Chapter Summaries

Lu PingAn recruited Long-Hand Tribe members and Fishmen/Half-Fishmen as commissioned trainees, offering them a path to power in exchange for work and battle. He promised to seek divine protection for them if they proved their worth, and the gathered refugees stepped forward to join him.

• Lu PingAn decided to recruit local warriors and use his Library to offer them a path to becoming Professionals.
• Lu PingAn offered more than two hundred Long-Hand Tribe members and over fifty Fishmen/Half-Fishmen power in exchange for becoming commissioned trainee employees.
• The Long Hand People leader Lu accepted Lu PingAn's offer, and Lu PingAn clarified that trainees would work to repay their training costs and could later leave for an additional fee.
• Lu PingAn promised to petition the Three Gods to protect the trainees and their scattered people if they proved their potential in battle.
• The refugees repeatedly volunteered to enter the battlefield, and Lu PingAn realized he had underestimated the hope born from their suffering.

Chief King Akul explained that Lu PingAn had been invited to Mercury 42 because he could disrupt fate on a scale beyond even gods, despite his limited strength. In Lu PingAn’s laboratory, experts assessed the Long-Hand Tribe’s physical weaknesses, and Lu PingAn began planning how to make them effective, even considering changing their race.

• Chief King Akul told the Li Family Brothers that Lu PingAn’s ability to stir up fate made him invaluable to the Forest Goddess Faction.
• Tie Ping Ruan and other experts reported that the Long-Hand Tribe had high intelligence and useful abilities but fragile, fluid-dependent bodies poorly suited to combat.
• The experts explained that the Long-Hand Tribe’s muscles, respiratory systems, and lack of endurance made strenuous fighting especially dangerous for them.
• Lu PingAn proposed finding the Long-Hand Tribe a suitable path and weapons and tactics suited to them, or changing their race if necessary.

Lu PingAn studied the local gods and the Natural Law shaping the war, then began designing a practical combat path for the Long-Hand Tribe. He planned to start with Spearman and Javelin Thrower abilities, while considering how the tribe might advance and fight independently on Mercury 42.

• Lu PingAn assessed the strengths and weaknesses of the God of War, the Lord of Life, and the Ocean God, concluding that the Ocean God’s domains were the most comprehensive.
• Lu PingAn identified the danger that Fishmen and Octopus Priests could drive mass-produced tamed sea beasts berserk and turn them against their masters.
• Lu PingAn decided that adapting professions to local conditions was essential and judged his Library superior to the gods’ offerings in low-tier paths.
• Lu PingAn chose Spearman as a starting profession for the Long-Hand Tribe and considered combining Javelin Throwing abilities into a powerful Tier 2 path.
• Lu PingAn considered Tier 3 options for Long-Hand Tribe members who might fight independently on Mercury 42, including the powerful but risky Chaos Warlord path.

Lu PingAn tested the Long-Hand Tribe’s new javelin fighters against the fishmen and refined their starting profession into a powerful Tier 1 throwing role. He left the tribe preparing for battle with potions, specialized weapons, and plans to develop further combat skills.

• Lu PingAn watched the Long-Hand Tribe train intensely while he reviewed reports from the miserable front lines and avoided visiting them.
• Seventy-six Long-Hand Javelin Throwers unleashed two volleys at charging fishmen, who retreated when their shamans called them back.
• Lu PingAn chose the custom Tier 1 Long-Hand Javelin Thrower as their starting profession so more warriors could learn its devastating attack quickly.
• Lu PingAn arranged for the javelin throwers to receive Strength Pills, Blood Coagulation Potions, and Eagle Reflexes Potions to support their attacks.
• Lu PingAn’s forging team planned interchangeable spearheads and two shaft types for underwater and land combat, while the Beast Tamer team discussed possible mounts.

Lu PingAn oversaw the training and transformation of the Long-Hand Tribe while struggling with boredom aboard the ship. The Long-Hand force reached two hundred, and the chapter ended with Lu PingAn reflecting on the growing independence of the hundred fishman/Half-Fishmen serving alongside them.

• Lu PingAn complained that life aboard the ship had become boring, while Xia Qin urged him to help with her recruit training.
• Lu PingAn expanded the Long-Hand Tribe’s training and offered twenty beast transformation slots, which were immediately filled.
• Lu PingAn decided against large-scale beast transformation because it could cost the Long-Hand Tribe their underwater abilities.
• Lu PingAn formed a force of two hundred Long-Hand Tribe members and warned them that some would die during their evolution, but none withdrew.
• The Long-Hand trainees studied history, tactics, and sociology, concluding that the Great Disasters had left their people unlucky rather than simply weak.
• Lu PingAn’s fishman/Half-Fishmen force reached one hundred, and he learned that Eight-Clawed’s diminished reach had given them greater self-awareness.

