Chapter Summaries

Li Ang’s allied army fought the Prophet Legion to a costly stalemate, then used the illusion of Leofric’s cavalry to reach Long River Town without being attacked. The chapter ended with Amy angrily telling Li Ang that the town’s garrison had no intention of fighting.

• Li Ang stopped fleeing and prepared to countercharge the Three Prophets, but they retreated when Leofric’s returning force looked like a large cavalry regiment.
• The Prophet Legion’s Blood Oath Witches covered its withdrawal, and both sides suffered heavy casualties before the remaining forces formed up and faced one another.
• Sarah told Li Ang that she had once escaped a heretical group connected to the Three Prophets and explained how followers of the Dark Goddess became Fallen Ones.
• Li Ang and Godric rallied their soldiers, then led the allied army toward Long River Town while Leofric’s apparent cavalry and Ralph’s mounted rangers kept the Prophet Legion at bay.
• The allied army reached Long River Town and entered without trouble, where Amy complained to Li Ang that the garrison had no intention of fighting.

Li Ang used a staged business offer and huge bounties to persuade Long River Town’s garrison and mercenaries to join the fight against the Prophet Legion. When the army marched out, the Three Prophets split their forces and fled west, drawing the pursuers after them.

• Godric took temporary command of Long River Town, but its garrison refused to fight outside the city until Li Ang intervened.
• Li Ang lured the garrison commander to a tavern and offered huge sums for captured Misfortune Bringers and the Three Prophets.
• The garrison knights and mercenary companies asked Godric for permission to fight, and more than two thousand allied troops marched out of Long River Town.
• The Prophet Legion scattered into small groups while the Three Prophets fled west with several dozen Misfortune Bringers.
• The Lion Territory cavalry and mercenaries pursued the Three Prophets, prioritizing the bounty over the scattered female soldiers.

Li Ang pursued the Three Prophets west of Long River Town and joined the fight to stop their escape. After their prayer drove the Misfortune Bringers into a frenzy, Li Ang and his men used heavy swords to bring down one prophet, while the battle continued around the other two.

• The Lion Territory cavalry and mercenaries caught the Three Prophets' exhausted party and surrounded them, but held back from lethal blows to preserve their bounty.
• The Three Prophets prayed to the Goddess of Justice, sending the Misfortune Bringers into a frenzy and opening a breach in the encirclement.
• Li Ang blocked the prophets' escape, discovered their Flesh and Blood Armor resisted arrows and blunt weapons, and ordered the soldiers to attack with swords.
• A prophet wielding a broad-bladed sword shattered Li Ang's lance and knocked him from Alice, then kicked Kloze away when he attacked.
• Li Ang and the Meitengheim men pinned the sword-wielding prophet in the mud with heavy blows, and Li Ang severed her leg with the Griffin Sword.
• The wounded prophet fell after a greatsword mangled her face, while the other two prophets remained surrounded.

Li Ang and Roland defeated the Three Prophets, but Ryman arrived under the King's orders and took the witches away instead of letting them face justice. Ryman revealed that the King had cooperated with the Prophets, while Roland explained his past with the fanatical Dawn Knight Order.

• A Misfortune Bringer possessed the fallen Prophet's body, and Li Ang realized the Three Prophets could use the Misfortune Bringers as spare bodies.
• The Three Prophets seized horses and tried to escape, but Roland and Li Ang unhorsed and wounded them with lance strikes.
• Ryman arrived with the Lion Knight Order and stopped Li Ang's men from taking the Three Prophets, citing the King's order to bring them to Lion City.
• Ryman told Li Ang that the King had ordered him to conceal the Trublen massacre because the village had supported a rebel claimant, and he implied the King had worked with the Three Prophets before.
• The Lion Knights bound the Three Prophets and took them away, while Roland introduced himself as a former member of the Dawn Knight Order.

The chapter paid tribute to Chongqing’s firefighters, soldiers, volunteers, and motorcycle riders who battled wildfires and built firebreaks amid extreme heat and difficult mountain terrain. It ended by hoping the Jinyun Mountain fire would soon be extinguished and that Chongqing would endure.

• The narrator described Chongqing’s August hardships, including extreme heat, drought, epidemic outbreaks, and forest fires.
• Firefighters, soldiers, and forest protection units fought on the front lines and held back firelines while crews prepared firebreaks.
• Volunteers cut firebreaks by hand through steep forests, using chainsaws, hand saws, axes, and hoes.
• After a frontline supply request spread through motorcycle groups, more than five hundred off-road riders reached Jinyun Mountain within an hour.
• Motorcycle riders repeatedly transported supplies and relief crews up treacherous slopes, continuing despite exhaustion, crashes, and wrecked bikes.
• The narrator wished for the Jinyun Mountain fire to be extinguished soon and for Chongqing to suffer no more hardship.

