Chapter Summaries

Lu PingAn and Xia Qin discussed how the authorities’ alliance with the True Gods had shifted power over churches and made them more accountable. After his team passed its inspection, Lu PingAn saw new arrivals transforming the world, including dragons offering flying taxi rides.

• Lu PingAn explained that churches now had to consider the authorities’ financial and political power, and Xia Qin welcomed the prospect of investigating more crimes to the end.
• Lu PingAn wondered how the Special Task Force system and his group’s role would change, then asked how salaries and benefits would be calculated.
• A Rule-level inspector reviewed Lu PingAn’s team and its spoils, approved their inspection, and praised their prospects.
• Lu PingAn planned to arrange official identities for Catherine and her daughter, who would work for him.
• Lu PingAn and his group saw a dragon overhead and learned that the Sun God, who was also the Dragon God, had joined the Earth Gods.
• Lu PingAn watched the dragon land and advertise flying taxi rides.

Lu PingAn and his companions hired a Red-Yellow Sand Dragon named Odom to fly them from Chang Ping State Prefecture to Ancient City, and Lu PingAn learned about the dragons’ settlement and work in the human world. Their flight ended with Odom explaining that his interest in lace dresses and stuffed dolls was simply a normal collecting hobby for a dragon.

• Lu PingAn’s group negotiated a round-trip fare with Odom and boarded his flying taxi to Ancient City.
• Cat Cat ran and performed tricks on Odom’s back until his glare startled her, and she scrambled back to the hanging basket.
• Lu PingAn chatted with Odom, who explained that the dragons had recently arrived with their Sun God and that young dragons were working to support their clan.
• Odom said he had earned little from taxi work and that the clan could not trade its Taboo Items for the supplies and entertainment it wanted.
• Lu PingAn questioned Odom about his desire to buy lace dresses and stuffed dolls, and Odom insisted that collecting them was a normal dragon hobby.

Lu PingAn learned that the Red-Yellow Sand Dragons had been trading with Earth for years, and that entertainment products had helped draw them toward this world. After taking a dragon taxi home, he expected the Flying Taxi business to succeed as the dragons adapted to life and work there.

• Lu PingAn heard that Earth visitors had introduced cultural products to the dragons seven or eight years earlier, shaping the younger generation’s view of other worlds.
• The dragon described working as a taxi driver, gave Lu PingAn its contact details, and offered him a discount.
• Lu PingAn considered the dragons’ reputation as desert demons and reasoned that they were omnivores who mainly ate ore.
• The dragon explained that fuel drinks from gas stations were a cheap treat compared with the scarce, prized drinks in its Homeworld.
• Lu PingAn expected more successful rides to help the Flying Taxi business take off and noticed people from elsewhere among the familiar streets.

Lu PingAn struggled to manage his team’s earnings and pay its wages after new restrictions made Taboo Items difficult to exchange for East Country Coin. He left the Black Market without selling anything and reported the merchants offering exploitatively low prices.

• Lu PingAn faced school procedures, team assignments, passenger arrangements, and bookkeeping after returning to Ancient City.
• Lu PingAn worried that currency restrictions left him unable to pay his employees their promised wages, and considered taking out another loan.
• Lu PingAn visited the Steam Factory’s Black Market, where Special Task Force members patrolled amid collapsing prices for Taboo Items.
• Lu PingAn rejected offers of fifty thousand to one hundred thousand for Truth-level Items and decided not to sell at a steep loss.
• Lu PingAn used his Special Task Force identity to report the Black Merchants who were still buying goods.

Lu PingAn adjusted to his newly advanced Parasitic Tree while arranging for people from Schlei Territory to join the Special Task Force and helping newcomers from his Courtyard settle into the world. The chapter ended with nonhumans and other foreign races becoming increasingly common in the city.

• Lu PingAn stayed away from the Special Task Force while his newly born Parasitic Tree matured and his abilities adjusted.
• Lu PingAn learned that the Special Task Force was recruiting nonhuman auxiliary police under demanding strength, background, and guarantor requirements.
• Lu PingAn arranged for the Schlei Territory Knight Order's captain and vice captain to pass recruitment and become auxiliary police, then helped members obtain registered identities.
• The Lord of Schlei Territory and his relatives left, while the royal princes and princesses who remained struggled to obtain local currency and Lu PingAn covered their living expenses.
• Lu PingAn arranged language lessons and waited for opportunities to settle the commoners in his Courtyard as returning Explorers, New God followers, and native nonhumans filled the streets.

Lu PingAn considered how the influx of foreign laborers had destabilized employment and raised difficult questions about rights, wages, and law, while checking that prices remained stable. He left the store hoping the government could manage the upheaval as he focused on his work as an Explorer and a Professional.