Lu PingAn and his companions visited the deep-sea city known as the Deep Sea Pearl to negotiate with Lord Shakeda. Shakeda explained the city’s origins as a refuge for races that had escaped the Eight-Clawed, leaving the talks at the point where their precarious future had been laid bare.

• Lu PingAn toured the underwater city while its residents watched the foreign visitors with suspicion.
• Catherine greeted Lord Shakeda on Lu Mouren’s behalf, and Lu PingAn mocked the lord’s ceremonial attire before proposing a trade.
• Lu PingAn’s presence unsettled Shakeda, but both sides relaxed once they began negotiations in an inner chamber.
• Shakeda explained that the Deep Sea Pearl had begun as a refuge for refugees and that the Eight-Clawed had absorbed many oceanic races into its forces.
• Shakeda described how some races had escaped the Eight-Clawed’s influence and recovered their identities, though they faced a return to madness if their world fell.

Lu PingAn opened a trade route to a fishman city, hoping that trade and a better life would unite the scattered races against the world’s greater threats. The first exchange proved unexpectedly lucrative when a fishman offered a Gold Tier divine artifact for snacks.

• Lu PingAn decided to negotiate with the fishmen on behalf of the people he could influence and traveled to their city to open a trade route.
• Lu PingAn offered the Fishmen Lord a large supply of human food, cookware, household appliances, and underwater skimmers.
• Catherine interrupted Lu PingAn and explained that they wanted deep-sea specialties and spoils of war in exchange for the goods.
• Lu PingAn planned to use trade to give the refugees things worth protecting and draw them out of isolation, even if the first shipment brought little profit.
• A fishman offered a Gold Tier divine artifact for snacks, leaving Lu PingAn to calculate the change.

Lu PingAn traded human Credit Coins for the Fishmen's trove of contaminated items, then used the deal to draw their scattered peoples into closer ties with humanity. As the Fishmen tested his strength and hospitality, he agreed to let his subordinates face their younger generation in a martial arts performance.

• Lord Shakeda showed Lu PingAn a treasury piled with contaminated items, including two Gold Tier Taboo Items, and explained that much of the hoard came from the battlefields of the Three Kingdoms Struggle.
• Lu PingAn offered Professionals' Credit Coins for the Fishmen's goods and gave them a map of safe shipping routes and nearby human cities.
• Lu PingAn advised the Fishmen to buy industrial facilities rather than spend their currency on inflated food prices, while planning to bind their varied peoples to humanity through trade and shared interests.
• The Fishmen welcomed Lu PingAn with a feast and dances, then asked him to guide their younger generation's martial arts performance.
• Lu PingAn agreed and said that his subordinates were also interested in facing the Fishmen.

Fishmen Lord Shakeda welcomed Lu PingAn’s human delegation while fearing that his people might provoke them. After the Long-Hand Tribe’s spearmen crushed the Fishmen Royal Guard and Lu PingAn healed the wounded, he offered Shakeda the soldiers’ equipment and training for sale.

• Shakeda recalled his experiences among humans and recognized Lu PingAn as an important figure connected to a demigod and the Forest Goddess Church.
• To prevent his subordinates from attacking the human guests, Shakeda proposed a shared dance in which the two sides would display their skills.
• The Long-Hand Tribe’s transcendent spearmen launched a volley that shattered the Fishmen Royal Guard and caused the survivors to flee.
• Lu PingAn walked among the wounded Fishmen and healed them, astonishing Shakeda and the gathered crowd.
• Lu PingAn offered to sell Shakeda the spearmen, their training methods, weapons, equipment, logistics, medical supplies, and transcendent potions, while refusing to sell his healing methods.

Lu PingAn used his deep-sea voyage to recruit fishfolk guards, establish a merchant presence, and gather knowledge about local sea races and their enemies. With the fishfolk king accompanying him, he expanded the shipping route and set course for White Ape City, a human war zone.

• Lu PingAn reviewed his successful first transaction and planned to develop the recruited fishfolk guards while spreading word of the Rebirth Merchant Group’s work.
• Lu PingAn left Long-Hand Tribe members and fishfolk warriors at the Deep-Sea Branch to promote the merchant group and its superhuman training.
• A fishfolk king joined Lu PingAn’s voyage, sharing local knowledge about trade, the Lava Clan, and methods for fighting Fallen Ones.
• Lu PingAn and the king visited five fishfolk and Long-Hand Tribe cities, establishing an underwater supply route.
• Lu PingAn changed the return voyage and announced that the group would travel to White Ape City, which the king called the City of Flesh and Blood.

