’s technological advances.
• Pasha requested permission to visit Sand City to find Dragonkin candidates, and Lu Yao agreed while Snowman Jimmy managed the Dragon Nest.
• Lu Yao learned that Sen Lu had invented glasses and Shang Meng had invented a telescope, then discovered the passage world Sun-Forging Bay.
• Lu Yao pursued Sun-Forging Bay through the Crawling Zone as it fled and used black mist to delay the Vortex World.
• After Sun-Forging Bay exhausted its faith and surrendered, Lu Yao brought its Lamp Ball and a Pixelated Villager into Cloud Temple and anchored the Divine Kingdom in the Vortex World.

Ju treated his Divine Kingdom and its inhabitants as tools for calculating the rules of the world while pursuing a long plan to recover the lost Ju-state Civilization. After repeated encounters with a pursuing Vortex World exhausted his resources, he surrendered to preserve the possibility of continuing his calculations.

• Ju created a hundred-thousand-year plan to build computing capacity, crack the rules of his Divine Kingdom, and search for the Ju-state Civilization.
• Rule Turbulence carried Ju’s Divine Kingdom to Sun-Forging Bay, where he confirmed that Firefly God had fallen and began merging the ownerless world into his own.
• Ju cultivated Tricolor Worms as computing units and modified Sun-Forging Bay, using the Lamp Tribe, Carbon People, and Mist Beasts as potential new operators.
• When a Vortex World pursued Sun-Forging Bay, Ju’s Tricolor Worms calculated its trajectory, and he used the World Pot’s Black Mist to escape once.
• The Vortex World returned while Ju lacked the resources to resist, so he sent a letter of surrender from Mist Harbor to preserve his life and continue calculating.

Deng Yuan built a Sky Lamp to escape the Black Mist and discovered the sun beyond it, but a mysterious force swept him back to Mist Harbor and then to a bright world called the Cloud Temple. There, Deng Cheng recognized him and promised to repair him in Sand City, where Deng Yuan learned that his Life Spine might keep burning.

• Deng Gu taught Deng Yuan that the Lamp Tribe faced danger from Mist Beasts and from members who hunted sleeping or dead kin, and explained why he had chosen to awaken and help him.
• Deng Yuan resolved to create a Sky Lamp, and members of the Lamp Tribe helped him gather materials and build it.
• Deng Yuan rode the Sky Lamp above the Black Mist and saw the sun shining over a bright world, but an unknown force pulled the craft into a strange place.
• The damaged Deng Yuan awoke outside Sand City, where an armored man named Deng Cheng identified himself as a Lamp Tribe member who had once awakened Deng Gu.
• Deng Cheng arranged to take Deng Yuan to Sand City for treatment and said that Omnipotence Stones and Magic Oil could keep his Life Spine burning.

After Deng Yuan died and became a ghost, Deng Cheng urged it to use its exceptional lamp-making skills to build a future for the Lamp Tribe in Sand City. Lu Yao confirmed that the Sky Lamp offered a way to cross dimensions and then met Ju, the conquered God of Sun-Forging Bay.

• Deng Yuan died despite the Ghost Scholars and physicians' efforts, then rose again as a ghost in Ghost Armor.
• Deng Cheng explained that ghosthood freed Deng Yuan from the Lamp Tribe's fragile life-fuel limits and showed it the thriving city of Sand City.
• Deng Cheng encouraged Deng Yuan to keep making Sky Lamps, arguing that the Lamp Tribe's resilience and craftsmanship could earn them support from the Yao Tribe.
• Deng Cheng showed Deng Yuan abundant materials, and Deng Yuan resolved to repair its crashed Sky Lamp and begin crafting again.
• Lu Yao observed the Sky Lamp's journey and concluded that it revealed a possible route through Inter-dimensional Space for special life-forms, provided a God helped them cross the boundary.
• Lu Yao examined Ju, the God of Sun-Forging Bay, who offered its resources and freedom and asked to continue calculating.

Lu Yao learned that Ju was a refugee from the Mass-State Civilization who used Tricolor Worms as a biological computer, then accepted Ju as a Subordinate God. Ju explained that 15 represented a powerful, tolerant civilization while 44 represented calculation errors and evil.

