Chapter Summaries

Tang Zheng used a Magic Ritual to help Crusch Lulu cast Sixth-Tier Climate Manipulation, then secretly joined her to drive the rain clouds over the Abelion Hills northwest toward the sea. The ritual ended with the sky clear and the Demi-Human casters exhausted, while they struggled to understand the power they had witnessed.

• Tang Zheng positioned Crusch Lulu at the ritual’s center and Zern King, the Pandex Queen Mother, and Magelos Nasrene around its edge.
• The three Demi-Human casters poured magic into the ritual, allowing Crusch Lulu to cast Sixth-Tier Climate Manipulation with Tang Zheng’s guidance.
• Tang Zheng learned Climate Manipulation and secretly combined his magic with Crusch Lulu’s to push the clouds northwest.
• The rain clouds cleared from the sky above the Abelion Hills and continued moving toward the sea as the ritual ended.
• Crusch Lulu and the other Demi-Humans collapsed, and Magelos Nasrene wondered whether the ritual’s power came from the legendary Demon Gods.

Tang Zheng used a staged display of high-tier magic to frighten the Demi-Human rulers into helping him and keeping silent. In the Holy Kingdom, Calca Bessarez and her sisters investigated reports of human nobles trading food to trolls and grew concerned that the Abelion Hills’ Demi-Humans were uniting for war.

• Tang Zheng warned the Demi-Human rulers to keep the magic display secret and told them to gather magic power for future rain-based summons.
• Human nobles exhausted their surplus grain trading with trolls, then began buying food from commoners and drove up prices.
• Calca Bessarez read letters reporting the trade, while Remedios and Kelart waited for her response.
• Remedios vowed to punish the nobles, but Kelart argued that the greater concern was whoever had unified and organized the trolls.
• Calca and Kelart suspected a Demi-Human ruler might be gathering food to unite the Abelion Hills and wage war.
• Calca proposed sending an elite squad into the Abelion Hills to learn what had happened.

Enri delivered twenty Regeneration Potions to ten gray-cloaked customers in Khalinsha, while Tang Zheng learned they had left the city to enter the Abelion Hills. There, the Armats attacked a Troll settlement to seize its food, but three Upper Species Trolls appeared before their chieftain.

• Enri delivered twenty Regeneration Potions to ten gray-cloaked figures, who paid two hundred gold coins and left Khalinsha.
• The Verdant Leaf Witch reported that the buyers had not gone to the Wall Fortress, and Tang Zheng guessed they planned to reach the Abelion Hills by sea.
• Roughly eight hundred Armats attacked a Troll settlement, slaughtering dozens of Trolls and taking their food.
• The Armats chieftain demanded that his scouts find the Trolls' hidden food, but they said the smell had been concealed.
• Three Upper Species Trolls strode toward the Armats after nearby screams alerted the chieftain.

Go Gin fought Gray King, but Tang Zheng killed the Gray Ratman chieftain and led an assault on the Armat Clan. After half a day of battle, the clan collapsed, and Tang Zheng’s experience points surpassed one million again.

• Gray King attacked Go Gin with his poisonous Rat Swarm and tried to recruit him, leaving Go Gin weakened and numb.
• Tang Zheng appeared, killed Gray King with Fire Dragon magic, and burned through the Armat elites, gaining a large amount of experience.
• Tang Zheng questioned a surviving Armat, learned about the Armat Clan and its feud with the Man-Spiders, then ordered Go Gin to handle the corpses and the Trolls to follow him.
• Tang Zheng and the Trolls attacked the Armat settlement, overcoming its defenses with magic and a ground invasion.
• After half a day, the Armat Clan surrendered; about five thousand Armats remained, while Tang Zheng’s experience total rose above one million.

Go Gin investigated the Zern Clan’s Grave Pit and suspected that Tang Zheng was using the mass of corpses there to create Undead, while investigators Caleb and his partner ambushed a Demi-Human convoy for information. Tang Zheng continued monitoring the Abelion Hills and tested the limits of Dragon Blood Potions as Lainas and Imina sparred, both detected at level 28.

