Chapter Summaries

The Eastern Kingdom leader explained why the country had avoided the Pacific War and described its preparations to fight the invaders from beyond the realm. The First Earth Defense War began with the Eastern Kingdom declaring war.

• The frail Song Clan elder addressed Eastern Kingdom officials, judges, and military organizations about the decision to preserve the country's forces rather than risk catastrophic losses in the Pacific Campaign.
• He argued that the Eastern Kingdom had been too weak to wage a war of attrition and needed time to adapt its technology and train its people.
• The leader said the country was now prepared for war, with twenty-one super fleets formed in the Thirteen Ocean Theater and superhumans comprising 21% of the population.
• He called on the nation to fight for its home, humanity, and future.
• The Eastern Kingdom completed its declaration of war, and the First Earth Defense War began.

Lu PingAn reviewed Rebirth Company's operations and wartime plans, directing the company to keep employees at their posts, release grain reserves, and take over companies leaving Ancient City. He then turned to the war’s most important question for the company: how to manage Woodland, which continued producing supernatural beings.

• Catherine reported that Rebirth Company's regular business sector was healthy, though employees in other domains wanted to return and fight.
• Lu PingAn rejected those employees’ requests but promised future promotion priority and bonuses to those who stayed at their posts.
• Lu PingAn agreed to release grain from Woodland’s reserves to help lower prices in Ancient City.
• Lu PingAn agreed that Rebirth Company would acquire companies leaving the market, with the option of relocating their civilian businesses to Mercury 42.
• Lu PingAn asked how the company should handle Woodland during the war.

Over three years, Lu PingAn’s Woodland and trading rules expanded, strengthening his divinity and establishing him as a demigod-level King of Transaction. He arrived in his Promised Land and opened a path for Traders to purchase his transcendent profession, setting the stage for his eventual rise to Tier 10.

• Lu PingAn remained at Tier 8 for three years as his divinity and Transaction-based World's Logic grew stronger.
• Lu PingAn’s Woodland expanded dramatically, and Rebirth Company profited from access, facilities, housing, and priority queue services.
• Lu PingAn’s Fair Transaction Rules provided appraisals and safer trades, shrinking the Black Market while drawing transcendent factions into his territory.
• Traders’ contracts and exchanges turned Lu PingAn into a deity with believers, anchors, and a growing church-like merchant association.
• Lu PingAn arrived in his Promised Land and ordered the Woodland expanded tenfold while offering a purchasable Traders’ profession without requiring a church or believers.

Lu PingAn prepared the Ancient City and his faction for war while the Eastern Kingdom urged him to stay off the battlefield. His Life Transaction Pathway became a vital source of wartime healing and protection, leaving Lu PingAn increasingly valuable in the rear and earning him an unexpected commission.

• Lu PingAn spent nearly a week preparing his forces for war and agreed to avoid the battlefield early on so he would not be targeted.
• Lu PingAn expanded the Life Woodland and let military reservists enter, even as many sacrificed years of their lives to gain its benefits.
• The Insurance Manager profession became popular because its contracts let practitioners share injuries and rapidly heal their insured partners.
• The Redeemer profession also sold out, using extraordinary materials to provide rule-based healing and strengthening the strategic importance of Lu PingAn's Life Transaction Pathway.
• People urged Lu PingAn to ascend to godhood and support the war from above, while more joined his project and invested in him.
• Lu PingAn learned that he would receive a ten-percent commission as the Pathway's creator.

As Outland invaders overran countries in Southeast Asia, South Asia, and the Pacific, capital fled into Eastern Kingdom and fueled a surge in investment and military production. Lu PingAn received word that Sakura Kingdom had begun attacking Leighton Peninsula, opening a new front.

• A Southeast Asian country surrendered, but Outland invaders slaughtered its people, strengthening resistance elsewhere.
• Chris explained that fleeing politicians and capitalists were moving their wealth into Eastern Kingdom, driving up stocks and funding military industries.
• Lu PingAn decided to establish two super-large shipyards in Ancient City as shipbuilding demand overwhelmed existing capacity.
• Lu PingAn received a signal that Sakura Kingdom had begun its attack on Leighton Peninsula, or Korea.

As the First Wave began, Lu PingAn learned that New Tokyo and the Fishmen had suffered heavy losses while fighting over Leighton Peninsula, whose defenses remained weak. He asked his three New Tokyo disciples how they felt about the war and assigned them a wargame, promising Shimizu Momo she could return to battle if she defeated her seniors.