Li Ang recruited Sir Roland, the Dawn Knight Order’s exiled Paladin, and directed him to help the survivors of Serenmis by bringing them to Li Ang’s territory. After the battle, Li Ang also encouraged a defeated knight to return to Lion Lake City and pledge allegiance to Forster.

• Sir Roland recounted how his devotion to justice led the Dawn Knight Order to exile and hunt him, and he accepted Li Ang’s offer to fight alongside him while remaining true to his faith.
• Sir Roland asked Li Ang for money to aid the elderly survivors of Serenmis, where heretics had killed nearly all the young people and plundered the village.
• Li Ang offered to resettle the survivors in his territory, and Sir Roland accepted his counsel and joined Li Ang’s party.
• Li Ang’s forces took the valuable spoils from the battle, while the defeated cavalrymen and mercenaries were left with the Misfortune Bringers’ corpses.
• Li Ang gave the commanding knight travel money and advised him to take his troops to Lion Lake City and swear loyalty to Forster, and the knight agreed.

Li Ang secured Long River Town, negotiated grain and military support, and received an appointment as governor of Aier River County while King Ulrich balanced power among the eastern nobles. With Godric asking him to defend White Deer Fortress and the territory’s immediate threats contained, Li Ang turned his attention to expanding its money, population, and military strength.

• Li Ang sent the Long River Town garrison to pledge allegiance to Forster, offering to buy their fiefs if Forster rejected them, and secretly negotiated a deal for grain.
• Godric’s troops occupied Long River Town, the Horn Summon Ranger Corps returned to its hall, and Li Ang sent captured valuables to Lion City as compensation for his losses.
• Leofric traded two hundred and forty draft horses for 8% of Wheat Fragrance International, while Ralph received a pioneering certificate and Charles became a core Ranger Corps member.
• King Ulrich appointed Godric Commander-in-Chief of Military Affairs for the eastern region as a Great Baron, appointed Duke Brennus acting governor of Long River Town, and made Li Ang governor of Aier River County.
• Godric asked Li Ang to station himself at White Deer Fortress, and Forster agreed to deliver grain within two weeks.
• Li Ang concluded that the territory’s next priorities were money and grain, population, and military strength.

Li Ang established Long River Express in Long River Town to provide standardized cargo and passenger transport, rapidly buying up local caravans and organizing their people into a large armed transport company. With Lesley running operations and Eric leading security, the company began service with fixed prices and a system intended to draw in merchants, workers, and more orders.

• Li Ang sent Sir Roland to escort elderly survivors to his territory and Ansen to search nearby villages, while he assigned Lesley to create a transport company.
• Lesley named the new Wheat Fragrance International subsidiary Long River Express and established its headquarters beside Long River Town's central avenue.
• Li Ang spent one hundred thousand denars to acquire more than four hundred wagons, over five hundred armed men, and nearly seven hundred horses.
• Li Ang appointed Eric to lead the armed division, while Lesley managed customers, orders, and transport operations.
• Lesley recruited temporary teamsters, and Long River Express divided its personnel between wagon driving, customer service, and armed escort duties.
• Long River Express introduced publicly posted distance-based prices and began offering standardized transport, with customized security available for an additional fee.

Li Ang explained to Amy that he aimed to build strength comparable to a duke within a year by expanding Long River Express and using it to secure grain, recruits, technology, and military power. After negotiating future grain purchases in Kewen Village, they traveled north and discovered an estate marked with the Crimson Brotherhood’s symbol.

• Amy questioned the cost of Long River Express, and Li Ang explained that he judged its value by whether it could rapidly increase his overall strength.
• Li Ang told Amy he needed her help securing grain deals and planned to gain the power of a duke within a year.
• Li Ang and Amy negotiated agreements with Kewen Village’s nobles for three hundred thousand pounds of grain next season.
• Li Ang and Amy set out north to negotiate with other estates and secure more future grain supplies.
• Amy recognized the Crimson Brotherhood’s symbol on a large lakeside estate and drew her sword.

Li Ang discovered that the estate was Foucher’s stronghold and fought through its defenders, defeating Frederi in a duel. As Li Ang rushed after Foucher, someone inside the manor fired a matchlock musket at him, leaving his fate uncertain.

• Amy deflected a throwing axe aimed at Li Ang, and Kloze identified the attackers as pirates as Li Ang’s men charged the estate.
• Li Ang recognized Foucher and realized the estate housed the Crimson Brotherhood, but Foucher halted the fight before accusing Li Ang of killing a duke’s attendant and ordering his men to surround him.
• Li Ang and his guards broke through the encirclement, and Li Ang defeated Frederi in close combat before learning Foucher had fled into the manor.
• Li Ang ran toward the manor, spotted someone aiming a matchlock musket, and dove aside as it fired.

