Chapter Summaries

Lu PingAn negotiated the terms of cooperation with the Eastern Kingdom, securing broad privileges and business support while agreeing to establish a Trading Ground on Star Ring. The officials revealed that their main aim was to mass-produce Professionals for foreigners, and Lu PingAn learned that handling his affairs was keeping them exceptionally busy.

• Lu PingAn used sarcasm to push the officials to decide how to accept the Dragonkin evolutionary breakthrough and its benefits.
• The Eastern Kingdom offered Lu PingAn flexible entry and tax arrangements, including an option to pay through dividends from businesses it would invest in.
• Lu Mouren secured directly governed municipality privileges for Ancient City, and Lu PingAn obtained a Star Ring trading street, warehouse district, and logistics channel.
• The Eastern Kingdom asked Lu PingAn to establish a Trading Ground on Star Ring, and he warned that his Trade Rules had been broken by an existence above Tier 10.
• The officials explained that the Star Ring Trading Ground would mass-produce Professionals for foreigners while limiting the crime and instability linked to their existing Trading Ground.
• Deputy Minister Liu told Lu PingAn that his business was keeping them busy, but the officials insisted that he must not leave.

Lu PingAn established a Trading Ground on the Star Ring and discovered that its rings connected to high-dimensional sub-planes, though their main value was also to reassure people on Earth. He learned that more than a thousand mostly Eastern Kingdom military personnel had begun Dragonkin transformations before his genetic modules were fully disentangled from him, and accepted that the process could no longer be stopped.

• Lu PingAn inspected the Star Ring’s artificial ecosystem and established a Trading Ground in a large natural park.
• Lu PingAn realized that the Star Ring’s rings were high-dimensional interface points linked to sub-planes, while Lu Mouren noted that they also let people see the apparent threat of aliens overhead.
• Lu PingAn found that Dragonkin and Species Transformation services had been opened widely, with more than a thousand people already in the first Dragonkin batch.
• Lu Mouren explained that Dragonkin ranked within the top thirty results of the long-running Xuan Wu Plan and that the Eastern Kingdom was eager to verify the results.
• Lu PingAn accepted that the rollout could not be stopped while his genetic modules remained connected to him, then let most of his team take time off as visitors began arriving for him.

Lu PingAn’s Species Transformation project advanced despite fierce debate, as officials recognized his unique power to alter life and strengthen humanity. Lu Mouren understood that the project had support but that extremists who blamed supernatural forces for Earth’s disasters could still threaten him.

• The First Batch of Species Transformation began for frontline soldiers while officials debated its risks and benefits.
• Lu Mouren learned that a legislator who publicly condemned the project had arranged for his two sons to become Dragonkin.
• Officials concluded that Lu PingAn’s power to reshape life was an unrepeatable asset and that cultivating him could expand humanity’s possibilities.
• Lu Mouren recognized that returning to Earth could expose him to assassination by extremists who opposed supernatural forces.
• Isolationist beliefs blaming superhumans and Outland Visitors for the Plane War spread during the postwar recovery, making extremists a serious threat.

Lu PingAn accepted that political turmoil and anti-alien extremism made it safer to develop his people and technology away from the surface, with support from the Eastern Kingdom authorities. He began building up Ancient City and Lin New City while keeping a low profile, and his cadres gradually went to the lower realm to work and vacation.

• Lu PingAn concluded that assassination plans and smear campaigns made it dangerous for him to operate openly on Earth, so he chose to develop a homeland on the Star Ring.
• The Eastern Kingdom authorities supported his plans for the Star Ring and Ancient City to become independent development zones connected to the surface through services and trade.
• Lu PingAn began taking over Lady Lin's industries and personnel, and the new settlement was named Lin New City.
• Lu PingAn learned from internal documents that the authorities hoped to promote his technology widely in a few years, provided it caused no hazards or serious racial conflicts.
• Lu PingAn chose to proceed cautiously as anti-alien extremism spread, while the authorities promoted stories of Outer Realm battles and Secret Keepers.
• As work expanded, Lu PingAn's cadres increasingly left to work and take vacations in the lower realm.

Lu PingAn planned to turn Ancient City into his faction’s surface base and an extraordinary industrial center, while recognizing the resentment ordinary people felt toward rapid change. He left the city’s future in the hands of his faction and its officials, directing them to expand trade, industry, public services, and influence without openly interfering with the government.

