Chapter Summaries

Lu PingAn advanced to Tier 6 and became a Life Programmer, using his new Rule Buildings to gain the power to reshape and guide the evolution of life. His mental strength broke through Gold Low Rank, and his new profession abilities activated at Gold Low Rank.

• Lu PingAn recognized that the Courtyard’s new Rule Buildings gave him the authority to accept living beings’ wishes and alter their lives.
• Lu PingAn fused that authority with his Profession Module and chose the name Life Programmer for his Tier 6 profession.
• Lu PingAn’s advancement made him feel as though he had broken free from the limits of his former profession, and his mental strength surpassed Gold Low Rank.
• Lu PingAn gained Spirit Resonance, Spirit Shock, and Spirit Body Conservation as the Courtyard’s knowledge flowed into him.
• Lu PingAn activated the Life Programmer module and obtained Lamp of Wishes, Brilliant Fireworks, Blood Sucking Rose, and Life Programming at Gold Low Rank.

Lu PingAn discovered that his Tier 6 profession had already reached Quasi-Rule level, then tested Life Programming, a Core Ability that let him rewrite living creatures and magical plants. He began a major project to transform the Fusang Tree into the Mother Tree of Lamp Flowers, the living Sun Tree.

• Big Cat explained that Lu PingAn was a Quasi-Rule-level being despite not being a Law Decree Peak, and advised him to delay further advancement until he had made more preparations.
• Lu PingAn used Life Programming to turn Lamp Fruits into Fire Apples, but the programmed magical plant exploded and died.
• Lu PingAn successfully rewrote a pack of Wild Wolves, replacing their Accelerated Regeneration with Brass Scales.
• Lu PingAn realized that the new lives created by his Tier 5 Bestowers of Blessings could also be reprogrammed.
• Lu PingAn began rewriting Redemption, removing the Demon Vines and reshaping the Fusang Tree toward becoming the Mother Tree of Lamp Flowers, the living Sun Tree.

Lu PingAn entered Asailuoa and found a heavily polluted industrial city whose alchemists and researchers had developed advanced local technology. He followed a Rebirth Merchant Guild mark to a burned-out shop and began investigating who had attacked it.

• Lu PingAn and his group entered Asailuoa, where toxic fog, polluted seawater, and black snow filled the streets.
• Lu PingAn learned that local factions profited from factories and resisted efforts to control pollution.
• Lu PingAn observed chemical products, automobiles, and steam-powered ironclads, and recognized how much the city's technology had advanced.
• Lu PingAn's companions scattered to gather intelligence, and one of them found a Rebirth Merchant Guild mark.
• Lu PingAn reached the marked shop and found it in ruins, then learned from a nearby clerk that its owners had offended someone.

Lu PingAn burned down the streets and shops of Salt City after learning that local gangs and merchants had destroyed the Rebirth Merchant Guild shop for undercutting their prices. The local forces appeased him with compensation, but Chris warned that such exploitation was common in the lawless region.

• Lu PingAn set Mechanical Commercial Street ablaze, then waited among the ruins for the gangs and officials to respond.
• Lu PingAn learned that local forces had destroyed the Rebirth Merchant Guild shop because it sold speedboats and other goods too cheaply, threatening their monopoly.
• Lu PingAn discovered that the shop’s employees had been driven away or killed, while other merchants were protected by armed forces and church affiliations.
• Lu PingAn burned shops and businesses tied to the gangs, merchant guilds, and local factories after no officials intervened.
• Local leaders apologized to Lu PingAn, gave him compensation and deeds to three shops, and handed over the heads of their former enforcers.
• Lu PingAn asked Chris whether the chaos could be changed, and Chris said greed and predation were common in a place without order.

After Lu PingAn violently asserted himself in Salt City, the South One Church investigated the conflict and discovered his standing among powerful figures. The South One Pope ordered the city to offer Lu PingAn extensive goodwill, even giving him half the city if necessary.

• Lu PingAn decided to protect himself by making the Rebirth Merchant Guild appear strong and dangerous rather than easy to bully.
• News of Lu PingAn's street-wide rampage reached the South One Church, which backed many of Salt City's local organizations in exchange for a share of their profits.
• The South One Pope learned that Lu PingAn had been specifically recognized by the World's Will and urged his subordinates to apologize to him.
• Two veteran demigods contacted the South One Pope about Lu PingAn, prompting him to investigate further.
• The South One Pope saw Lu PingAn ranked above him as Anonymous 101 with two fragments and ordered Salt City to show him the greatest possible goodwill, offering him half the city if needed.