• Lu PingAn heard that New Tokyo and the Fishmen had each lost two Rule-level or stronger fighters, including a near-demigod Fishman lord, in the fighting over Leighton Peninsula.
• Chris explained that the peninsula was poorly defended because its harsh conditions and exposed position made it unattractive to the invading beast lords.
• Baishi Wuling said the war did not concern her, Akechi Shinichi expressed faith in his side, and Shimizu Momo demanded to return to the battlefield.
• Lu PingAn assigned his three disciples a wargame simulation and promised Shimizu Momo she could return to fight if she defeated Akechi Shinichi and Baishi Wuling.

As war spread across several fronts, Lu PingAn dealt with protesters and prepared to flood the market with grain to suppress wartime price hikes. The chapter examined his unusual path and the limits of godhood, leaving him to consider war an opportunity to accumulate Life Transactions.

• Lu PingAn learned that Red Star, New Tokyo, and South Asian Countries had launched attacks, and ordered the protesting New Korean refugees sent out of Ancient City.
• Lu PingAn organized grain shipments and reserves, intending to lower prices to eighty percent of their prewar level and ruin merchants who had driven prices up.
• The chapter contrasted the freedom and limits of the demigod path with the immense power gods gained by ascending through the world's power.
• The chapter explained that Lu PingAn's Life Transaction ability and Chris's legacy gave him an unusual foundation for advancing beyond ordinary demigods.
• Lu PingAn recognized that wartime Life Transactions would likely exceed those in peacetime by many times.

Lu PingAn expanded his role in the Great Counterattack by distributing lifesaving Divine Grace cards and producing Log Arks, though his allies kept him in the rear. As he studied the early offensives, he realized Eastern Kingdom was using the battles to test the enemy and gather intelligence, while New Tokyo bore most of the fighting.

• Lu PingAn used his worldwide Life Points network to grant Divine Grace through chargeable cards that could save their holders' lives.
• Lu PingAn expanded Log Ark production, selling ships and Deferred Payment cards to support the war effort while his superiors urged him to wait before joining the front lines.
• Lu PingAn reviewed reports showing the southern offensive was struggling and Red Star's fleets had achieved little, largely because their military districts had little interest in committing resources.
• Lu PingAn reasoned that Eastern Kingdom had anticipated Red Star's reluctance and planned for New Tokyo's ground forces and top combatants to bear the brunt of the fighting.
• Lu PingAn concluded that Eastern Kingdom was using the offensives to gauge the invaders' response and gather intelligence, while treating the proxy on the Leighton Peninsula as expendable.

Lu PingAn joined fourteen top-tier combatants at Dragon Moon Island to plan a counteroffensive against the forces behind the invasion. The group chose Mountain Country as its stated objective while considering a probe of the enemy headquarters near Australia.

• Old Liu and Lu PingAn discussed his apparent immortality and the danger of losing him while his Woodland advanced humanity’s chances of becoming Transcendent.
• Lu PingAn arrived at Dragon Moon Island, where fourteen top-tier combatants met and six others watched remotely.
• Your Excellency Xiu Yi presented a broad contract requiring secrecy, participation in the war, and no unauthorized retreat, and Lu PingAn signed it.
• Your Excellency Xiu Yi announced Mountain Country as the strategic objective for the counteroffensive.
• The group marked the Pacific Ocean Archipelago Alliance on the map and considered probing the enemy headquarters near Australia.

Lu PingAn learned that Liu XiYan had fused himself with Dragon Moon Island, turning it into an unsinkable flagship for the Eastern Kingdom’s counteroffensive. As the island began moving, the New Era Human Revival Fleet set sail around it.

• Lu Mouren welcomed the Southern Lady Lin Sect, military officials, and generals who had helped Dragon Moon Island endure three years of siege.
• Lu PingAn questioned how the South Island Military Region could attack without leaving Dragon Moon Island and the surrounding defenses exposed.
• Liu XiYan revealed his presence as the Oboro Moon Lord and began moving Dragon Moon Island.
• The gathered demigods explained that Liu XiYan had fused with the island and transformed its matter, abandoning any intention of returning to his former state.
• Dragon Moon Island departed its location, raising tsunamis and whirlpools as the Eastern Kingdom prepared its counteroffensive.
• The military region’s warships joined the moving island, and the New Era Human Revival Fleet sailed toward the ocean.

Lu PingAn learned that Old Liu had spent decades preparing Dragon Moon Island to become a living fortress, sacrificing his demigod existence to defend the Eastern Kingdom. Though the assembled defenders wanted Lu PingAn to leave, he convinced them his own strategic resources made him more useful in the coming fight, and he waited in Dragon Moon City for the enemy attack.

