Chapter Summaries

Zhu Ying prepared to crush the Oirats as their armies clashed at a Ming border stronghold, where explosive artillery and Ming cavalry devastated the attackers. As the battle intensified, a strange blood-feeding sapling appeared overhead, and the Dinosaur Army charged into the Oirat rear.

• Zhu Ying declared his intention to pacify the Northern Frontier Steppe and received reports that the Duke of Liang, the Duke of Zheng, and the logistics camp were approaching the border.
• Choros ordered the Oirat vanguard to attack a Ming stronghold after he and Mahammu concluded that their people had no choice but to fight for survival.
• The stronghold’s Commander of the Thousand Households used explosive shells to annihilate the advancing Oirat infantry and destroy their outdated cannons.
• Choros sent two more forces to attack the stronghold’s flanks, but Lan Yu led Ming cavalry in a charge that crushed the Oirat flank armies.
• Choros sent nearly a hundred thousand Oirat cavalry into battle, while Ming artillery and cavalry continued fighting the Oirat forces.
• A red sapling appeared above the battlefield and drew blood energy from the dead, while thousands of colossal beasts and enormous flying creatures approached the Oirat rear.

The Ming Army crushed the Oirat forces with Velociraptor cavalry, Pterosaur attacks, artillery, and a widening encirclement. As Choros tried to flee west, Zhu Ying spotted him and descended on his position aboard a massive Pterosaur.

• Choros saw thousands of Velociraptors charging from the east and Pterosaurs approaching from above, while Mahammu ordered the Oirat troops to form a defensive line.
• Guo Zhen led five thousand Velociraptor cavalry through the Oirat shield formation, breaking it apart and slaughtering the soldiers.
• Liu Lei and three thousand Wang Wei Pterosaur riders attacked the Oirat rear with repeating crossbows and low-flying assaults as Chang Mao's five hundred Red-Clad Cannons shelled the battlefield.
• Zhu Ying watched the Lifespan Fruit Tree grow by absorbing the battlefield's blood essence and life force, then saw the Ming forces complete their encirclement.
• Choros ordered a retreat toward Oirat territory, but Zhu Ying found him and brought his massive Pterosaur directly above him.

Zhu Ying destroyed the Oirat army, killed Choros, and led the Ming forces into Oirat territory. At court, Zhu Yuanzhang ordered railway construction and confirmed Beiping would become the new capital, while Zhu Ying devised a colonial system for governing distant conquered lands.

• Choros refused to surrender, so Zhu Ying struck from his pterosaur with a devastating sword attack that killed Choros and thousands of Oirat soldiers.
• Zhu Ying ordered the Ming army to kill armed Oirats and spare those who surrendered, then planned to conquer the Oirats and Uriankhai.
• Tang Duo reported the Ming victory to Zhu Yuanzhang, who ordered captured Oirat soldiers enslaved for labor and officials to accelerate railway construction.
• Zhu Yuanzhang announced that Beiping would become the Ming capital and rewarded senior officials with dragon meat.
• At the Oirat royal court, Zhu Ying used the Heart-Eating Gu to control Oirat nobles and discussed governance with Lan Yu and Chang Mao.
• Zhu Ying proposed colonial control for distant peoples, with local groups governing territory for the Ming while its taxes and resources went to the empire.

Zhu Ying secured Uriankhai’s voluntary surrender and ordered Ming forces to occupy its territory while the campaign against the Oirats continued. After returning to Yingtian, he showed Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Biao the Lifespan Fruit Tree and explained that its fruit could extend their lives.

• Zhu Ying ordered the generals to bring the Oirats under control and prepare to seize the chance to pacify Uriankhai.
• The Uriankhai Great Khan and his nobles surrendered to Zhu Ying and willingly swallowed Heart-Eating Gu pills to prove their submission.
• Zhu Ying promised the Uriankhai leaders wealth, status, and freedom to live across the Ming Dynasty, while taking their pastures and farmland into state ownership.
• Zhu Ying ordered Xu Huizu to occupy Uriankhai and Li Jinglong to send engineers to build strongholds, then urged the generals to continue conquering the Oirats.
• Zhu Ying returned to Yingtian and inspected the Lifespan Fruit Tree, whose newly formed fruit could extend a person’s life by half a year.
• Zhu Ying told Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Biao that the Lifespan Fruit Tree could extend their lives as it grew.