• Lu PingAn discussed how people left behind by the New Era blamed extraordinary technology and PingAn Brand products for their hardships.
• Lu PingAn confirmed Xia’s transfer to the Alien Management Bureau and accepted Phil’s decision to serve as a confidential secretary rather than mayor.
• Lu PingAn’s faction prepared to make Ancient City, with its seventeen million residents and surrounding urban areas, a surface base for interstellar trade and extraordinary industry.
• Lu PingAn ordered followers and industries moved into Ancient City and called for the Trading Ground to expand more than tenfold.
• Lu PingAn directed his faction to operate discreetly as a Shadow Government, control media, raise incomes, and provide affordable healthcare.

Lu PingAn took Cat Cat for a walk through the rapidly changing Ancient City, where he worried about rising prices and local employment despite trying to relax. Their outing ended when he unexpectedly ran into his former classmate Zhao Xinxin.

• Lu PingAn and Cat Cat explored the bustling Ancient City, and Cat Cat excitedly pointed out changed shops and aliens.
• Lu PingAn noticed daily necessities had risen in price and asked Phil to have the Price Department investigate possible stockpiling.
• Lu PingAn worried that alien workers might be affecting local employment, but Cat Cat scratched him when he started thinking about work again.
• Zhao Xinxin recognized Lu PingAn, and he eventually remembered her as his former class monitor.

Lu PingAn reunited with Zhao Xinxin, an old middle-school classmate, and shared dinner with her while learning that her family had gone bankrupt. After she left, he revealed that he knew she was an extremist who had considered poisoning him, and said he had already called the police.

• Lu PingAn met Zhao Xinxin by chance and chatted with her about their middle-school memories, while Cat Cat teased him and introduced herself.
• Lu PingAn invited Zhao Xinxin to dinner, where she described her overtime work and explained that her family had gone bankrupt after her father made reckless investments during the war.
• Lu PingAn said he worked for a True God Church company and asked Zhao Xinxin about life and work in Ancient City.
• After Zhao Xinxin left, Cat Cat told Lu PingAn that she had considered killing him, and Lu PingAn identified her as an extremist connected to the Demonic Monster Resistance Organization and an Outer God.
• Lu PingAn told Cat Cat that he had called the police and that Zhao Xinxin should already have been arrested.

After learning that Monitor Zhao had joined an extremist group and committed murders, Lu PingAn decided to have Cat Cat investigate its agitators. He considered ways to improve public safety but postponed introducing security robots, leaving the group’s reckoning to come.

• Lu PingAn learned that Monitor Zhao belonged to the extremist Demonic Monster Resistance Organization and had killed transcendent beings, most of whom did not deserve death.
• Lu PingAn and Cat Cat agreed to expose the organization’s agitators before they could cause more harm.
• Lu PingAn reflected on whether expanding transcendent power could reduce crime and concluded that strong official authority and strict laws were also needed.
• Lu PingAn considered funding local law enforcement and deploying security robots, but postponed the plan until the technology was mature and the time was right.
• Cat Cat disappeared, and Lu PingAn expected the Demonic Monster Resistance Organization to soon be brought to an end.

Lu PingAn proposed a sweeping expansion of public security in the Ancient City, using the Outer Realm Special Zone’s independence and his own resources to deploy powerful forces. Xia Qin agreed to support the plan while advising him to begin cautiously and keep some distance from its execution.

• Lu PingAn told Xia Qin that he wanted to greatly strengthen public security despite the Ancient City’s already low crime levels.
• Lu PingAn explained that major supernatural threats avoided the city, but lone criminals and small organizations could still cause widespread harm.
• Lu PingAn proposed stationing Law Decree-level combatants throughout the streets and keeping Rule-level forces on emergency standby, alarming Xia Qin with the scale of the deployment.
• Lu PingAn argued that the Outer Realm Special Zone could make reforms the central government lacked the resources to carry out, even if the plan attracted accusations of separatism.
• Xia Qin accepted the proposal and advised Lu PingAn to begin with local personnel and use an agent rather than handle the investment personally.

Lu PingAn decided to use his ties with the Eastern Kingdom authorities to reform public security in his territory, beginning with a controlled surveillance network and stronger law-enforcement deployments. He planned to let a rising star lead the reform while his forces prepared to train reliable Orc survivors as law enforcers.