• Go Gin traveled toward the Grave Pit, where Beibeibei told him the Zern were eating and he concluded that Tang Zheng was trying to raise Undead from the corpses cast into the pit.
• Caleb and his young partner watched Goblins, Trolls, and Armats transport human-traded supplies, then used magic and enchanted gear to ambush the convoy and capture its last Armat.
• Tang Zheng focused on the increasingly tense Abelion Hills, anticipating conflict as the other Demi-Human races learned of the Trolls’ trade with humans and the Armat Clan’s destruction.
• Tang Zheng watched Lainas and Imina spar and detected both of them at level 28, despite the Dragon Blood Potions he had supplied.
• Tang Zheng concluded that Dragon Blood Potions chiefly increased Life Intensity and HP, while class proficiency affected level gains, and that the four recipients had reached a limit below the potion’s stated level-30 threshold.

Tang Zheng discovered that the White Mist Witch could keep a summoned Angel in existence by possessing it, while Caleb and a young man tried to carry news of the Demi-Human alliance out of Abelion Hills. Caleb died fighting the Trolls, and Go Gin found a potion bottle among the remains.

• Lainas and Imina tested their Dragon Blood Potion-enhanced strength, and Tang Zheng concluded that New World humans faced limits beyond simply gaining levels.
• After Lainas said Princess Renner wanted to meet him about a discovery concerning the Holy Kingdom, Tang Zheng hurried away to test the White Mist Witch’s Assimilation ability.
• The White Mist Witch possessed a summoned Flame Archangel, which remained for a full day and night before disappearing when she left its body.
• Caleb and a young man fled the Armats after learning several Demi-Human clans had united and the Armat Clan had submitted to the Troll Clan.
• A Troll ambushed the pair; Caleb sacrificed an arm and stayed behind to fight, allowing the young man to escape before Caleb was killed.
• Go Gin arrived, learned that one human had escaped, and picked up Caleb’s fallen bottle, identifying it as a Regeneration Potion.

Go Gin spared a wounded human spy and arranged for him to carry information onward, while Tang Zheng allowed the escape as part of his plan. In E-Rantel, Khajit returned to the cemetery where he had died and confronted Tang Zheng, attacking him with Negative Energy Laser.

• Go Gin recognized Tang Zheng's Regeneration Potion and pursued the wounded human spy after deciding humans might be useful against the red-robed man.
• Go Gin defeated the Armats, then struck the spy into a river and killed the Armats; the White Mist Witch realized Go Gin had let the human escape.
• Tang Zheng stopped the White Mist Witch from pursuing the spy, explaining that the escape could draw the Free Will adventurer team into his plan.
• Khajit secretly entered E-Rantel's Common Cemetery and returned to the ruined temple where he had died.
• Khajit confronted Tang Zheng, recognized him as the one who had killed him, and fired a Negative Energy Laser.
• Tang Zheng used Dimensional Move to evade the beam, and Khajit questioned why he was using Arcane System magic instead of Angel Summoning.

Tang Zheng confronted the revived Khajit in the Common Graveyard, revealing that the Orb of Death had told him about Zurrernorn’s Spiral of Death ritual. He hoped to draw out Zurrernorn’s mysterious leader and negotiate, but Khajit mistook his motives and prepared to attack.

• Khajit accused Tang Zheng of destroying his ambitions, and Tang Zheng named the Spiral of Death ritual.
• Tang Zheng showed Khajit the Orb of Death, which had revealed the ritual and Khajit’s past actions to him.
• Khajit realized Tang Zheng knew about his place among Zurrernorn’s twelve Disciples and suspected he knew his identity all along.
• Tang Zheng explained that he had hoped to meet Zurrernorn’s leader and seek cooperation over the ritual and the Orb of Death.
• Khajit dismissed Tang Zheng as unworthy of approaching the leader and declared that their confrontation would end there.

Tang Zheng defeated Khajit’s powerful Undead and offered to cooperate with him on the Spiral of Death ritual, then knocked him unconscious and took him away. Meanwhile, Holy Queen Calca learned that only one member of her ten-person exploration team had survived the mission in the Abelion Hills.