Li Ang survived an ambush by Foucher, whose reckless use of gunpowder set a lakeside building ablaze, while Amy killed him with a crossbow. The group recovered Foucher’s matchlock musket, and Li Ang realized the rare weapon’s presence in Long River Town raised questions about how Foucher obtained it.

• Li Ang dodged a matchlock shot, charged into the building, and escaped when the gunman scattered gunpowder that ignited and set the wooden structure on fire.
• Li Ang searched for Foucher as the blaze spread, while pirates escaped across the lake and the Great Swordsmen routed the remaining enemies.
• Amy warned Li Ang about Foucher on the second-floor balcony and shot him with her crossbow as he fired at Li Ang.
• Sammer recovered Foucher’s body and the matchlock musket from the lake, and Li Ang identified the dead man as Duke Alma’s bastard son.
• Li Ang examined the rare firearm and wondered how Foucher had obtained it, concluding that Frederi might know.

Frederi explained how Foucher had hired him and recounted the crimes and strange schemes that led them to the farmstead, where Foucher had promised him grain for Meitengheim. Li Ang realized Foucher was a player who had mistaken the real world for the game, and the chapter left him considering Frederi’s familiar story from the game.

• Kloze introduced Frederi to Li Ang, and Frederi recounted how a shipwreck and cultist attack had left him stranded in Pande with a mission to bring food home to Meitengheim.
• Frederi explained that Foucher had hired him with a promise of grain, then traveled through cities searching for companions, treasure chests, and a ruin while growing increasingly violent.
• Frederi described how Foucher tried to claim Sarah as his fiancée, robbed a Barkley merchant, and later raided villages to create refugees for a supposed quest.
• Frederi said Foucher’s men were routed by the Gatu people, after which Foucher occupied a farmstead and offered Frederi its grain, though Frederi lacked a way to transport it.
• Li Ang recognized Foucher’s actions as those of a player following game logic, including searching taverns, pursuing quests, and treating enemies as experience packs.
• Li Ang recalled that Frederi told the same story in the game when brought near Lion Lake City.

Li Ang killed Foucher and used the corpse’s delivery to Lion Lake City to make Duke Alma suspect his legitimate son, Forster. As Frederi and the Meitengheim people worried over their famine-stricken homeland, Li Ang considered how to help them and gain access to their advanced metalworking.

• Li Ang confirmed Foucher was dead, beheaded him, and reflected on how Foucher’s game-based assumptions had failed him in the real world.
• Frederi told Li Ang that Duke Alma likely knew little of Foucher’s later crimes and that Forster had avoided dealing with him.
• Li Ang ordered Frederi to take Foucher’s corpse to Lion Lake City and tell the truth, expecting Duke Alma to suspect Forster of arranging the murder.
• Frederi returned three days later as Li Ang loaded the manor’s grain onto ships, and the Meitengheim people lamented that they could not transport the grain to their homeland.
• Li Ang considered helping Meitengheim, hoping its renowned metalworkers could eventually help him produce matchlock muskets.

Li Ang arranged to help Meitengheim obtain suitable grain seeds through Imperial Port after Frederi explained the famine’s cause. As the eastern region enjoyed a rare peace, Sir Roland helped evacuate Sailenmis’s elderly survivors and began rebuilding the New Dawn Knights by inspiring ordinary people to do good.

• Amy explained that transporting grain by ship was the only practical way to relieve Meitengheim’s famine.
• Frederi told Li Ang that Meitengheim needed suitable planting seeds, and Li Ang promised to take him to Imperial Port after settling his territory’s affairs.
• The eastern region became more peaceful as Godric restored patrols and the Owl Knight Order helped hunt down bandits.
• Morgan helped Sir Roland evacuate Sailenmis’s elderly survivors, treating them kindly despite having few resources.
• Sir Roland worked alongside the common people, brought Morgan to the Goddess of Justice, and took his first step toward rebuilding the New Dawn Knights.
• Li Ang counted Wheat Fragrance Territory’s grain reserves and continued seeking planting seed for the coming harvest.

Li Ang organized Wheat Fragrance Territory’s growing population into mixed-age farming groups and put noncommissioned officers in charge of managed farmsteads. He then introduced loans and competitive rewards to expand cultivation while keeping the land under his control, leaving the territory mobilized for agricultural development.

• Roland and Ansen brought elderly farmers and destitute commoners to Wheat Fragrance Territory, bringing its population to twelve hundred.
• Li Ang created mixed-age production groups so young workers and experienced elders could cultivate land together and share responsibility for taxes.
• Li Ang assigned noncommissioned officers to manage the groups, placing them under four agricultural departments while retaining centralized control of the farmland.
• Li Ang required each group to reclaim and plant land, and he introduced food-and-seed loans that groups would repay after harvest.
• Li Ang established performance rankings that tied departmental dividends, taxes, loan repayment, rewards, and penalties to agricultural results.