• Lu PingAn changed his mind about lying low and chose to act against the coming wave of change.
• Lu PingAn asked the Eastern Kingdom authorities to limit media coverage, endorse a provincial public-security reform pilot, and guide public opinion.
• Lu PingAn proposed a SkyNet surveillance system and planned for Fang Wen to control it as a powerful Mechanical Awakener.
• Lu PingAn decided to find a young, authorities-aligned proxy to lead the reform and absorb political backlash if needed.
• Lu PingAn planned to reinforce combat deployments and train Orc survivors from the Evolution World as reliable law enforcers.

Lu PingAn arranged for Orc warriors to help the Gu City Military Region defend a dangerous secret realm, while presenting their deployment as a civilian effort. He planned to use improved security to attract investment and expand Ancient City by reclaiming land from the Otherworld.

• Lu PingAn delayed putting the Orcs on Ancient City's streets because their customs and understanding of crime differed too much from local laws.
• Lu PingAn supplied Orc warriors to the Gu City Military Region and told its liaison that they could be sent on dangerous missions because he had insured them against permanent death.
• Lu PingAn warned the colonel not to report the arrangement upward, since it could be seen as improper interference in the garrison.
• Lu PingAn argued that safer streets would draw investment and migration, and asked about negotiations with a real estate company.
• Lu PingAn ordered his team to follow Plan B and reclaim land from the Otherworld, predicting Ancient City's urban area would triple within three years.

After a mall bombing turned out to be the work of a local gang, Lu Mouren decided to use it to manufacture enemies and ordered Eve to make the gang’s actions appear connected to Lady Lin and racial extremists. Lu PingAn explained that he and Lady Lin were now competing as gods, leaving him certain she would eventually come after him.

• A bomb destroyed the first four floors of a mall in the Ancient City, but no one was killed.
• Lu Mouren learned that the bombers were local criminals retaliating against the mall for refusing to pay protection money, with no mastermind behind them.
• Lu Mouren decided to turn the incident into a pretext for conflict and told Eve to create flawless evidence implicating Lady Lin and racial extremists.
• Lu PingAn said Lady Lin and he were destined to remain rivals unless she surrendered her place on Earth and became subordinate to him.
• Lu PingAn predicted that Lady Lin would come after him, and Lu Mouren teased him for grinning about it.

Lu PingAn expanded his faction’s patrols and began processing the vast resources brought back from Evolution World, while Lady Lin’s local factions surrendered and joined him. He searched for a capable reformist spokesperson and ended up considering Xue En, a Panda, as a mayoral candidate.

• Lu PingAn sent two God's Arks and their crews to patrol stable worlds while keeping his own colossal Ark at home.
• Lu PingAn and his subordinates discussed how long it would take to study and use Evolution World’s resources, genetic modules, and Forbidden Knowledge.
• Lu PingAn learned that Life Insurance had become less effective outside Evolution World, while his own workload continued to grow.
• Lu PingAn's faction discovered that the local Lady Lin factions had joined them before any campaign against them began.
• Lu PingAn struggled to find an honest and capable official spokesperson, then questioned whether Xue En, a Panda, should run for mayor.

Lu PingAn tried to dissuade Xue En from becoming a candidate in the dangerous reform effort, but Xue En explained why his background made him uniquely suited to bridge the city’s factions. Lu PingAn accepted his decision, and Xue En also said he wanted to spend more time with his wife and daughters.

• Lu PingAn angrily summoned Xue En after learning he had become a candidate and demanded to know why he would enter politics.
• Xue En calmly told Lu PingAn that Ancient City was their home too and asked him to trust the team.
• Xue En argued that his military record, Orc identity, and ties to both East Country People and Outsiders made him the best bridge between the public and officials.
• Xue En said his candidacy could also ease opposition from the Inheritance Faction to Lu PingAn’s reforms.
• Xue En added that he wanted to spend more time with his wife and daughters, and Lu PingAn accepted his choice.

Xue En appeared on television as the Panda Man, explaining that his political ambitions came from wanting to prevent supernatural disasters from devastating his homeland. Lu PingAn and Cat Cat discussed his chances and Lu PingAn’s plans to push reforms through, while the interview drifted into questions about pandas and Xue En’s family.