Zhu Ying’s reforms helped the Ming Dynasty prosper through commerce, industry, and improved opportunities for ordinary people. After describing the limits of relying on officials to uphold the law, he established plans for a Supervision Department to investigate grievances and corruption across the realm.

• Zhu Ying explained that the Lifespan Fruit Tree fed on battlefield vitality, and Zhu Biao and Zhu Yuanzhang accepted his plan to keep it controlled.
• Zhu Ying presented Zhu Yuanzhang with a draft colonial policy that would let Ming control conquered nations’ taxes and resources through dependent regimes.
• Zhu Biao reported that steam engines were being produced, railway construction had begun, and the new capital was expected to be ready by year’s end.
• Over the next four months, Royal Industry’s formula licensing helped workshops spread across the Ming Dynasty, creating jobs and increasing commercial tax revenue.
• Zhu Ying announced that the Ming Dynasty would establish a Supervision Department staffed by veteran soldiers to investigate grievances and official misconduct.
• Zhu Yuanzhang approved Zhu Ying’s plan to place the Supervision Department under the Imperial Guard and make it answer directly to the imperial leadership.

Zhu Ying established the Supervision Department, rewarded Zhao Mian with a Lifespan Pill for his work building the Royal Bank, and celebrated the incorporation of Oirat and Uriankhai lands into the Ming Dynasty. The annexations earned Zhu Ying several treasure chests, and he hoped opening them would yield another Spatial Portal.

• Zhu Ying announced that he would establish the Supervision Department, and the court officials pledged their support.
• Zhao Mian reported the Royal Bank’s growth across the realm, and Zhu Ying awarded him a Lifespan Pill that visibly rejuvenated him.
• Zhu Ying promised further Lifespan Pills to officials who rendered great service, inspiring the court to compete for merit.
• An urgent dispatch reported that the Oirat and Uriankhai territories had been incorporated into the Ming Dynasty, and Zhu Yuanzhang praised the victory and Zhu Ying’s role in it.
• Zhu Ying received two Tier 3 treasure chests for annexing the Oirats and one Tier 3 and one Tier 2 chest for annexing Uriankhai, then hoped to find a Spatial Portal among the rewards.

After opening his treasure chests, Zhu Ying discovered a portal to a Late Jin Five Barbarians World and ordered a campaign against its foreign tribes. He then used the newly unlocked Simulation Function to fuse True Dragon Qi with Nine Yang Divine Skill into a Heaven Tier Mid-grade technique, the Nine Yang Dragon Canon.

• Zhu Ying opened all his treasure chests and obtained new techniques, martial skills, spirit stones, a Spirit Array Diagram, and a Spatial Portal.
• Zhu Ying opened the portal to the Late Jin Five Barbarians World and resolved to prevent the slaughter of the northern Han Chinese.
• Zhu Ying ordered Lan Yu, Xu Huizu, and Chang Mao to assemble their camps at Beiping City and directed the Northern Frontier prefectures to send grain, fodder, and supplies.
• Zhu Ying activated the Simulation Function at the cost of ten years of lifespan and learned that it used spiritual power to simulate techniques and martial skills.
• Zhu Ying spent eighty-eight years of lifespan simulating a fusion of True Dragon Qi and Nine Yang Divine Skill, removing True Dragon Qi's bond to national fortune while retaining both techniques' other characteristics.
• Zhu Ying named the resulting Heaven Tier Mid-grade technique the Nine Yang Dragon Canon and extracted it.

Zhu Ying converted his cultivation to the Nine Yang Dragon Canon, unleashing golden dragon visions above Ying Tian City. He emerged from seclusion with greatly enhanced power as Zhu Yuanzhang, Zhu Biao, officials, and citizens gathered at his mansion to witness the spectacle.

• Zhu Ying began converting his cultivation, while Liu Lei ordered the Wang Wei to guard the hall and keep everyone away.
• After three days, golden light and two dragon phantoms burst from the hall, and their roars and pressure shook Ying Tian City.
• Citizens, officials, Zhu Yuanzhang, and Zhu Biao gathered outside the Grandson's Mansion, where Liu Yu'er said Zhu Ying had been in seclusion.
• Zhu Ying completed the conversion and gained powerful True Dragon Qi traits, including Dragon Qi Body Protection and Dragon Qi Impact.
• Zhu Ying opened the hall doors and emerged before the assembled officials, who bowed to him in awe.

