Chapter Summaries

Lu PingAn reflected on the Winged People's peaceful, generous society and found its prosperity, safety, and lack of hardship deeply unsettling compared with the dangerous worlds he knew. He discovered that literacy made him seem like a noble and that basic knight training was cheap and easy, leaving him to begin studying a manual he could master in a day.

• Lu PingAn received food, business payments, and other kindness from the Winged People, whose goodwill made him feel uncomfortable.
• Lu PingAn compared the peaceful world with Earth and Polluted Earth, noting that its magic knights trained without the risks and social suspicion faced by Professionals.
• Big Cat urged Lu PingAn to ask about higher ranks, and he learned that the city had only a few hundred knights among more than a hundred thousand residents.
• Lu PingAn realized that most young knights were barely literate and that his ability to read and write made the Winged People regard him as a wealthy noble.
• Lu PingAn studied a cheap, simply illustrated cultivation manual and concluded that he could learn its basic martial art in a single day.

Lu PingAn and the people in his Courtyard used simple cultivation manuals and monster materials to improve their basic attributes. As Lu PingAn hired martial arts teachers to train him, he learned that attributes were only the most basic part of the supernatural system.

• Lu PingAn hunted monsters and discovered that consuming their blood and practicing their manuals raised his attributes.
• Big Cat explained that the cultivation methods likely drew on a higher existence and that Firebird's Retinue received special benefits.
• Lu PingAn considered the Featherfolk conflict and continued strengthening himself while waiting for news from the front.
• People in Lu PingAn's Courtyard practiced the methods and gained basic attributes that had previously lagged behind their other abilities.
• Lu PingAn hired more than a dozen teachers to train him and learned that improving attributes was only the supernatural system's most basic stage.

Lu PingAn received a mission to hunt traitors hiding in the nearby B4573 World, a heavily guarded military world. He decided the mission might be worthwhile but postponed it so he could keep gathering resources and improving himself first.

• Lu PingAn's wooden clown sculpture glowed at night, and Playful Kid delivered a mission through it.
• The next day, Lu PingAn learned that traitors had been found in B4573 World and that one of them had sent information before disappearing.
• Lu PingAn realized the mission was part of a plan to pressure the traitors into leaving Featherfolk protection and to use sleeper spies disguised as rural outsiders.
• Lu PingAn considered taking the political mission, then chose to keep looting and adding points until he had exhausted the resources in his current world.

Lu PingAn and his group studied the trait-based martial arts system, gaining abilities through training and learning how traits could grow and combine. As they made the most of the world’s resources, Big Cat suggested using the Courtyard and Rule Building to preserve several cultivation methods before they left.

• Lu PingAn demonstrated the Shatter trait, which he had gained by practicing the Violent Ape Fist Technique, and learned that its power could continue to grow through training.
• Lu PingAn examined how knights combined martial techniques and traits to build specialized combat styles, while a Featherfolk vanguard demonstrated her charging abilities.
• Lu PingAn considered how leaving the world could limit further growth in both its trait system and the Professional system.
• An advanced knight explained that monster materials could accelerate traits and that compatible traits could be linked into stronger abilities.
• Lu PingAn's group trained intensely to absorb the world’s resources, and Big Cat suggested using the Courtyard and Rule Building to preserve several cultivation methods.

Lu PingAn learned that taking the Courtyard’s cultivation system would require capturing its source monster and obtaining powerful hardware, such as a divine descendant or artifact. Since his world lacked suitable monsters, he considered traveling through Dimensional Gates to other worlds, suspecting the Featherfolk had already made such a path possible.

• Big Cat explained that moving the Courtyard’s system required finding the monster behind the Violent Ape Fist Technique and capturing it alive.
• Lu PingAn agreed to hunt the designated monsters, while Big Cat identified a powerful source like the Holy Fire Chapel as necessary hardware for the system.
• Lu PingAn decided that captured monsters could be bred in the Courtyard, and their materials would remain useful even if he could not obtain the hardware.
• Local Scholars told Lu PingAn that high-level monsters were found in foreign worlds, where ambitious Law Decree-level warriors traveled to advance.
• Lu PingAn realized that showing strength or ambition could earn him a legal identity as a far traveler, then wondered whether someone had planned this opportunity.