• Lu Yao discovered that Ju had fled the collapse of the Mass-State Civilization and was trying to decode its compressed knowledge, all contained in the number 42.
• Ju used Tricolor Worms to calculate a worm’s time of death, and the prediction matched the worm’s actual death at about 80 seconds.
• Lu Yao asked Ju to rank down and become his Subordinate God, and Ju accepted.
• Ju entered Yao City and formed a divine statue in Yao Temple after Lu Yao accepted its vassalage.
• Lu Yao promised to preserve Ju’s autonomy in Sun-Forging Bay while using its computing support for the Yao Clan Civilization.
• Ju explained that 15 represented a powerful, tolerant forerunner civilization and that 44 represented calculation errors and evil.

Ju demonstrated his Miracles and identified shell cockroaches as suitable biological operators, then began building a Cockroach Algorithm in Sun-Forging Bay. Lu Yao freed the Lamp Tribe from the Black Mist, but they responded to their new freedom with fear and confusion.

• Ju used Decomposition on a Tricolor Worm and Evolutionary Screening to project its possible forms, including a Plug Tricolor Worm capable of Biological Integration.
• Ju analyzed the species in the Yao Clan World and Cloud Temple, judging the shell cockroaches ideal partners for the Tricolor Worms as biological operators.
• Lu Yao approved Ju's request to take shell cockroaches to Sun-Forging Bay, where Ju began constructing the Cockroach Algorithm.
• Lu Yao examined the Inner World and discovered that the Lamp Tribe lived beneath Black Mist in a manufactured enclosure created by the Firefly God.
• Lu Yao erased the Black Mist, and Isabelle told the Lamp Tribe that Great God Yao had freed them.
• The Lamp Tribe reacted to the restored sunlight with uncertainty and pleaded not to be abandoned, leaving Lu Yao troubled by their fear of freedom.

Lu Yao reviewed how the Firefly God repeatedly changed the inhabitants of Sun-Forging Bay to protect them from dragons, eventually creating the Lamp Tribe. The Silver Dragons and Brass Dragons noticed the Lamp Tribe after its members began making lamps.

• Red Dragons preyed on the Firefly God's first-generation humans, so he altered them into aggressive second-generation humans, which the dragons also wanted to eat.
• The Firefly God began selling humans to the Red Dragons and discovered Carbon People in coal mines distorted by the Nine Harmony Pillar.
• The Firefly God made the Carbon People the third generation of humans, but Black Dragons began buying them to keep their Mist Beasts as pets.
• The Firefly God created the Lamp Tribe from burned Carbon People and built them an exclusive kingdom.
• Lamp Makers emerged among the Lamp Tribe to contain dangerous black smoke and Mist Beasts, drawing the attention of Silver Dragons and Brass Dragons.

Lu Yao uncovered how the Firefly God deliberately destroyed Sun-Forging Bay to turn it into a Lamp Tribe trade operation and halt the changing eras. After repairing the Nine Harmony Pillar and finding no usable passage onward, Lu Yao investigated the World Pot and learned it could disrupt world rules at a steep cost.

• Lu Yao read Sun-Forging Bay's history and learned the Firefly God had sold the Lamp Tribe to Dragon Race merchants, driven by demand for their lamps and artificial sun, Light Crown.
• Lu Yao discovered the Firefly God had deliberately hollowed out the Divine Kingdom, creating three layers for the Lamp Tribe, Carbon People, and his attempt to create a fifth generation of humans.
• Lu Yao had Can Cong repair the damaged Nine Harmony Pillar, which identified the world as Continent Island, but he found no usable passage worlds nearby.
• Lu Yao found 2,021 Lamp Tribe members and 16,788 Carbon People, then extinguished the Carbon People to stop more Mist Beasts from appearing.
• Lu Yao examined the World Pot and learned its Interference Mist Sea could briefly disrupt world rules, but activation required 200,000 Faith and 1,000 Carbon People.
• Lu Yao called an experienced advisor to explain the newly encountered Exquisite classification.

Lu Yao learned how wonders reflected civilizations and arranged for the Carbon People to develop safely in Sun-Forging Bay. As he celebrated his birthday, Shaja created the Yao Tribe’s first Epic, bringing the tribe new bonuses and a surge of faith.

• Slaimod explained the differences among Exquisite, Immortal, and Mythological Wonders and described how civilizations could produce them unpredictably.
• Lu Yao moved the Lamp Tribe to Sand City, and Ju recommended sealing Sun-Forging Bay so the Carbon People could mature and the Mist Beasts could eventually awaken.
• Lu Yao accepted Ju’s plan and continued his expedition toward Blood Hill aboard Set Sail.
• Lu Yao received a birthday call from his mother while the Simulator reported that Shaja had created an Epic called Temple Warrior.
• Lu Yao chose to pass down Shaja’s Epic through a Blessing, granting the Yao Tribe Knowledge and Morale bonuses and greatly increasing its Faith.