• Khajit summoned an Undead Composite Giant and a Red Skeleton Warrior, but Tang Zheng destroyed them with Dragon Lightning and badly burned Khajit with its aftershock.
• Tang Zheng offered Khajit a chance to become Undead and serve as his test subject for the Spiral of Death ritual.
• Tang Zheng summoned a Bone Dragon with the Orb of Death, convincing Khajit to cooperate and share what he knew.
• Tang Zheng knocked Khajit unconscious and carried him away.
• Holy Queen Calca learned that nine members of her exploration team had died in the Abelion Hills and that the sole survivor had been rescued from the sea.

Holy Queen Calca and Kelart investigated reports of a growing alliance among the Demi-Human Species in the Abelion Hills and suspected Martial Lord Go Gin had deliberately allowed Roberts to escape. Calca ordered a crackdown on nobles trading with Demi-Humans, and arrests spread through both the Northern and Southern Holy Kingdoms.

• Calca questioned Roberts about his intelligence on the Abelion Hills, and Roberts added that the weather had remained unusually clear during the mission.
• Kelart warned that five Demi-Human Species had allied and discussed Go Gin’s background, concluding that he had likely let Roberts escape on purpose.
• Kelart proposed consulting the adventurer team Free Will about Go Gin, while Calca ordered action against nobles trading with Demi-Humans.
• Calca ordered the Northern Holy Kingdom’s coastline sealed and traders arrested, while Remedios executed nobles who resisted.
• The Southern Holy Kingdom also arrested nobles, and the crackdown implicated barons, viscounts, and margraves but no marquises or dukes.

Tang Zheng refused the Holy Kingdom’s attempt to recruit him into its efforts concerning Abelion Hills, while discussing the Holy Kingdom’s crackdown on nobles who traded with Demi-Humans. The chapter then shifted to the Slane Theocracy, where the six Cardinals began investigating an unexpected change in the hills.

• Tang Zheng explained that Go Gin had left the Empire to seek stronger opponents and suggested that Go Gin might have deliberately released Roberts as a message.
• Tang Zheng declined to join the Holy Kingdom’s plans and told its representatives to commission Free Will through the Adventurer’s Guild if they wanted assistance.
• Pabel apologized on behalf of the Holy Kingdom, and he and the others left Tang Zheng to report his response to their superiors.
• Tang Zheng reviewed the Holy Kingdom’s suppression of nobles involved in Demi-Human trade and noted that his food reserves were sufficient to support his plans in Abelion Hills and the Great Forest of Tob.
• The six Cardinals of the Slane Theocracy gathered and heard Dominic report that the Thousand Miles Astrologer had discovered an unexpected abnormality in Abelion Hills.

The Cardinals learned that five powerful Demi-Human races had allied in the Abelion Hills and resolved to investigate the Holy Kingdom and prevent further unification. As drought threatened the Beast-bodied Quadrupeds, Vijar Ragaendra faced the urgent need to secure water for his people.

• Dominic reported that the Blue, Troll, Pandex, Magelos, and Armat Clans had formed an alliance, including powerful individuals and several Demi-Human Heroes.
• The Cardinals discussed the danger of the alliance and ordered sleepers activated, with the Sunlight Scripture put on standby if the Holy Kingdom failed to act.
• Vijar Ragaendra surveyed the drought-stricken Great Grassland and worried that the failing grass would leave his people without food and water.
• Black Steel Muar Plaksha told Vijar that the people had been calmed and urged him to find a dependable water source.
• Beast General Hectowaizes identified rivers in the northern and southern mountains as water sources that would not run dry, but warned that tribes would fight to defend them.

Tang Zheng repelled the Spider People Tribe during a battle in the Abelion Hills and learned the Fifth-Tier Clairvoyance spell while sensing the Slane Theocracy's surveillance. He met Khajit afterward, supplied him with corpses for the Spiral of Death Ritual, and recognized how its energy-absorption process resembled the Wild Shape Ritual.