• Xue En spoke on television about his family, his past work, and his desire to protect his homeland from supernatural disasters.
• Lu PingAn explained to Cat Cat that Xue En needed public trust and prestige to support reforms.
• Cat Cat worried about Xue En failing, and Lu PingAn reassured her that he could bring him back to work or take control himself if necessary.
• Lu PingAn told Cat Cat to wait before getting involved, and she offered to help when needed.
• The television host abandoned official questions to ask Xue En about bamboo, his daughters, and his torn suit, prompting Lu PingAn to consider selling Panda Man merchandise.

Lu PingAn discussed turning Panda Man’s public fame into political influence and worked to establish him in Ancient City’s municipal government. As the public security reforms met resistance from existing officials, Lu PingAn prepared to fund the work independently while wondering how much Wanjing would tolerate.

• Lu PingAn considered using internet attention to build Panda Man’s political profile but worried that Cat Cat’s true nature could cause a scandal.
• After retiring from the military, Panda Man took a municipal government post and began assisting the deputy mayor responsible for public security.
• Panda Man told Lu PingAn that officials were hostile to him despite his public visibility and growing responsibilities.
• Lu PingAn explained that the reform effort had alienated officials and planned to use allowances and a special task group to reduce resistance.
• Lu PingAn’s side continued funding surveillance, personnel, equipment, and hired squads while he worried about interference from Wanjing.

Lu PingAn met resistance from locals as he began reforming his special zone, but Wanjing tacitly approved and quietly supported him. He used paid online influencers to rally support for overhauling extraordinary education, drawing the leaders of Gu City Extraordinary University to confront him.

• Officials in Wanjing argued over Lu PingAn’s changes, then chose to let him proceed and discreetly support the reform.
• Local residents voiced concerns about the special zone’s tax and inspection exemptions, and Lu PingAn decided not to answer his critics.
• Lu PingAn hired online influencers to promote reform by highlighting outdated extraordinary training and young people’s job prospects.
• Lu PingAn made extraordinary education the first target of reform, prompting leaders of Gu City Extraordinary University to arrive.

Lu PingAn proposed sweeping reforms to supernatural education, arguing that students needed to learn about the supernatural from an early age and receive professional training before university. He left the principals with a plan that could reshape education across the Eastern Kingdom if it succeeded.

• Lu PingAn decided to test the authorities’ limits after concluding that remaining in the Eastern Kingdom was preferable to leaving his homeland.
• Lu PingAn told the principals that universities needed independent supernatural cultivation programs and set a goal for the average graduate to reach Law Decree-level.
• Lu PingAn distributed a reform plan that preserved the college entrance examination’s talent selection mechanism while revising education from primary school onward.
• Lu PingAn proposed primary-school Common Sense Classes covering foundational supernatural knowledge.
• Lu PingAn proposed optional supernatural education and warrior training from middle school, followed by specialized Professional training beginning with the High School Entrance Examination.
• Lu PingAn told the principals that successful reforms might spread nationwide.

Lu PingAn’s group defended its new education system by promising jobs, higher wages, and investment in Ancient City, while Xue En promoted the reforms to the public. Thirty-seven percent of students chose the new subjects, and Lu PingAn planned to use successful graduates as role models to win more support.

• Schools introduced lighter schedules, supernatural courses, and more practical physical education, prompting public protests over reduced core subjects.
• Lu PingAn learned that scattered factions, tutoring institutions, and the True God Church were fueling opposition to the reforms.
• Xue En defended the dual-track education system on television and promised priority hiring, income subsidies, and new jobs in Ancient City.
• The first enrollment results showed that thirty-seven percent of students chose the new subjects, which pleased Lu PingAn.
• Lu PingAn called for a short-term accelerated training class to produce successful graduates who could serve as role models.

Lu PingAn’s reforms began strengthening his domain by linking education with the evolution of life, while remnants of the Forest Goddess Faction tried to sabotage him with terrorist attacks. After the attacks were quickly contained, Lu PingAn admitted to falsifying reform data, leaving his response to the threats unresolved.

• Lu PingAn kept the new divine-office development secret as his Courtyard’s school expanded and strengthened his Logic and its inhabitants.
• Remnants of the Forest Goddess Faction decided to make Lu PingAn’s reforms fail and launched several terrorist attacks in the Ancient City.
• Lu PingAn’s Special Task Force captured three groups of attackers without any deaths, revealing that their leader was only a Tier 5 bishop.
• Lu PingAn recognized that the attackers were remnants of an older era and that stronger figures were still waiting for him to falter.
• Lu PingAn admitted that he had falsified data and fabricated the results of his reforms.