• Lu PingAn saw that everyday goods still had stable prices and reflected on how currency stability protected ordinary people.
• Lu PingAn considered the disputes caused by foreign laborers, including unequal wages, job competition, discrimination, and unfair treatment of auxiliary police.
• Lu PingAn bought snacks from a Shell-Ear Race cashier and thought about why the race had come to Earth to seek better lives.
• Lu PingAn considered unresolved legal questions about Outsiders, including their rights and whether killing one counted as murder.
• Lu PingAn decided the wider turmoil was beyond his control and resolved to focus on surviving and doing his work as an Explorer and a Professional.

Lu PingAn confronted Team Eleven after Yan Beixin tried to provoke him, and his display of power ended the team’s attempt to challenge the Third Squad. The office’s tension eased into gossip about Lu PingAn and Xia Qin until Xia Qin returned and dragged Xue En away for joking about her age.

• Yan Beixin tried to provoke Lu PingAn into a confrontation, but Lu PingAn’s life force terrified him into shaking hands.
• Team captain Che Wannian tried to smooth things over, and Lu PingAn left after handling routine business.
• Lu PingAn realized Team Eleven resented being overworked while the Third Squad’s core members were away, and decided the conflict was Xia Qin’s problem.
• Team Eleven members discussed how Lu PingAn had suppressed their challenge, while members of both squads joked that he and Xia Qin were involved.
• Xia Qin returned, smashed the door panel, and dragged Xue En away after hearing him call her over-the-hill.

Lu PingAn learned that Xue En had become a powerful divine-blooded Mythical Species after absorbing the Severed Hand’s blood, leaving Xia Qin worried about her own strength. He considered helping her fund a Beast Transformation while weighing whether the Courtyard could open its chapel without becoming a black market.

• Xia Qin told Lu PingAn she felt disrespected by her team, and Cat Cat explained that Xia Qin had beaten Xue En but struggled to break through his defenses.
• The Beast God Sect’s High Priest told Lu PingAn that Xue En was an Iron-Eating Beast Mythical Species who had absorbed divine blood and gained tremendous strength and toughness.
• Lu PingAn realized Xue En’s transformation could advertise the Beast Transformation Chapel, while Xia Qin asked him for help and said she lacked the Life Points to gamble on a transformation.
• Lu PingAn suggested Xia Qin sell rare magical plants to the Courtyard for points and worried that opening the chapel would turn it into a black market.
• Big Cat told Lu PingAn that the Courtyard could open the chapel as a one-way Beast Transformation service.

Xia Qin and the others tried to draw Beast Transformation but got the Four Great Legions, while Lu PingAn prepared to launch the Beast Transformation Chapel and connect the Courtyard, Life Bank, and market. He planned to limit the first trades and entrants to test the authorities’ response and give the Peace Dove an official backing.

• Xia Qin used all three Beast Transformation chances and drew the Four Great Legions, then recovered enough to challenge someone to a spar.
• The other team members tried their luck and also drew the Four Great Legions, which improved Xia Qin’s mood.
• Big Cat advised Lu PingAn to keep the Lamp Fire Grass report limited to its functions and traits so its secrets would remain protected.
• Lu PingAn prepared the Beast Transformation Chapel’s trial for the next day, with Third Squad shills in place and the first designated entrants expected to come from the Special Task Force and judicial authorities.
• Lu PingAn planned to buy otherworldly plants and creatures for Life Points, letting members earn points and use the Courtyard, Life Bank, and market together.
• Lu PingAn chose to restrict the Chapel’s initial trades and participants to gauge the authorities’ attitude and give the Peace Dove an official presence.

Lu PingAn and Cat Cat swiftly stopped an Outsider’s convenience-store robbery, while the chapter described how foreign ability users were changing the Special Task Force’s workload and staffing. After reaching the Tier 3 benchmark, Lu PingAn discovered that his black life force Emission frightened magical plants instead of nourishing them and seemed suited to offense.

• Lu PingAn sent Cat Cat to kill the Gill-Breathing Strongman after the robber took a store clerk hostage.
• Lu PingAn reflected that ordinary Outsiders were causing more trouble than supernatural visitors, and that the Special Task Force could recruit foreign ability users to ease staffing shortages.
• Lu PingAn returned to work and found that his teammates’ distrust had disappeared after he demonstrated his strength.
• Lu PingAn recognized that his growth had brought him to the Tier 3 benchmark, making his body, soul, and curses part of one existence and reducing the cost of his abilities.
• Lu PingAn discovered that his permanent Spirit Energy Emission was black and caused magical plants fear rather than nourishment, leading him to consider learning Withering and wilting.