• Tang Zheng used enhanced Magic Arrows and Fireball to defeat the Spider People Tribe's attack on the Armats, Trolls, and Magelos.
• Thousand Miles Astrologer used Clairvoyance to survey the Abelion Hills, and Tang Zheng learned the Fifth-Tier spell and confirmed his Detection Countermeasures could foil the probing gaze.
• Tang Zheng destroyed Khajit's Undead Troll, then agreed to provide Khajit with twenty Armat corpses and twenty Man-Spider corpses.
• Khajit explained that he expected the Spiral of Death Ritual to be ready within three years, while Tang Zheng privately anticipated that events would overtake him much sooner.
• Tang Zheng compared the Spiral of Death Ritual's absorption of Negative Energy with the Wild Shape Ritual's absorption of physical matter and realized he could understand the complex ritual unusually easily.

Tang Zheng confronted the leader of Zurrernorn after the leader tracked Khajit to the Abelion Hills and questioned him about the Spiral of Death Ritual. When the leader tried to kill Khajit, Tang Zheng attacked and summoned a Bone Dragon, leaving the two powerful figures poised to fight.

• Khajit admired the Abelion Hills and asked Tang Zheng how he had brought its Demi-Human tribes under his control.
• Tang Zheng realized that repeated use of Crusch Lulu's Control Weather had helped create a drought across the Abelion Hills.
• The leader of Zurrernorn appeared behind Khajit by Teleportation, and he and Tang Zheng exchanged detection spells.
• Khajit knelt before his leader, who questioned why he had left E-Rantel and then decided to kill him after learning he carried the Spiral of Death Ritual.
• Tang Zheng struck the leader with Dragon Lightning, but the leader teleported away and attacked with Ruinous Bone Prison.
• Tang Zheng summoned a Bone Dragon with the Orb of Death, destroying the bone spikes as the leader reacted with surprise.

Tang Zheng fought Zurrernorn's leader in the Abelion Hills, testing his opponent's abilities while gaining the upper hand with his Bone Dragon and powerful magic. The leader escaped Tang Zheng's trapping flames with One-Sided Duel, and both recognized the other's strength.

• Tang Zheng confronted Zurrernorn's leader in midair and considered whether the mysterious figure was connected to Corpus of the Abyss or the Slane Theocracy.
• The leader summoned a Skeleton Griffin, which dodged Tang Zheng's Dragon Lightning and damaged the Bone Dragon's wing before Tang Zheng used Reverse Gravity to bring them both down.
• Tang Zheng overpowered the leader in a Dragon Lightning clash, then used Fire Field: All to bind him and burn the Skeleton Griffin to ashes.
• The leader cast Sixth-Tier Pale Flame at Tang Zheng and used One-Sided Duel to escape Fire Field when Tang Zheng teleported away.
• Tang Zheng identified One-Sided Duel and suggested the leader was one of humanity's Outliers, while the leader admitted he had underestimated Tang Zheng.

Tang Zheng and the Zurrernorn Alliance Leader reached a temporary agreement over Khajit’s incomplete Spiral of Death Ritual, while each concealed his true motives. As Tang Zheng learned new spells, the Alliance Leader planned to provoke the hidden forces behind the drought, and Khajit realized his survival depended on completing the ritual.

• Tang Zheng and the Alliance Leader ended their battle and agreed to cooperate temporarily, with the Alliance Leader taking Khajit to the Corpse Pit.
• Tang Zheng sent the White Mist Witch to monitor Crusch Lulu instead of Go Gin after learning Go Gin’s contact with the Holy Kingdom had turned hostile.
• Tang Zheng used two Skill Points to master “One-Sided Duel” and “Pale Flame.”
• The Alliance Leader told Khajit that magic had caused the Abelion Hills’ drought and suspected Tang Zheng and a hidden Divine System Magic Caster were behind a plan to seize control.
• The Alliance Leader revealed he had been in the Abelion Hills before confronting Tang Zheng and discarded a Zoastia corpse, while Khajit feared for his life and resolved to complete the ritual.

After “Black Steel” Muar’s death sparked war between the Zoastia and the allied Demi-Human clans, Tang Zheng sent a coalition force to fight them. The Alliance Leader entered the battle under suspicious circumstances, and as Khajit recognized his apparent goal, two lightning spells struck at Tang Zheng and the others.