Lu PingAn accepted the South One Church’s compensation after Shuichi mediated, establishing his standing among the major powers without escalating the conflict. He then began rebuilding the ruined street as a Rebirth Merchant Guild landmark, using his reprogrammed Hungry Ghost vines as its foundation.

• Shuichi told Lu PingAn that the South One Church had offered deeds to an entire street as compensation and advised him to accept and let the conflict end.
• Lu PingAn accepted the deeds, understanding that the South One Church’s apology also meant the major powers recognized him as one of their own.
• Shuichi explained that the settlement would help prevent further clashes, while Lu PingAn said the acknowledgment would make his next plan easier.
• Lu PingAn began rebuilding the ruined street as a calling card for the Rebirth Merchant Guild.
• Lu PingAn spread his reprogrammed Hungry Ghost vines across the ruins, and they formed the foundation of a new city within the city.

After reaching Quasi Rule-level, Lu PingAn reshaped a district into a forest stronghold and planted the rapidly growing Redemption there. The tree’s mischief affected lights across several cities, and the South One Church’s Pope interpreted the display as a friendly signal.

• Lu PingAn used his new powers to turn the ruined district into a forest stronghold defended by Law Decree-level treants.
• Lu PingAn stocked the street with goods and planted Redemption, which rooted itself and began illuminating Lamp Flowers throughout the city.
• Lu PingAn stopped Redemption from blinking the city’s lights, though the tree kept flashing the lamps along its street.
• Redemption’s mischievous blinking spread to at least seven nearby cities, including the South One Church headquarters.
• The eighth-rank Pope took the display as a friendly signal and remarked on Lu PingAn’s youth.

Lu PingAn worked to cultivate the newly rooted Fusang Sun Mother Tree by adapting the Blood Vine to consume and purify the city’s pollution. His experiments remained unfinished, but the tree’s roots spread beneath all of Salt City and into its sea and earth veins, leaving him to wonder whether he had let it grow too far.

• Powerful figures mistook the Lamp Flowers shining across several cities for evidence of Lu Mouren’s long-laid plans and strength, while the South One Church grew unusually indulgent toward Lu PingAn’s team.
• Lu PingAn found that the Fusang Sun Mother Tree had taken root in soil rich with industrial and magical pollution, which could nourish its growth.
• Lu PingAn tried to modify the Blood Vine with purification factors so it could consume city pollution and feed the Sun Tree, but his first tendrils withered from the strain.
• Lu PingAn continued experimenting with purification plants and grafting, while his Planting and Grafting skills began to stir.
• After more than a week, the Sun Tree had become Salt City’s tallest landmark, and Lu PingAn sensed its roots spreading beneath the city and merging with the sea and earth veins.
• Lu PingAn realized the roots could eventually make the whole city part of the tree, but decided it would be difficult to remove once it had fully taken hold.

Lu PingAn sparred with Hua Xueyi and realized how much stronger she had become, though he could not keep up with her in a direct fight. After reflecting on the team's growth, he resolved to become strong enough to protect them.

• Hua Xueyi overwhelmed Lu PingAn with her speed, fluid attacks, and poisonous Golden Needles until he surrendered.
• Lu PingAn sent Cat Cat to spar with Hua Xueyi, and she defeated Cat Cat in under three minutes before apologizing for going too far.
• Hua Xueyi admitted she still doubted she could kill Lu PingAn, but she took pride in having caught up to where he had been ten years earlier.
• Lu PingAn treated the Golden Poison in his hands and recognized how much Hua Xueyi had matured through years of training and deathmatches.
• Lu PingAn considered rewarding Hua Xueyi, then resolved to grow strong enough to support the team.

As the World's Will weakened, Otherworld Invaders escalated their assault across Mercury 42, opening battlefields throughout the world. Lu PingAn considered the Earth factions’ self-interested approach to the war and became interested in cooperating with the Savior Army, a growing local force seeking to unite the world’s races.

• The Lava Clan began pouring its regular army, including a colossal black dragon, through the Space Rift at Windist Fortress.
• The Eight-Clawed faction sent its bloodline servants, including countless Super Large Octopuses, into the deep-sea battlefields as war spread across the world.
• Lu PingAn noticed that big shots had grown more focused on front-line intelligence than on trading fragments, while more High-Level Professionals joined the battles.
• Lu Mouren observed that Earth factions had carved out territories and tended to protect their own interests, leaving much of the fighting to interested parties, mercenaries, local independents, and the Savior Army.
• Lu PingAn learned that the Savior Army aimed to drive out hostile invaders and build an equal nation for all races, and he considered cooperating with them.