Lu PingAn secured permission to travel after learning that men were considered unsuited to warrior work, then found a fellow Earthling trapped in a contract as a male dancer. The man revealed that two more colleagues needed help, including one who had recently been auctioned off.

• Lu PingAn obtained a letter of introduction from the City Lord and was rejected at a major city’s gate because he was male and seeking to travel as a warrior.
• After Lu PingAn explained that he was a poet seeking inspiration, the officials approved his travel pass.
• Lu PingAn searched for a day and a half and found a black-feathered Earthling working as a resident male dancer at Big Bird Bar.
• The man told Lu PingAn that he needed sixty Kartons to buy his freedom from a special contract.
• The man revealed that two other Earthling colleagues also needed help, including one who had recently been auctioned off.

Lu PingAn rescued Liu Xing, Mu RanYi, and Lu FeiFei from debts imposed through Firebird-backed contracts, then explained how their disregard for local rules had trapped them. After reflecting on Firebird’s role in the multiverse’s contract-based society, Lu PingAn asked the three men to help him with something.

• Lu PingAn confronted Liu Xing, Mu RanYi, and Lu FeiFei about signing contracts that bound them to Firebird and left them deeply indebted.
• The three men explained that they had overlooked the contracts’ power and spent their borrowed money recklessly, eventually entering a fast-paying profession to meet their obligations.
• Lu PingAn explained that his income from poetry and medicinal potions had allowed him to rescue them, but he expected them to work until they repaid him.
• Lu PingAn learned that Firebird’s notarization remained binding across worlds and concluded that the contracts reflected a civilization built around the spirit of agreements.
• Lu PingAn asked the three men to help him with something after spending a fortune to bail them out.

Lu PingAn built up money and local influence while preparing for the mission through a Dimensional Gate, using contracts and hired agents to reduce his risks. He avoided directly joining other outsiders heading to the target world and left his subordinates to maintain contact with them.

• Lu PingAn stayed near the stable Dimensional Gate, earned 37 Karton, and set a goal of saving 500 by the end of the month.
• Lu PingAn sent three indebted Professionals to sell medicine, and Liu Xing earned the most by selling aphrodisiacs through local establishments.
• Lu PingAn used Firebird contracts to define profit shares and responsibilities, turning the three Professionals into his underlings and agents.
• Lu PingAn sold third-rate poetry, attended hymn gatherings, and quietly built a local reputation while avoiding direct contact with other outsiders.
• Lu PingAn learned that several outsiders were heading to the target world, but judged their disguises and accents poor and relied on his agents to maintain contact instead.

Lu PingAn and Rou Lailai settled into a wealthy district home in Escadam and began setting up a covert altar and a potion shop to support their group. Rou prepared to run the shop under a married-couple cover while Lu PingAn considered who else could help her blend in.

• Lu PingAn arrived at the treehouse home with Rou Lailai disguised as his wife and tipped the real estate agent.
• Lu PingAn had the staff inspect the house and start clearing it for an underground altar and related facilities.
• Lu PingAn and Rou Lailai planned to open a specialty potion shop, with Rou hiring employees and posing as a countryside potion maker who moved to the city with her husband.
• Rou rejected Lu PingAn’s suggestion to use the three Black Gloves as assistants because their acting could expose them.
• Lu PingAn and Rou discussed potential helpers, including Xia Qin, Miss Lu, Hua Xueyi, Cat Cat, and Guan Xinxian, and joked that Guan might manage in a dress.

Lu PingAn settled Miss Rou into running the alchemy shop with Ajiu as her guard while he explored the Featherfolk world and assessed its prosperity, technology, and security. He checked on the other redeemed people and noticed how the racial transformation was already affecting their behavior, leaving him wary of its long-term effects.

• Lu PingAn abandoned his plan to disguise Senior Brother Guan as a woman and sent Miss Rou to manage the shop with Ajiu protecting her.
• Lu PingAn explored the city, observing its human-powered technology, abundant wealth, and heavily equipped police officers.
• Miss Rou's Alchemy Shop became an immediate success, while two redeemed people returned to working at a bar after failing to find other jobs.
• Lu PingAn found Lu FeiFei working at a hatchery and saw him cradle and whisper to a huge egg.
• Lu PingAn remembered the warning about cognitive changes from prolonged racial transformation and suggested that Senior Brother Guan become a househusband instead.