• Tang Zheng gathered the Demi-Human leaders and ordered troops from the Armat, Troll, Zern, and Pandex clans to aid the Magelos against the invading Zoastia and Orthrous.
• Go Gin learned that the Alliance Leader had killed “Black Steel” Muar, then joined the coalition’s battle against “Demon Claw” Vijar and the Zoastia.
• Go Gin fought off a Zoastia attacker and challenged Vijar to end the bloodshed, but Vijar refused and attacked him.
• Tang Zheng saw the coalition being driven back by forces organized by “Beast General” Hectowaizes and sent the Alliance Leader into battle.
• The Alliance Leader summoned undead and transformed a Troll into a Heavy Skeleton Warrior, prompting Tang Zheng to suspect he had another purpose.
• Khajit realized the Alliance Leader intended to complete a ritual left unfinished twenty years earlier, but two Fourth-Tier lightning spells suddenly attacked Tang Zheng, Khajit, and the White Mist Witch.

Tang Zheng faced a rebellion by the Zern King, the Pandex Queen Mother, Magelos Nasrene, and Halisha, "White Elder," after they freed their heirs from his control. He trapped the attackers with his Fire Field and prepared to finish them, while the Alliance Leader advanced toward Go Gin and Demon Claw Vijar amid a battlefield ritual formed from Demi-Human corpses and blood.

• The Zern King and Pandex Queen Mother attacked Tang Zheng, revealing that the Guardian Spirit had freed their heirs and dispelled his curse.
• Magelos Nasrene and Halisha, "White Elder," emerged from concealment and joined the rebellion against Tang Zheng.
• Magelos Nasrene, the Zern King, and the Pandex Queen Mother attacked with magic while Halisha destroyed Tang Zheng's first Bone Dragon, but Tang Zheng summoned another.
• Tang Zheng used Fire Field: All to bind and burn the rebels, leaving the three Magic Casters unable to resist while Halisha struggled against the flames.
• The Alliance Leader advanced across the battlefield toward Go Gin and Demon Claw Vijar as Skeleton Griffins gathered Demi-Human corpses and blood into a ritual.

The Alliance Leader used an ambush and Demon Claw Vijar’s death to keep the Demi-Humans fighting, then unleashed a ritual that raised over a thousand Undead. At the cliffside, Tang Zheng watched the battlefield erupt while holding the badly wounded Nasrene.

• The Alliance Leader approached the battlefield center under Invisibility and watched Go Gin battle Demon Claw Vijar, judging the Demi-Human warriors as potential ritual targets.
• The Caben and Horuner surrounded the battlefield, and Grand King of Destruction Buser arrived to stop the fighting.
• Demon Claw Vijar was killed by a hidden attacker, prompting the Zoastia Clan to attack Go Gin and throwing the battlefield back into chaos.
• The Alliance Leader revealed himself and triggered the Seventh-Tier Magic Undeath Army, raising over a thousand Undead from the blood-soaked ground.
• Tang Zheng watched from the cliffside with the wounded Nasrene as Thousand Miles Astrologer's detection magic reached the battlefield.

Tang Zheng discovered that the alliance leader was using the battlefield’s deaths and Negative Energy to power a ritual for creating High-Tier Undead, but chose to let it proceed. As Buser reached the alliance leader and struck his black tower shield, the shield remained unmarked.

• Over a thousand Undead emerged, halting the Demi-Humans’ fighting, and Buser rallied them to attack the necromancer with Go Gin and Hectowaizes.
• Tang Zheng learned from Magelos Nasrene and Khajit that the rebellion had deeper causes and that the alliance leader intended to finish a ritual begun twenty years earlier.
• Tang Zheng identified the battlefield ritual as a modified Spiral of Death fueled by the Negative Energy and death aura of the fallen, and decided not to interfere.
• Tang Zheng sent the White Mist Witch to Crusch Lulu to pose as an ally among the Demi-Humans, while ordering Khajit to watch.
• The alliance leader used Heavy Skeleton Warriors and a Skeleton Griffin to hold off Go Gin and Hectowaizes as Buser charged through a sandstorm.
• Buser struck the alliance leader’s black tower shield with Weapon Destruction, but the shield suffered no damage.