Lu Yao inspected the newly completed Sacred Mark Armor, a powerful imitation of Holy Wish that White Fortress had begun producing after the New Furnace Dragon breakthroughs. As the armor stirred public excitement and frustrated Shaja and Pawa’s writing plans, Haizhe offered Lu Yao another Kindling Item from the Abyss.

• Lu Yao watched Hammer Endless wear the Sacred Mark Armor and defeat Salger and twelve Corrupted Guards in combat.
• Hammer Endless and Salger argued over who would get the scarce armor, while Lu Yao learned that White Fortress had approved a project to imitate Holy Wish using Dragon Remains and Fire-Steam Furnaces.
• Yao Tribe people gathered outside White Fortress to spy on the armor, speculate about Holy Wish, and argue over who got to use a Telescope.
• Shaja complained to Pawa that White Fortress had turned their invented ideas into real projects, and Pawa suggested waiting out the trouble on a trip to Bamboo Gourd Country.
• Haizhe the Sinister prayed to Lu Yao and offered him a Smoker's Snuff Bottle, which Lu Yao recognized as a Kindling Item.

Haizhe the Sinister reported that the Sinister Legion had slain a demigod and asked God Yao to open the way to the fourth floor of the Abyss. Lu Yao opened the seal and watched as Haizhe led the legion into the Four Directions Country, where a frightened Minotaur confronted them.

• Haizhe offered God Yao three trophies from a slain demigod, and Lu Yao stored the Snuff Bottle, Suspenders, and Vitality Banner.
• The Sinister Legion gave Lu Yao 61,071 Faith, bringing his reserves to 21.78 million.
• Haizhe explained that the legion had lost 37 Clay Corpse Demons defeating a demigod and had gained two Corpse Hunters before retreating to the third floor.
• Lu Yao removed the seal to the fourth floor, gaining 96,000 Faith, and discovered a vast city inhabited by monsters.
• Hai Zhe led the Clay Corpse Demons into the Four Directions Country, where one guard fled to alert the king and a Minotaur asked what the legion wanted.

Niu Sansi stood his ground when Hai Zhe and the Sinister Legion emerged from the East Road seal, then brought them into contact with the Rock King. Hai Zhe secured permission to station the legion in Four Directions Country and recruited Niu Sansi, whose role was to be revealed through a new batch of Yao Tribe equipment.

• Niu Sansi's patrol encountered Hai Zhe and the Sinister Legion after the East Road seal broke, while Bird Flies Absolute flew off to warn the king.
• Niu Sansi explained that Four Directions Country could reach the fifth level and insisted that Hai Zhe wait for the king's permission to enter.
• Hai Zhe met the Rock King and proposed stationing the Sinister Legion in Four Directions Country to hunt demigods and protect the city.
• The Rock King agreed to let Hai Zhe's legion stay, and Hai Zhe chose Niu Sansi as its local guide and first foreign soldier.
• Niu Sansi feasted on the legion's military provisions, and Hai Zhe told him that his place in the army was inside a large object covered in black cloth.

Niu Sansi joined General Hai’s Sinister Legion as an artilleryman and took part in his first live battle, first in a drill and then against a demigod threatening Four Directions Country. After helping kill the demigod, Niu Sansi received God Yao’s blessing and began dreaming of hunting more demigods, while regretting that Bird Flies Absolute was not there with him.

• General Hai formed the Sinister Legion into opposing teams for a live-combat drill, and Niu Sansi operated a Steam Cannon for the black team.
• Niu Sansi located the enemy cannon car during the drill, but the teams withdrew when news arrived that demigods were attacking Four Directions Country.
• General Hai led the Sinister Legion to reinforce the South Road, where Niu Sansi saw a dragon-shaped demigod slaughtering soldiers and residents.
• Niu Sansi fired Conqueror Purple Rose shells at the demigod, helping the artillery and Corpse Demons kill it.
• General Hai praised Niu Sansi, and God Yao’s blessing filled him with strength as he vowed to become a good artilleryman.
• Niu Sansi imagined hunting more demigods and felt melancholy that his brother Bird Flies Absolute was not there with him.