Lu PingAn prepared to honor his appointment in the Knight Secret Realm by improving his combat abilities and advancing his Heavy Armor Warrior path to Tier 2 Soul Hunter. He reflected on the difficult advancement ritual and waited for his symbiotic plant to mature, which would complete his Tier 3 advancement.

• Lu PingAn decided to prepare for his long-awaited appointment with the Heroic Spirit Warrior by training his combat professions.
• Lu PingAn chose to advance his Heavy Armor Warrior path to Tier 2 Soul Hunter, whose six marks would reinforce vital areas and make him much tougher.
• Lu PingAn learned that becoming a Soul Hunter required killing a thousand intelligent beings and suspected June Phantom had withheld Divine Grace because his previous victims were low-intelligence creatures.
• Lu PingAn sensed his orange-red symbiotic plant slowly merging with him and waited for it to mature before expecting his Tier 3 advancement panel.

Lu PingAn gave a public lecture at Gu University about cultivating Lamp Fire Grass, a magic plant that could fuse with the Sun God's Sacred Fire. His demonstration impressed the gathered scholars and Professionals, and he ended by revealing a Blood Vine burning with Law Decree-level Sacred Flame.

• Lu PingAn explained that he had created Lamp Fire Grass through more than three hundred iterations and used his accelerated cultivation ability to show how quickly he could grow magic plants.
• Lu PingAn described how his detailed paper, guided by Big Cat and published in Road of Thorns, had drawn attention to his work and brought him before a crowd of prominent scholars.
• Professor Wen vouched for Lu PingAn’s talent and explained that he had already held patents for two Rebirth magic plants before enrolling.
• Lu PingAn said that he could sell only a limited quantity of third-tier Lamp Fire Grass, then raised an orange Blood Vine covered in Law Decree-level Sacred Flame.

Lu PingAn presented his Lamp Fire Grass to the Gardeners, earning their interest in its potential and selling his limited stock at Professor Wen's Botanical Garden. He left with plenty of Credit Points but still faced a much larger financial gap, while his teacher offered him a twenty-million loan.

• Lu PingAn explained the Lamp Fire Grass's traits and weaknesses, and the Gardeners approved of its relatively pure genetic inheritance.
• Lu PingAn described the potential of his symbiotic plants and said that creating fire-producing Lamp Fire Grass would require help from senior Gardeners.
• The guests recognized the species' potential and eagerly bought Lu PingAn's limited stock at Professor Wen's Botanical Garden.
• Lu PingAn complained that the buyers paid in Credit Points rather than East Country Coin, and Professor Wen offered to lend him twenty million.

Lu PingAn celebrated the academic and financial benefits of his research, then used La Geluos as bait to steer powerful figures toward his account of a plant found on a god's corpse. The big shots accepted the explanation and considered investigating the corpse, though the falling stars made the journey dangerous.

• Professor Wen praised Lu PingAn's research paper and its potential influence, then offered to assemble professional training materials for him.
• Lu PingAn used his newly received Credit Coins to make a major purchase through Professor Wen's channels and wondered whether the powerful figures had taken his bait.
• La Geluos declined the big shots' attempts to recruit him and agreed to explain the plant after Lu PingAn had told him he could.
• La Geluos told the big shots that Lu PingAn had commissioned him to find a plant, and they inferred it was a Half Blood Vine growing on a god's corpse.
• The big shots discussed traveling to the world to inspect the corpse, but noted that stars were already falling there and accepted that the vine had likely not survived.

Lu PingAn learned that the Silent Mountain Range had descended into a brutal conflict over the God King's legacy while the Courtyard Chapel produced another Fantasy Species. When an Ancient City Bureau of Anomalous Affairs representative requested a meeting about opening the Trading Hall, Lu PingAn rushed to meet him.

• Lu PingAn cultivated an image as a successful, research-focused academic explorer by revealing La Geluos's story and keeping ten Ship Tickets.
• Lu PingAn learned that gods and mortals were fighting over the God King's Glory Crown and its inheritance in the Silent Mountain Range.
• Lu PingAn considered how Earth's factions hoped to recruit or replace the Lord of Sealing and manage other uncontrollable gods.
• Big Cat told Lu PingAn that the Courtyard Chapel had produced a third Fantasy Species and that a Bureau of Anomalous Affairs representative wanted to meet Peace Dove.
• Lu PingAn initially told the representative to wait, but rushed over when he heard the local government wanted the Courtyard to open its Trading Hall.