The lord and Amy expanded cultivation in Wheat Fragrance Territory and White Deer Fortress, then the lord traveled south with the Meitengheim people to address their famine. Sarah briefed him on the history of the Bacchus Empire and the Snake Worship Cult’s current infiltration of Pande Continent.

• Wheat Fragrance Territory reclaimed more than thirty thousand acres, while Amy’s policies helped White Deer Fortress reclaim nearly fifty thousand acres and link its fields to the territory.
• The lord left Ansen in charge of Wheat Fragrance Territory and Sir Roland in charge of White Deer Fortress, then traveled toward Imperial Port with Amy, Sarah, and the Meitengheim people.
• Sarah explained how General Osa’s expedition had established New Bacchus after the Second Bacchus Empire collapsed into civil war.
• Sarah recounted how Alfred suppressed opposition and founded the Lionheart Kingdom after the Kingdom of Pendor disintegrated.
• Sarah reported that the Snake Worship Cult had established a theocratic state on Amara and was invading Pande by landing near Imperial Port and infiltrating the Bacchus Empire.

Ansen and Sarah’s research explained how Emperor Marius’s reforms integrated Bax into Pande and weakened the Snake Worship Cult. Li Ang’s convoy entered the Bacchus Empire and continued toward Imperial Port, with Imir Village as its next stop.

• Ansen and Sarah’s information described how Marius replaced Bax’s status laws, promoted Damia’s worship, and reformed civil administration and military recruitment.
• Li Ang considered the value of Marius’s reforms while traveling with a small merchant convoy carrying leather goods toward Imperial Port.
• Risadiran stayed apart from the convoy after encountering Noldo patrol members who recognized him but did not speak to him.
• Li Ang’s convoy crossed into the Bacchus Empire through the wilderness between Shield Wind Fortress and Calundru Castle.
• The convoy headed for Imir Village to replenish supplies, and the chapter contrasted its prosperity with the ruined villages near Calundru Castle.

During Goddess Damia’s festival in Yimeier Village, Li Ang tried to avoid General Clerion, who noticed Amy’s firearm and approached her. Clerion explained that he wanted Amy to meet his unmarried son Dean, leaving Sarah to consider his awkward matchmaking request.

• Li Ang spotted General Clerion at the festival and tried to leave the village with Amy before being recognized.
• Clerion’s Plague-Exorcists questioned Amy about her firearm, and she claimed it was a war trophy while Li Ang and Risadiran slipped away.
• Clerion invited Amy to dinner, alarming her until Sarah stepped in and clarified his intentions.
• Clerion explained that his thirty-three-year-old son Dean had repeatedly rejected potential partners and faced another term of hard labor if he remained unmarried.
• Clerion said he had hoped Amy would be a suitable match for Dean, but Dean had hidden at home instead of attending the festival.

Amy agreed to meet Dean, Clerion’s son, and turned their conversation toward farming in mountainous Meitengheim. Dean welcomed her questions and showed her high-yield corn and potatoes that could help solve the region’s food shortage.

• Clerion asked Amy to help draw Dean out, but Amy refused to dance at Damia’s festival and offered instead to speak with him about agriculture.
• Clerion led Amy and Sarah to Dean’s manor, where Dean initially tried to send them away and then welcomed Amy’s farming questions.
• Amy asked Dean how to improve yields in mountainous regions, and the two discussed waterwheels, irrigation, and crops suited to steep terrain.
• Dean showed Amy the corn and potatoes he had spent years developing, explaining their yields and advantages over wheat.
• Amy realized that Dean’s corn and potatoes could produce far more food per mu and asked why farmers were reluctant to grow them.

Amy persuaded Dean to share his high-yield potato and corn seeds, and Li Ang recruited him to help promote the crops. After a smooth journey south, the caravan reached Buyulin Village, where villagers were wailing over an apparent disaster.

• Dean explained that suspicion, political resistance, and the danger of sprouted potatoes had prevented him from promoting his crops, while Amy offered to take him somewhere he could pursue his research freely.
• Dean agreed to give Amy a cartload of seeds, and Sarah persuaded Clerion to let Dean travel with the caravan rather than face punishment in a mine.
• Li Ang recognized the potatoes and corn as world-changing crops, told Dean he knew how potato sprouts caused poisoning, and brought him aboard the carriage.
• The caravan collected a cartload of seeds in exchange for leather goods and left Yimeier Village with Dean and several Plague-Exorcists accompanying them.
• After traveling south without trouble, the caravan arrived near Buyulin Village and found its villagers wailing as if a disaster had struck.