Su Daqiu, a debt-ridden Long-Hand Tribe porter worn down by years of labor, followed a rumor promising extraordinary power in exchange for a year of his lifespan. He woke with superhuman strength and immediately imagined how much more he could earn.

• Su Daqiu struggled to carry a bathtub upstairs and realized his declining strength threatened his ability to work and repay his debts.
• After falling ill with a fever, Su Daqiu heard a fellow laborer describe a ritual involving a wooden boat, the overlapping constellations, a Lamp Flower, and an offering of blood.
• Su Daqiu took a boat out to sea, made the offering, and entered a mist-shrouded place where a sign offered a chance to become extraordinary in exchange for one year of lifespan.
• Su Daqiu returned to his boat and woke when it struck shore, where strangers asked whether he had succeeded.
• Su Daqiu shoved a burly porter away with one hand and realized he had gained superhuman strength.

Lu PingAn and Big Cat reviewed the spread of the Sun Tree and the results of granting ordinary people Professional powers through rumors. They decided to curb early abuses with guidance and contracts, while continuing to address the ritual’s limited range across the Seven Cities.

• Lu PingAn bought two streets beside the Sun Tree for two thousand, and Big Cat explained how the Face Fruit made the deal unusually favorable to them.
• Big Cat reported that roughly five hundred people had become Tier 0 Professionals through the rumors, though many continued their ordinary jobs without knowing how to develop their powers.
• Lu PingAn decided to create a handbook and teach the new Professionals basic knowledge, including information about the world and the Rebirth Merchant Guild.
• Lu PingAn and Big Cat discussed reports that dozens of new Professionals had broken the law and many more had grown arrogant, and they agreed to impose early restrictions through contracts and guidance.
• Lu PingAn asked how they could expand the ritual’s reach beyond the nearby Seven Cities.

Lu PingAn used Redemption as a Rule-level relay station to connect Lamp Flower believers to his divine kingdom and began testing the system. As he struggled with the believers’ behavior and with shaping their values, Cat Cat suggested adapting Teacher’s Discourse, which unexpectedly worked.

• Lu PingAn followed Big Cat’s advice and raised Redemption into a Rule-level demonic plant that could act as a signal tower in Salt City.
• Lamp Flower believers connected through the Mother Tree and entered Lu PingAn’s divine kingdom, where he began testing contracts, oaths, and monitoring.
• Lu PingAn found that the believers’ unpredictable behavior and social conflicts made the system difficult to manage.
• Lu PingAn combined restrictions, contracts, rewards, education, and suggestion to guide the new Professionals toward respect for law and moral boundaries.
• Cat Cat suggested that Lu PingAn adapt Teacher’s Discourse, and his attempt unexpectedly succeeded.

Lu PingAn examined how Teacher's Discourse had evolved into a popular call for equality and struggle, then adapted its principles into contract rules to curb crime while distributing power. As his experiments continued in Salt City, the Rebirth Merchant Group gained public trust, and South One Church invited him to plant Big Tree in other cities.

• Lu PingAn concluded that local disciples had reshaped his teachings into Teacher's Discourse, which spread because it answered people's need to resist oppression and survive.
• Lu PingAn used principles from Teacher's Discourse to create simple contract rules that encouraged people to protect the weak and avoid killing.
• Lu PingAn compared crime rates in experimental groups while testing how contracts affected society.
• Hua Xueyi, Fang Wen, and Lu PingAn personally enforced public order in Salt City, raising the Rebirth Merchant Group's reputation.
• The citizens grew friendlier toward Lu PingAn's group after Big Tree's ability to purify pollution was confirmed, and South One Church invited Lu PingAn to plant trees in other cities.

Lu PingAn monitored the newcomers recruited through his mass-production of Professionals while Hua Xueyi advanced to Rule-level and the team’s operations settled into a stable rhythm. When the Rebirth Merchant Guild’s main ship remained overdue with no sign of it, Lu PingAn realized the powerful figures were likely concealing news about World Fragments.

• Hua Xueyi advanced to Rule-level and challenged Lu PingAn, who refused because fighting her could destroy his valuable equipment and resources.
• Lu PingAn suggested Hua Xueyi team up with Fang Wen, then assigned her to help train the newcomers.
• Big Cat explained that powerful figures dismissed claims of guaranteed advancement because cults and gods had made the same promises too often.
• Lu PingAn monitored the new Professionals and continued his training while waiting for the Rebirth Merchant Guild’s main ship, which was more than half a month late.
• Lu PingAn learned there had been no sightings of the ship and concluded that the powerful figures were concealing news of World Fragments.