• Lu PingAn learned that Dragon Moon Island’s transformation had been planned for more than fifty years as part of the Nine Stars Plan and Dragon Pool Scheme.
• Old Liu explained that he had fused his spiritual power into the island’s stone, accepting that he would eventually erode and disappear.
• Lu PingAn discovered that fifteen Life-type demigods and their legions, along with the island’s forces, had gathered to fight and that none intended to withdraw.
• The defenders urged Lu PingAn to leave because he was too valuable to risk, but he offered several strategic resources that persuaded them to take him along.
• Lu PingAn moved into Dragon Moon City and waited for the enemy to attack.

Lu PingAn and Dragon Moon Island’s defenders crushed an invading force while discussing the risk of a larger counterattack. As more allied forces gathered, Catherine brought Lu PingAn a booklet to help establish a system for identifying troops and preventing friendly fire before they moved to the Mountainous Country.

• Dragon Moon Island’s colossal rock dragon advanced through the sea, destroying the Fishmen fleet and Giant Soldiers as the island’s defenses repelled airborne landings.
• Lu PingAn watched the invaders’ forces and two Rule-level combatants fall to Dragon Moon Island’s defenders before he could intervene.
• Lu PingAn and Chris discussed whether a powerful plane lord might unite the invaders into a decisive counterattack.
• Lu PingAn concluded that the allied forces needed more time to coordinate and prepare for the next stage of the campaign.
• Catherine showed Lu PingAn a booklet of allied forces’ abilities and traits to support a combat system that would prevent friendly fire.

The Mountain Country’s gods and forces repelled a Fishman offensive, but the defenders remained exhausted after three years of attrition. Facing the possibility that they could not hold out much longer, the mountain people decided to request a large supply of land mines.

• The Monsoon God and the God of Mangosteen and Gale intervened, extinguishing the fires and restoring the woodland as the Tier 9 Fishman demi-god attacked the defenders.
• Mountain Country’s soldiers, Drones, and explosive Mechanical Dogs inflicted heavy losses while powerful combatants fought across the battlefield.
• An Overlord withdrew from the battle, prompting the other attacking warlords to retreat.
• The defenders cleared the battlefield and wondered how much longer they could endure the war.
• The mountain people decided to ask “that side” for a hundred thousand land mines capable of countering supernatural detection.

Lu PingAn hosted leaders and top Professionals in his Courtyard as they exchanged knowledge and prepared for the coming war in Mountainous Country. He learned that Eastern Kingdom had been supplying the beleaguered country with weapons and resources, turning it into a testing ground for new equipment.

• Lu PingAn hosted quasi-gods and peak Rank Eights in his Library, where they traded technologies, knowledge, and battlefield warnings.
• Lu PingAn learned from the gathering that Mountainous Country might hold out only until its resources and people were exhausted.
• A colonel from West Mountain Group briefed the attendees on an enormous arms deal and Eastern Kingdom's support for Mountainous Country.
• The attendees discussed Mountainous Country's lack of resources and how Eastern Kingdom might recover the cost of its aid.
• The attendees described Eastern Kingdom's new weapons, including seven generations of Jungle Mechanical Dogs, and acknowledged that Mountainous Country's battles provided valuable testing data.

Lu PingAn and General Su Shang Jiang watched a massive drone force assemble as Dragon Moon Island approached the continent, and Lu PingAn arranged to learn from the Eastern Kingdom’s drone-control technology. He accepted the government’s commercial terms and used his War Declaration to raise black flames over the drones, forming a new supernatural legion.

• Lu PingAn sensed the battlefield ahead as Dragon Moon Island swam toward the continent, then saw a swarm of drones fill the sky.
• General Su Shang Jiang explained that the force consisted of roughly two million drones supported by over twenty thousand pilots and more than six hundred Mechanical Awakeners.
• Lu PingAn asked to have a Rule-level Mechanical Awakener learn his drone-control methods, and General Su Shang Jiang secured government approval with restrictions on commercialization.
• Lu PingAn recognized that the government intended him to serve as a controlled channel for exporting the technology and accepted its terms, including permission for personal use.
• Lu PingAn activated his endless War Declaration, igniting black flames above the drones and summoning the Burning Legion/Black Fire Legion.

Lu PingAn arrived with the Eastern Kingdom’s reinforcements as Drones attacked the invaders besieging the Mountainous Country. After the ambush targeted the exposed Specter Leopard King, Lu PingAn met a Mountainous Country scout squad and showed them the massive force approaching behind him.