Lu PingAn and his group sailed through blood-filled waters toward the front lines, where they discovered that the Lava Clan had begun fighting the Fishmen. Shakeda suspected either a larger shift in the enemy’s alliances or betrayal by his own people, and the approach of a Gray Dwarf Steel Battleship soon threatened to test those suspicions.

• Lu PingAn’s ship crossed seas littered with corpses and rescued a badly wounded Eight-Clawed Fishman, whom Lu PingAn healed with Deferred Payment.
• The rescued Fishman told Lord Shakeda that his group had fought the Lava Clan and lost, while the Fishmen treated the clash as an ordinary encounter between enemies.
• Shakeda warned Lu PingAn that the Lava Clan’s abandonment of its private trade channel with Shawan City suggested it no longer needed Fishman allies or had gained powerful support.
• Shakeda admitted that his own people might have betrayed their pact with the Lava Clan for short-term gain.
• Lu PingAn pointed out a Gray Dwarf Steel Battleship approaching beyond the horizon.

Lu PingAn’s group fought the Gray Dwarves’ stone warship using explosive barrels, then discovered that Purification Holy Fire could burn through their supposedly fireproof armor and ship. He destroyed the burning warship with a curse and left as it sank.

• Cat Cat and the Fishmen Lord warned Lu PingAn that the Gray Dwarves’ stone warship was heavily armored, slow, and capable of launching smaller vessels.
• Redemption’s first barrage of explosive barrels capsized a small boat but failed to damage the Gray Dwarves or their warship.
• Lu PingAn’s group fired Holy Flame Bomb No. 3, and the Purification Holy Fire ignited the Gray Dwarves’ Obsidian Shell armor and spread across their warship.
• Lu PingAn asked whether the warship held anything useful, learned it could not be used, and activated a curse that caused chain explosions aboard it.
• Lu PingAn turned away as the warship burned and sank, while the Black Knight harvested the dead.

Lu PingAn used his Black Holy Grail and Conqueror abilities to destroy enemy ships, harvest spoils, and raise a war banner that committed his forces to battle against three races. Big Cat recognized that Lu PingAn had overcome the Black Warrior line’s weakness by earning his soldiers’ trust, and the chapter ended with the war banner’s challenge in place.

• Lu PingAn’s Sacred Fire and Corpse Explosion Domain triggered chain explosions aboard enemy ships, granting him Life Coins and spoils.
• Lu PingAn ordered his warriors to collect valuable enemy heads and made them into a Conqueror’s War Banner.
• Lu PingAn raised the banner and empowered his forces while declaring war on the Abyss Insectoids, the Lava Clan, and Eight-Clawed’s Fishmen.
• The Rebirth Merchant Group’s warriors and the Long-Hand Tribe’s Javelin Throwers gained increased lethality and fortune against the three targets.
• Big Cat observed that Lu PingAn had overcome the Black Warrior line’s trust problem because his soldiers trusted his limits and the things he would never do.

Lu PingAn’s group fought their way along a dangerous sea route as the Redemption became a feared Blood Ship and its recruits grew into warriors. They finally reached the legendary City of Flesh and Blood.

• Lu PingAn reflected on the war between the races and suspected that the world’s gods supported his group because they followed a different path from the other races.
• The Redemption faced repeated attacks from hunters, Fish Monsters, Gray Dwarf ships, and sea beasts as it traveled toward its destination.
• The Long-Hand Tribe recruits adapted to battle, rapidly becoming warriors under an unknown force.
• The Redemption gained a fearsome reputation as an unsinkable Blood Ship, while its Skull Trophy Pile provoked enemies from far away.
• Lu PingAn’s group reached the City of Flesh and Blood.

Lu PingAn arrived at White Ape City and traded upgraded Water Shuttles to patrol knights in exchange for feedback and publicity. After reaching the vast floating-island settlement, he prepared to pay his respects to its local powers, including the demigod stationed there.

• Lu PingAn encountered a patrol team using older Water Shuttles and heard their complaints about the models’ failures, repairs, and steering.
• Lu PingAn exchanged their old Water Shuttles for newer models and demonstrated how the vehicles worked.
• The patrol knights tested the new Water Shuttles, praised their performance, and continued escorting Lu PingAn’s group past checkpoints.
• Lu PingAn reached White Ape City and found it was a sprawling cluster of reefs, wrecks, and other floating debris.
• Lu PingAn spotted Long-Hand Tribe members and Fishmen working in the city and decided to pay his respects to the local powers.