Lu PingAn examined a dismantled Peace Officer puppet and discovered how its concepts of justice, judgement, and fear gave it formidable power. He decided its components could enhance Zhi Xi and be turned into Taboo Items for the Special Task Force, then sent Black Gloves to collect more used machines.

• Lu PingAn used a Black Glove to obtain a Peace Officer puppet and analyzed its dismantled parts with his Courtyard's Analysis ability.
• Lu PingAn identified justice, judgement, and fear as the puppet's conceptual traits and realized it drew power from a deity through a system that could grow stronger over generations.
• Lu PingAn and the veterans of Special Task Force Three discussed the puppet's ability to let ordinary operators fight superhumans and the danger of bringing it back as an awakened Intelligent Machine.
• Big Cat warned that the Peace Officer system's stability came at the cost of limited evolution, while Lu PingAn recognized that Professionals could turn other systems' power into their own.
• Lu PingAn decided the puppet could serve as enhancement material for Zhi Xi and provide components for Taboo Items, then sent Black Gloves to collect more used Peace Officers.

Lu PingAn learned that several of his compatriots had been exposed as Hairless Monkeys and were being held at the zoo after a botched robbery. When he sent Mr. Black Glove A to speak with them, they offered valuable information about traitors who had been discovered.

• Lu PingAn read about three men caught robbing a jewelry shop and learned that many Hairless Monkeys had been arrested or deported recently.
• Lu PingAn found the Six-Armed Ape King at the zoo and visited the three captive men, who were drawing more visitors than the old Monkey King.
• Lu PingAn decided not to buy the expensive Monkey King yet and sent Mr. Black Glove A to talk to the captives.
• The three men told Mr. Black Glove A that traitors had been discovered.

Lu PingAn adapted to the peaceful world by following its laws and using the Courtyard Factory to build a profitable business. His spending and growing reputation gave him access to information and an Investment opportunity, which he viewed with contempt because it involved the traitors’ Refugee Camp project.

• Lu PingAn told his companions to learn the local laws and shifted the team from exploration to business.
• Lu PingAn expanded the Courtyard Factory’s output and opened shops selling medicine, clothing, and furniture.
• Lu PingAn bought a Law Decree-level Demon Ape and created a museum and affiliated Zoo to conceal his acquisition and gather goods.
• Lu PingAn used his wealthy country-bumpkin reputation to buy antiques, information, martial techniques, and connections.
• Lu PingAn obtained an Investment quota for the Refugee Camp project and condemned the traitors behind it.

Lu PingAn discovered that the traitors who had fled to the Featherfolk world had been abandoned by their powerful leaders and were languishing in a Refugee Camp. He arranged for a Factory recruiter to offer them work, leaving them with a chance to improve their situation.

• Lu PingAn and Xia Qin discussed why the refugees could not find work and how the Featherfolk viewed them as useless traitors.
• Lu PingAn learned that the refugees had been driven from better worlds and abandoned after Blood Crow and the Rule-level individuals left them behind.
• Lu PingAn saw that over thirty refugees were malnourished and hopeless, with few prospects for escape or employment.
• A Factory recruiter arrived, and the refugees expected to be rejected again.
• Lu PingAn, calling himself Mr. An Nan, offered the refugees a chance to work.

Lu PingAn turned down Wudi’s proposal to invest in the Refugee Camp Factory while secretly waiting for the refugees to offer themselves for sale. As the Refugee Camp workers grew desperate for steady employment, Lu PingAn planned to hire them only after they had driven the price down themselves.

• At the estate construction site, refugee workers resented the Featherfolk’s strength and mocked them, while Lu Wang restrained himself from attacking after recalling that he had sold his Sleeve Crossbow.
• Wudi proposed that Lu PingAn invest in the Refugee Camp Factory in exchange for possible tax benefits, but he avoided discussing the business and let her leave without an answer.
• Lu PingAn’s colleague asked why he had refused Wudi, and Lu PingAn explained that he was waiting for the refugees to approach him and lower their price.
• Lu PingAn noted that the workers had grown more diligent over three days and said they would receive long-term contracts if they worked hard enough.

Lu PingAn hired two Peace Officer hounds to guard his home and construction site, learning how their crime-scenting ability judged people. Their presence stabilized the site, while their reactions to refugees and Courtyard members revealed unsettling distinctions; Lu PingAn also saw how they could provide him with an alibi.