With Guan Xinxian unconscious and the Redemption under repeated pirate attacks, Catherine T. Dora and Xue En uncovered a mutiny plot and prepared to purge the traitors. Xue En suspected the meteor that struck Guan Xinxian was connected to a godlike voice that said “Redemption.”

• Catherine T. Dora and Xue En discussed the ship’s unstable crew and the repeated attacks by pirates.
• Xue En revealed that Liu Yiqi had tried to recruit him into a plan to seize the ship, and Catherine realized the old-timers were allowing the mutiny to expose traitors.
• Catherine said she expected to resume her former role as confidential secretary and shadow manager, while Xue En agreed to protect the logistics staff and let the purge proceed.
• Xue En explained that he had tacitly allowed the traitors to become active so the team could be cleansed before the true helmsman took over.
• Xue En recalled that the meteor had curved toward Guan Xinxian and that Guan had murmured “Redemption” as he fell unconscious.

As the Plane War worsened, Lu PingAn learned that the Redemption was being pursued by pirates over a fragment and could not reach it directly. He revealed that he possessed four fragments, placing ninth on the ranking list, and the pursuit formation around the Redemption began to disperse.

• Xiu Yi and two other Quasi Gods warned the major factions against escalating their fights over fragments into deathmatches.
• Lu PingAn found that recent information about the Redemption had been suppressed, then learned from the Savior Army that pirates had pursued it after it resupplied at Dragon Tooth Island.
• Lu PingAn asked his Rule-level team members whether they could face a Tier 8, but learned that the veteran enemies might be too strong for them.
• Lu PingAn revealed his name and fragment count on the Ranking List, rising to ninth place with four fragments.
• More than seventy percent of the ships pursuing the Redemption suddenly left.

Chief Sailor Liu Yiqi led a mutiny aboard the Rebirth Merchant Guild’s ship to steal a valuable meteorite, believing he had secured powerful allies through portals. His plan collapsed when the portals failed and the pursuing ships turned away, leaving him exposed before Xue En and the acting commander.

• Liu Yiqi persuaded sailors and mercenaries to betray the Rebirth Merchant Guild with promises of better pay and rewards from a new employer.
• Liu Yiqi used the mutiny as a distraction while his insiders detonated explosives below deck, then headed for the meteorite on the unguarded deck.
• Xue En and the temporary acting commander confronted Liu Yiqi beside the meteorite, and Liu revealed that he had set a trap with ten portals to bring in powerful allies.
• The portals began failing and exploding, while many pursuing ships turned away, leaving Liu Yiqi shocked as he accused his supposed allies of betraying him.

A traitor’s rebellion aboard the Rebirth Merchant Guild’s Big Ship was crushed, while Lu PingAn’s decision to assert his status caused pursuers to back off and drew apologies and gifts from powerful figures. He arranged a meeting as he waited beside the enormous tree, which might provide a new source of power.

• The traitor’s teleportation gates shattered, and the Panda Man killed him before he could explain himself to the senior officers.
• Catherine objected to losing the ringleader alive, but the Panda Man ordered the dead chopped up and fed to the fish and the living traitors hung from the deck to air-dry.
• The rebellion was suppressed, and the Rebirth Merchant Guild’s upper ranks wondered why most of the pursuing fleet had withdrawn.
• After Lu PingAn declared that no one would dare go too far with him present, the merchant guild officers heard that Regiment Commander Guan had awakened.
• Lu PingAn’s newfound standing led others to post Redemption’s location and send him apologies and gifts; he then sent Cat Cat to arrange a meeting while he waited by the enormous tree.

Lu PingAn reflected on how deeply his companions had become invested in the war on Mercury 42 as a new God of Contracts and Sealing ascended and restored the world’s communications. He examined Sealing Scrolls that could grant ordinary users stored abilities, a new technology he recognized could change the course of the war.

• Lu PingAn realized that he and his companions were too deeply tied to Mercury 42 to withdraw easily, while Captain Xia remained with the Savior Army.
• Seven-Colored Flower declared herself the God of Contracts and Sealing, and Lu PingAn welcomed the long-awaited ascension.
• The new god’s arrival allowed intercity communications to reconnect, helping restore order across the fragmented world.
• Lu PingAn learned that researchers had developed Sealing Scrolls capable of storing Professional abilities and even Forbidden Weapon powers.
• Lu PingAn examined a scroll containing Energy Absorption Technique (Tier 2) and recognized that the technology could let ordinary people defend themselves and transform the war.