Lu PingAn established a commercial and mercenary headquarters in the Eastern Kingdom, using the Long-Hand Tribe spearmen to build his faction’s reputation and influence. As the business opened and the mercenaries began attracting attention, his rapid spending and promotion also brought new trouble.

• Big Cat explained that Big Horde Shuichi would not meet Lu PingAn because she intended to stay neutral in their competition and avoid interfering with him.
• Lu PingAn reviewed plans for shops and a shuttle-repair factory in A7 District, then decided to make the Long-Hand Tribe spearmen the flagship of a Mercenary Rental service.
• Lu PingAn sent the trained spearmen toward battlefield work so they could gain experience, recognition, and hope for their people.
• Lu PingAn opened his shop as the headquarters of his faction on the planet and began selling materials, Forbidden Weapons, and food.
• Lu PingAn advertised a half-price week for Long-Hand mercenaries, whose early performance surprised him and the city, while his spending and publicity attracted trouble.

Lu PingAn drove off a gang demanding protection money and learned that refugee gangs ruled the city by exploiting the weak. With Big Cat’s help, he decided to eliminate the gang bosses and bring order to the city, leaving its gray districts bloodied by morning.

• A group of Fishmen and Half-Fishmen demanded protection money from Lu PingAn’s shop and threatened to disrupt its business.
• When a Fishman grabbed Lu PingAn’s shoulder, he shattered it into pieces, frightening the gang into fleeing.
• Lu PingAn learned that local gangs monopolized jobs and extorted refugees while the city’s authorities ignored the disorder.
• Lu PingAn ordered Cat Cat to kill every gang boss in the city and decided to make it a stable trade city.
• By the next morning, bloodstains covered the streets of several gray districts.

Lu PingAn imposed harsh laws in the Chaotic City, built alliances and trade through the Forest Goddess Faction, and used the Long-Hand Tribe as mercenaries. As he cautiously strengthened his forces for the national war, the demigod finally sent him a gift he could not refuse.

• Lu PingAn ordered the execution of plunderers, murderers, rapists, and followers of nonhuman gods, then displayed the Gray Organization's leaders at the city gates.
• Lu PingAn visited the Fishmen Lord's sea-beast zoo and traded with Life-type Professionals for plants, beasts, research notes, and materials.
• Lu PingAn's Long-Hand Javelin Throwers proved effective in battle, and some advanced to Tier 2 Spearmen, attracting more customers to his shop.
• Lu PingAn sent party members to the national-war front, observed the Fishmen armies' overwhelming numbers and fanaticism, and resolved to build local forces rather than fight head-on.
• Lu PingAn stockpiled troops and prepared his companions for the battlefield as the demigod sent him an irresistible gift.

Lu PingAn received a mysterious key from Xiu Yi and discovered that it revealed a map and destination only while he wore a demigod’s mask. He prepared to pursue the marked location while building a local Factory that would create jobs and support the Long-Hand Tribe’s growing industry.

• Lu PingAn opened Xiu Yi’s gift and found a water sphere that Big Cat identified as a key to a secret realm.
• Lu PingAn discovered that the sphere showed him a map and markers only when he wore the wooden mask, and his Spiritual Intuition suggested the destination was important.
• Lu PingAn decided to set out for the marked location and learned his team would be ready in three or four days.
• Lu PingAn established a local Flying Shuttle Factory, hiring idle workers and assigning protection as production began.
• Lu PingAn planned to focus the local Factory on larger vessels and repairs while his own side produced small boats and custom orders.
• As the Factory’s work stabilized the area, the water sphere grew larger and its arrow indicator became clearer.

Lu PingAn’s shops flourished as Sun Flowers, weapons, and hometown goods drew customers and brought wealth to the city. Meanwhile, his young companions advanced rapidly, and Mei Yuge’s Rain Calling talent proved strategically valuable in the new world.

• Lu PingAn sold Sun Flowers and fertile soil to customers seeking battlefield support, and one buyer also purchased Sun weapons designed to use the flowers’ juice, fruit, and Sacred Flame.
• Lu Mouren observed that Lu PingAn’s Arms Logistics Company was earning heavily by selling equipment and buying local goods, while the hometown restaurant drew customers to other shops.
• The Long-Hand Tribe’s combat performance and gear promoted Lu PingAn’s products, and the expanding business strengthened the city and made Lu PingAn widely known.
• Lu PingAn supplied his young companions with costly potions, and many team members and Sponsored Trainees advanced to Tier 2 or Tier 3.
• Mei Yuge reached Tier 3 with startling ease, and Lu PingAn recognized that her Rain Calling talent was a strategic-level ability in this world.