Lu PingAn met Tong Wuyi, a two-headed wolf and Special Task Force captain, to discuss the authorities’ requests regarding the Beast Transformation Talent and the Trading Ground. Tong Wuyi proposed officially promoting the Trading Ground to attract Outsider talent to Ancient City, leaving Lu PingAn to weigh the opportunity and its risks.

• Ordinary Special Task Force members welcomed their Beast Transformation Talents, and the Bureau of Anomalous Affairs recognized the goodwill while anticipating that access would eventually open more widely.
• Lu PingAn greeted Tong Wuyi, captain of the First Brigade in the Original Blue District, and recognized him as a powerful Fell Demon beastman.
• Tong Wuyi asked Lu PingAn to keep Beast Transformation Talent restricted to the authorities for three months, but Lu PingAn withheld agreement and rejected the proposed terms as insufficient.
• Tong Wuyi offered Lu PingAn a page in official promotional brochures recruiting Outsiders, which would effectively endorse the Trading Ground while subjecting it to strict oversight.
• Tong Wuyi explained that Ancient City hoped to use the Trading Ground to attract talent and compete for future growth, and Lu PingAn fell silent to consider the decision.

Lu PingAn considered Gu City Official’s proposal to promote the Trading Ground as an Ancient City specialty in exchange for oversight and cooperation. He agreed in principle, then left his teammates to prepare defenses and contingency plans while he slipped away again.

• Lu PingAn heard an official describe Ancient City’s disadvantages and the opportunity the Trading Ground could offer the struggling city.
• The official proposed endorsing the Trading Ground if Lu PingAn’s group strengthened oversight, hosted designated personnel, and notified the authorities when it opened or closed.
• Lu PingAn responded that he agreed in principle but would consider the details, leaving both sides to assess a possible partnership.
• After seeing off the Two-Headed Wolf, Lu PingAn told his teammates to strengthen their power and plan for future threats, including a hostile government and taxes.
• Lu PingAn left his teammates to handle preparations and gave Catherine another large overtime package.

After returning to Ancient City, Lu PingAn completed his Tier 3 Parasitic Tree profession and gained new symbiotic abilities that expanded his combat options. He tested his growing strength, prepared for future threats, and tried unsuccessfully to persuade his parents to move into the city.

• Lu PingAn received the perfect Tier 3 Parasitic Tree job change and gained the Phantom Limb ability, letting him control his symbiotic tendrils like limbs.
• Lu PingAn discovered that his Sun Vine could produce Purification Holy Fire and that his life-type abilities had grown stronger.
• Lu PingAn tested his new abilities against friends and found he could easily defeat captain-level opponents in individual battles.
• Lu PingAn incorporated his Tier 1 Rider and Tier 2 Runner abilities into his armed legion, though Big Cat warned that he still could not challenge Rule-level opponents.
• Lu PingAn called his parents and asked them to help with his small business in Ancient City, but they refused to move; he considered asking the authorities for conditions to prepare for relocating them later.

Lu PingAn opened the Courtyard’s Trading Ground to outsiders, and its ability trades and new services drew crowds and helped Professionals break through. The market grew rapidly under restricted hours and official supervision, while Lu PingAn’s team continued advancing.

• Lu PingAn opened the Courtyard’s First Wave to outsiders, and Professionals began trading abilities and breaking through.
• The Special Task Force profited from buying new species early after Lu PingAn gave them advance access to the trading area.
• A seller traded a Quasi Rule-level item for 675 Life Points, and Lu PingAn introduced additional services as the market expanded.
• Beastmen and local Credit Coin trades for Forbidden Knowledge appeared, while the Special Task Force began supervising major transactions.
• Lu PingAn’s team used Life Points and his guidance to advance quickly, and he limited the Trading Ground to three days a week and six hours a day.

Lu PingAn expanded Rebirth Company, hired new combat Professionals, and established a security company to support his growing operation. He expected Lamp Fire Grass to become more profitable if the Holy Fire System developed, while his new armed force began taking security work in Ancient City.

• Lu PingAn's three core members became combat Professionals with beast transformation abilities, and Rebirth Company hired them under long-term contracts that also secured their leave from school.
• Rebirth Company drew offers from churches seeking to acquire or partner with it, but Lu PingAn refused and declined their Land of Life services.
• Lu PingAn treated Lamp Fire Grass as a long-term investment, expecting demand to rise if the Holy Fire System and its connection to the Moon God developed.
• Hua Xueyi led Rebirth Company's newly established security company, which hired four fourth-tier mercenaries and thirty-six knights from the Silent Mountain Range as its core force.
• The security company began taking cargo-escort jobs, giving Lu PingAn an armed force and a way to support and train its members, though established companies and churches controlled Ancient City's profitable ventures.