Zhu Ying revealed that Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Biao could cultivate the True Dragon Qi, then guided them through their first cultivation. They awakened in the martial Innate Realm, having gained powerful inner force through the nation's fortune.

• After dismissing the officials and consorts, Zhu Ying told Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Biao that he had learned the emperor-only True Dragon Qi technique and that they could cultivate it too.
• Zhu Ying passed the cultivation method and strands of inner force to Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Biao, giving them the foundation for the technique.
• Zhu Yuanzhang tested the inner force by lifting a stone lion weighing thirty thousand jin, and Zhu Ying explained that cultivation would grant them even greater power.
• Zhu Ying ordered Liu Lei and the Wang Wei to guard the inner hall, then taught Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Biao to cultivate by focusing on the Ming Dynasty and its people.
• Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Biao bound their True Dragon Qi to the nation's fortune, formed golden inner force, and advanced directly into the martial Innate Realm.

Zhu Ying helped Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Biao break through to the Innate Realm and taught them to wield True Dragon Qi. He then revealed that a new Spatial Portal led to the Late Jin Five Barbarians World and planned to explain the myriad worlds and announce a campaign at the next morning court.

• Zhu Ying confirmed that Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Biao had reached the Innate Realm through [True Dragon Qi], which drew power from national fortune.
• Zhu Yuanzhang unleashed a Golden Dragon that shattered stone lions, while Zhu Biao controlled hundreds of arrows and hit every target's bullseye.
• Zhu Ying explained that stronger Ming national fortune could strengthen their cultivation, but damage to the dynasty could weaken their True Dragon Qi.
• Zhu Ying told Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Biao that he had obtained a Spatial Portal to the [Late Jin Five Barbarians World] and intended to protect the Han Chinese there.
• Zhu Ying confirmed that he would reveal the myriad worlds and announce his campaign plan to the officials at the next day's court session.

Zhu Ying announced that the Ming Dynasty had opened a gateway to the Late Jin Five Barbarians World, where Han Chinese were suffering under northern barbarians. Zhu Yuanzhang ordered an expedition to drive out the barbarians, with provisions and military supplies to be sent to Beiping Prefecture.

• Zhu Ying explained the existence of the myriad heavens and revealed that the new gateway led to the Late Jin Five Barbarians World.
• Tang Duo and the court officials called for the Ming Dynasty to send troops to protect the Han Chinese there, and Ming generals volunteered to lead the expedition.
• Zhu Ying praised the officials for caring about the people and urged the Ming Dynasty to aid the Han Chinese in the other world.
• Zhu Yuanzhang declared that he would personally act and issued a decree to send Ming forces through the gateway to drive out the barbarians.
• Zhu Yuanzhang ordered Yu Xin to gather provisions and military supplies and transport them to Beiping Prefecture without delaying the campaign.

Zhu Ying prepared the Ming army to enter the Late Jin Five Barbarians World, ordering Guo Zhen to capture dinosaurs and assembling three hundred thousand troops at Beiping. After rallying the soldiers and opening the portal, Zhu Ying led the Pterosaur Army through first, leaving the rest of the army ready to follow.

• Zhu Ying ordered Guo Zhen to lead the Imperial Guards and Kyoto Army into the Prehistoric World to capture Pterosaurs and Velociraptors, and Guo Zhen completed the mission smoothly.
• Three hundred thousand Ming troops and the three main battle camps assembled outside Beiping as Zhu Ying arrived with three thousand Wang Wei Pterosaur troops.
• Zhu Ying told the army that they would fight the Five Barbarians in the Late Jin Five Barbarians World and described the devastation suffered by the northern Han Chinese.
• The soldiers vowed to fight, and Zhu Ying opened the Spatial Portal and ordered the Pterosaur Army to enter first.
• Zhu Ying led the Pterosaur Army through the portal for his first arrival in the Late Jin Five Barbarians World.

Zhu Ying’s Ming army entered Chang’an and rescued Han Chinese civilians while routing the Xiongnu forces. The Xiongnu Chanyu retreated with his remaining troops into the ruined imperial palace, where Jin emperor Sima Ye and his officials were already captive.