• Lu PingAn hired two Peace Officer hounds and arranged for a sentry post outside his home.
• The hounds deterred theft and helped reduce disorder at the construction site, though they reacted badly to refugees with violent pasts.
• A Peace Officer explained that the hounds could distinguish killing from judgment by sensing the Dead Man's Grudge and the God of Justice's Sentencing.
• Lu PingAn brought the hounds into the Courtyard, where they barked at Fang Wen, submitted to Big Cat, and stayed calm around most others.
• The hounds fixated on wanted refugees, prompting disputes between Lu PingAn and Wudi, while the refugees responded by working harder.
• Lu PingAn realized the hounds' presence and connection to police headquarters could give him a stronger alibi for killing people.

Mr. An Nan struggled to attract visitors to his Exhibition Hall, so he offered rewards for unusual exhibits and used the hunt for a Gold Armored Dragon to draw attention. After the first trial brought visitors and casualties, he announced a more dangerous second expedition into the mountains outside Naka City.

• Mr. An Nan's Exhibition Hall opened to ridicule and few visitors, while rumors spread about his wealth and his wife's control over him.
• Mr. An Nan offered high prices for Strange Objects and proposed hiring a capable butler, drawing interest from the city's ambitious locals and the Refugee Camp residents.
• Blood Banquet Members captured the Gold Armored Dragon after several of their people died, and Mr. An Nan rewarded the survivors and the victims' families generously.
• Local observers speculated that Mr. An Nan was using the trials to build his reputation, find a confidant, and recruit a private force.
• Mr. An Nan announced a second trial to collect blood-sucking flowers in the mountains outside Naka City, and the volunteers suffered even more deaths before receiving greater rewards.

Lu PingAn used rumors and scarce job offers to turn rival refugee races against one another, then exposed weaknesses in the city’s security system. The chapter ended with a dried corpse appearing on the streets, revealing that the violence had reached inside the city.

• Lu PingAn examined recovered corpses and learned that refugees had sabotaged and killed one another while competing for the supposed butler position.
• He discovered that the Ant Consciousness Clan and Frost Skin Clan had joined the Blood Feast fanatics in the deadly competition, with many victims killed by rival Outsiders.
• Lu PingAn offered fewer than ten stable security and maintenance jobs, dividing them unfairly between the Blood Banquet People and other races and provoking an even bloodier mission.
• Within half a month, Lu PingAn’s exhibition hall gained more than a dozen quality exhibits, while the refugees developed a pattern of fighting outside the city and coexisting peacefully within it.
• Lu PingAn identified weaknesses in the society’s policing and read about a dried corpse found on the streets.

Lu PingAn watched the Blood Feast and refugee factions escalate their underground conflict, while keeping the Peace Officers unaware until a corpse appeared on the surface and drew public attention. With the factions now locked in a blood feud, he prepared to make a major move.

• Lu PingAn learned that the Blood Feast abducted isolated people and hunted them in the underground pipe network, while mutated Slimes made investigations dangerous.
• Lu PingAn refused to alert the Peace Officers, predicting that someone else would expose the underground crimes.
• A mummified corpse appeared beside a manhole cover, and Lu PingAn recognized that the refugees had used remains from the Blood Feast’s cafeteria to attract attention.
• The refugee coalition and the Blood Feast fought underground, and the factions’ escalating violence created a blood feud that would pressure the Peace Officers to intervene.
• Lu PingAn ordered Gardener to plant Bai Jie Flower seeds and replace the fruit trees, then decided the time had come for a major move.

Lu Wang’s Blood Mist Transformation overwhelmed the nonhumans, but its cost left him starving and depleted. After he killed a Peace Officer while feeding, the officer’s badge triggered a response that sent dozens of Peace Officers into the underground pipes and locked down the city.

• Lu Wang used Blood Mist Transformation to drive Da Mu and the other nonhumans into retreat, then stopped pursuing them as the ability’s life-draining cost weakened him.
• Lu Wang searched for the cafeteria to replenish his life essence and attacked the figures he found there, leaving several desiccated corpses.
• Lu Wang realized one of the corpses was a Peace Officer whose flashing Police Badge had triggered an alarm.
• Lu PingAn heard that dozens of Peace Officers had entered the underground pipe network and the urban area had been locked down, putting the Blood Feast in serious trouble.