Lu Yao examined Niu Sansi’s new hero status and the Sinister Legion’s upgraded Rose Cannons after they defeated a mindless Sub-Dragon Demigod. He learned how the Dark God had tormented Rock King and ended with Rock King warning that Brain Worms had likely caused the attackers’ madness.

• Lu Yao reviewed Niu Sansi’s stats and learned that the Horned Race member had earned hero status after helping the Sinister Legion slay a Demigod.
• Lu Yao assessed Pinkman’s Level 4 Purple Roses, whose upgraded cannons gave the legion powerful ranged fire support.
• Hai Zhe’s troops found no loot on the dead Sub-Dragon, then collected its corpse for use as material.
• Lu Yao read Black Abyss’s records and learned that the Dark God had stripped Rock King of his combat strength, memories, and Wisdom, then cursed him to raise the fourth level’s transcendent population to one million.
• Rock King agreed to let the Sinister Legion station in Four Directions Country, and he told Hai Zhe that the attackers’ madness likely meant Brain Worms had eaten their brains.

Lu Yao learned that Brain Worm was a lawful Curse Worm that hunted Demigods for their Wisdom, while Hai Zhe strengthened the Sinister Legion with a Ghoul Prince built from a Sub-Dragon Demigod’s remains. Wisdom Bug Xiao Zhi arrived to apologize for the earlier attack and tried to hire Hai Zhe to hunt another Curse Worm, but Hai Zhe refused.

• Rock King told Hai Zhe that Brain Worm had eaten the brains of the two Demigods who attacked Four Directions Country, but posed no threat to Rock King because he had no brain.
• Rock King leased Four Directions Country’s cemetery to Hai Zhe, helping replenish the Clay Corpse Demon ranks, while the Corpse Hunters built the Brainless Ghoul Prince Waibi from a Sub-Dragon Demigod’s remains.
• Hai Zhe trained the Sinister Legion as its camp on East Road grew into a fortress, then hurried to West Road after a messenger reported the mad Demigods had returned.
• Wisdom Bug Xiao Zhi arrived with Silver Yaksha Yin Ji, apologized to Rock King, and explained that an enemy had lured away its Sub-Dragon Baxin and eaten its newly tamed Three-headed Naga.
• Xiao Zhi asked Hai Zhe and the Sinister Legion to help hunt a Curse Worm, then offered to pay double Four Directions Country’s price, but Hai Zhe refused.

The Brain Worm asked Hai Zhe to help kill Fu Gu, but the passage between the fourth and fifth layers closed before it could lure Fu Gu over. Meanwhile, Haizhe persuaded Lu Yao to send Yao Tribe experts to reform Four Directions Country, where Botu reunited with him.

• The Brain Worm explained that Fu Gu had eaten its two hounds and offered 45,000 Flame of Faith and Fu Gu’s spoils in exchange for help killing it.
• Hai Zhe agreed to discuss the hunt if the Brain Worm provided all available information, then sent it back to the fifth layer to lure Fu Gu.
• Rock King noticed that the passage between the fourth and fifth layers had closed, leaving the Brain Worm without immediate help against Fu Gu.
• Haizhe asked Lu Yao to send city managers to Four Directions Country, and Lu Yao approved a forty-person team led by Botu.
• Botu and Haizhe met in Four Directions Country, where Botu warned that the Sinister Legion would be held to the law and told Haizhe that the Yao Tribe hoped he would return home.

Bird Flies Absolute discovered that Four Directions Country’s prosperity was a lie and urged Niu Sansi to tell General Hai the truth. The king and General Hai began reforms that reshaped the city, while Bird Flies Absolute left the king facing an honest account of his past rule.

• Bird Flies Absolute learned that commanders and messengers had hidden Four Directions Country’s corruption from the forgetful Rock King, and it saw abandoned farms, stolen chickens, and sick fish for itself.
• Bird Flies Absolute told Niu Sansi about the city’s troubles, and Niu Sansi proposed asking General Hai to help reform Four Directions Country.
• Bird Flies Absolute and Niu Sansi went to see General Hai, and General Hai and the king agreed to transform the country.
• Yao Tribe managers established a City Council as the city dismissed soldiers, punished commanders, expanded farming, treated residents, and installed sky lamps.
• Bird Flies Absolute told Rock King that his past governance had been terrible, and Rock King asked it to scold him more.