• Zhu Ying ordered the Ming army to enter Chang’an, protect civilians, and kill armed Xiongnu soldiers.
• Xu Huizu led the Infantry Battalion through the city, rescuing civilians and driving the Xiongnu into a gathering fight.
• The Xiongnu Chanyu rallied his troops for a direct clash, but the Ming army defeated them and turned the battle into a pursuit.
• Han Chinese civilians emerged to cheer the Ming army, while some young men joined the pursuit of the fleeing Xiongnu.
• The Xiongnu Chanyu ordered a retreat and led more than ten thousand surviving soldiers toward the imperial palace to seize Jin emperor Sima Ye as a hostage.

Xu Huizu’s Ming army stormed the imperial palace and cornered the Xiongnu chanyu, who used Jin Emperor Sima Ye and the court as hostages. Zhu Ying arrived on a Wind God Pterosaur with Wang Wei’s Pterosaur Army and ordered the Xiongnu soldiers slaughtered, leaving the chanyu and his generals alive as the battle raged inside the hall.

• Xu Huizu ordered the Infantry Battalion to breach the palace gates, and the Ming soldiers killed the Xiongnu guards inside.
• The Xiongnu chanyu gathered Sima Ye and the Jin nobles and ministers as hostages, but the Ming soldiers ignored their pleas and continued attacking.
• The Xiongnu chanyu killed Jin nobles to force the Ming army to withdraw, while Sima Ye and the ministers shouted for the soldiers to stop.
• Zhu Ying arrived on the Wind God Pterosaur with three thousand of Wang Wei’s Pterosaur Army and ordered the Ming army to kill the Xiongnu soldiers but spare their king and generals.
• The Ming army surged into the Hall of Court Deliberations, overwhelmed the Xiongnu defenses, and drove the chanyu’s forces toward defeat.

Zhu Ying’s Ming forces crushed the Xiongnu in Chang’an, captured their Chanyu, and punished him and his generals before condemning Jin’s rulers and officials. After the city was pacified, Zhu Ying ordered the captured Xiongnu soldiers transported to the Ming Dynasty and enslaved, while the fate of the wider campaign remained unresolved.

• Ming soldiers captured the Xiongnu Chanyu and his generals, while Sima Ye and Jin’s court took credit for their rescue and then berated Xu Huizu for ignoring the emperor.
• Zhu Ying arrived with the Wang Wei Pterosaur Army, ordered the Xiongnu leaders’ limbs severed, and declared that Jin’s royal clan and officials deserved execution.
• Zhu Ying had Jin’s princes and ministers detained, ordered the royal clan hunted down, and sent the Cavalry Battalion into Chang’an to kill resisting Xiongnu soldiers.
• Lan Yu reported that Chang’an had been pacified, with tens of thousands of Xiongnu killed and a hundred thousand captured; Zhu Ying ordered the prisoners spared and enslaved in the Ming Dynasty.
• The captured Xiongnu were transported through the Spatial Portal to Beiping, where Ming soldiers prepared to brand them as slaves and assign them to forced labor.

Zhu Ying ordered the Ming Army to intensify its campaign against the Five Hu tribes while the Lifespan Fruit Tree absorbed blood energy from the war. At the year-end court assembly, officials reported sweeping gains in population, infrastructure, and treasury revenue, and Zhu Yuanzhang pledged to continue the policies driving Ming prosperity.

• Zhu Ying ordered the Ming Army to hunt down and exterminate the Five Hu tribes, and later sent more troops to support the campaign.
• Lan Yu, Chang Mao, and Xu Huizu led the Ming forces to defeat the Five Hu across the north, while prisoners and a Lifespan Fruit Tree root cutting were sent to the Ming Dynasty.
• Zhu Ying inspected the blood-red Lifespan Fruit Tree in the Imperial Guard Camp and told Guo Zhen to urge the generals to continue the slaughter.
• At the New Year's Eve court assembly, ministers reported population and grain growth, a stable Northern Frontier, and railway construction halfway complete.
• Yu Xin reported that Ming treasury revenue had risen nearly thirtyfold, and Zhu Yuanzhang ordered the successful national policies to continue.

Zhu Ying and Zhu Yuanzhang ordered the Ming army to eradicate the Five Barbarians in the Late Jin Five Barbarians World and transport prisoners to Ming Dynasty. As the Ming army expanded across the north, Eastern Jin learned of its rise and prepared to investigate it and defend the Yangtze.