• The Specter Leopard King judged that the Mountainous Country was nearing defeat and moved to consult the other grand lords.
• Black Flame-carrying Drones descended on the invaders, and three demigods ambushed the Leopard King after he left his forces exposed.
• Lu PingAn used his Eye of Truth to scout the demigod battle but was stopped from approaching it.
• Lu PingAn found three scouts from the 367th Regiment and told them he had come as reinforcements from the Eastern Kingdom.
• The scouts saw Drone wings overhead as a vast mountain-like force arrived and regiments poured down from it.

Lu PingAn witnessed Dragon Moon Island’s drone swarms devastate the Fishmen forces in Mountain Country, turning the tide of the battle with enormous losses for the enemy and minimal losses for the attackers. The underwater fight remained a problem because human devices could not keep up with Fishmen mobility, as Mountain Country’s leaders arrived with a plan for a full-scale counterattack.

• Lu PingAn’s forces unleashed millions of drones and high-level fighters, rapidly killing Fishmen across Mountain Country.
• The first attack caused more than five hundred thousand enemy deaths while costing roughly thirty thousand drones, and the surviving high-level Fishmen became priority targets.
• Lu PingAn learned that unmanned underwater devices could not match the Fishmen’s speed, though he considered trying to solve the problem later.
• Mountain Country’s higher-ups arrived with a plan for a full-scale counterattack.

Lu PingAn observed negotiations in which the Eastern Kingdom offered Mountain Country drone support in exchange for mineral resources as it prepared to advance south. The talks ended with a promise to launch a decisive battle before the Eastern Kingdom’s forces left, giving Mountain Country a chance to reclaim its capital and territory.

• Mountain Country’s leader thanked the Eastern Kingdom’s delegation and asked for help against the invaders.
• Lu PingAn assessed that Mountain Country’s lack of industry made direct technology transfers impractical.
• The Eastern Kingdom offered to build a drone factory in Cloud Glow Province and upgrade Mountain Country’s existing drones.
• The Eastern Kingdom demanded more mineral resources, suggesting that Dragon Moon Island could absorb the mining area if Mountain Country could not supply enough workers.
• The Eastern Kingdom promised to launch a decisive battle before leaving, leaving Mountain Country’s recovery of its capital and territory dependent on the outcome.

Lu PingAn brought Dragon Moon Island’s Land of Life to Mountainous Country, where its people faced invasion and near-extinction. He opened the shop to arm and heal them, hoping they could hold their homeland until Eastern Kingdom’s forces eventually left.

• Lu PingAn saw that Mountainous Country’s people depended on Eastern Kingdom’s aid and propaganda for hope, though the country had lost most of its men and faced collapse.
• Lu PingAn realized that Mountainous Country’s fall would send refugees into Eastern Kingdom and let the Outland Visitors use its territory as a base to attack.
• Lu PingAn decided to open Dragon Moon Island’s Land of Life and offer Mountainous Country’s people ways to become stronger by spending their lifespan.
• Lu PingAn and his disciples agreed that the desperate locals needed weapons to resist, and Lu PingAn opened professions and Life Pathways, including battlefield medical options.
• Lu PingAn’s New Tokyo subordinates joked about missing their pensions, but they rejected the idea of promoting pension-based motivation in Mountainous Country because its finances had failed.

Lu PingAn watched the Eastern Kingdom and Mountain Country launch a counterattack against the Fishmen, with drones and allied forces reclaiming occupied territory. Mountain Country’s people sacrificed their lives and sanity for combat power, while the chapter left them facing a formidable Octopus Priest and continuing to seek casualties that might secure further Eastern Kingdom support.

• Lu PingAn confirmed that Mountain Country’s economy and public support systems had collapsed, then the Eastern Kingdom began its counterattack against the Fishmen occupying human territory.
• Eastern Kingdom drones overwhelmed Fishmen defenses as the Mountain Legion, combat machines, magical beasts, mercenaries, and Professionals advanced on the ground.
• Mountain Country werewolves charged as sacrificial fighters, and Lu PingAn discovered that drugs and forced growth had turned ordinary civilians into temporary Tier 3 combatants at terrible cost.
• Lu PingAn saw Black Flame fighters, God Children, and Holy Sons also burn their lives to strengthen Mountain Country’s forces.
• Mountain Country forces destroyed a Fishman nest and killed an Octopus Priest, then continued fighting to inflict losses and earn further Eastern Kingdom investment.