• Zhao Mian reported that Ming Dynasty bank deposits had reached eighty million taels, and Zhu Yuanzhang ordered more banks and policies benefiting the people.
• Zhu Ying told Zhu Yuanzhang that the Ming army was defeating the Five Barbarians and argued that it should eliminate them completely and capture prisoners for Ming Dynasty's labor force.
• Zhu Yuanzhang approved the plan, and Lan Yu, Xu Huizu, and Chang Mao returned through the Spatial Portal to capture prisoners and expand Ming control in the north.
• The Ming army took control of one-fifth of the north, while the Xiongnu, Xianbei, and other tribes united against it and suffered another defeat.
• Wang Dao warned Sima Rui that the Ming army had occupied Chang'an and was rapidly expanding, and Sima Rui ordered spies into the north and defenses along the Yangtze River.

At the year-end court deliberation, Zhu Yuanzhang ordered the Ming army to turn its attention from the retreating Five Hu tribes to Sima Rui’s Eastern Jin regime, while officials reported on military, infrastructure, trade, and provincial progress. Zhu Ying rewarded more than a dozen officials with Lifespan Fruits, explaining that each fruit could extend a person’s life by twenty years.

• Tang Duo reported that the Ming army had occupied most of the north in the Late Jin and Five Hu World, and that the Five Hu tribes were fleeing toward the northern grasslands.
• Zhu Yuanzhang ordered the Ming army to spare the Five Hu for the moment and destroy Sima Rui’s Eastern Jin regime, and Tang Duo agreed to transmit the edict to Lan Yu and the other generals.
• Guo Zhen reported that the Imperial Guards had captured twenty thousand pterosaurs and thirty thousand velociraptors, and Zhu Ying promised the Alchemy Hall would make more anesthetic poison.
• Qin Da and Yu Xin reported on dams, bridges, rising commerce, and increased tax revenue, while Fu Youde reported that the Northern Province was stable and its peoples traded peacefully.
• Zhu Ying named more than a dozen officials for their service and bestowed one Lifespan Fruit on each, explaining that a fruit could extend life by twenty years.

Zhu Ying rewarded ministers with Lifespan Fruits and announced a ten-day holiday while ordering campaigns to continue. He discussed the Ming Dynasty’s expansion plans and growing national fortune with Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Biao, then revealed that both were above the fifth level of the Innate Realm and could reach its great perfection in about a year.

• Zhu Ying gave Lifespan Fruits to more than a dozen ministers, who ate them and visibly grew younger as their lifespans increased by twenty years.
• Zhu Ying granted all Ming Dynasty officials ten days of leave but ordered the campaigns in the [Prehistoric World] and [Late Jin and Five Barbarians] worlds to continue.
• Zhu Yuanzhang, Zhu Biao, and Zhu Ying praised the Ming Dynasty’s strength, and Zhu Ying said it would expand its territory and army next year.
• Zhu Biao worried that multiple wars might drain the treasury, and Zhu Ying assured him that the Ming Dynasty’s commercial taxes could cover military expenses.
• Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Biao demonstrated their strengthened True Dragon internal energy, and Zhu Ying explained that it had grown with the Ming Dynasty’s national fortune.
• Zhu Ying told Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Biao that they were above the fifth level of the Innate Realm and could reach great perfection in about a year.

As the New Year celebrations ended, Liu Jing proclaimed two imperial decrees in Ying Tian City: the Ming Dynasty would recruit one million soldiers and restore annual imperial examinations. The citizens celebrated the new opportunities, leaving young people across the realm able to choose between military service and scholarly advancement.

• Citizens in a Royal Tavern praised the Ming Dynasty’s prosperity and toasted His Majesty, the Crown Prince, and the Imperial Grandson.
• Liu Jing arrived with Imperial Guards and cavalry to proclaim two decrees to the gathered citizens.
• Liu Jing announced that the Ming Dynasty would recruit one million people aged sixteen to twenty-five through examinations in the prefectures.
• Liu Jing announced that annual imperial examinations would resume for anyone with student registration, with no age limit stated.
• Citizens debated whether their children should enlist or prepare for the examinations as officials proclaimed the decrees across the Ming Dynasty.