Chapter Summaries

Little Illusion and Little Red Horse defeated Pirate Captain and captured his cannon and ship. Wenren Sheng realized that the World Will had arranged for the cannon to reach Little Red Horse, one of the Children of Destiny.

• Little Red Horse charged across the sea toward Pirate Captain, while the pirates' arrows curved harmlessly around it.
• Little Illusion and Little Red Horse broke through the pirate blockade as Pirate Captain's cannon shots repeatedly missed.
• Little Illusion charged Pirate Captain with her lance and pierced him, while his cannon shot killed one of his own sailors.
• The pirates fled after Pirate Captain fell, and Little Illusion brought the captured ship and cannon back to her island.
• Little Illusion installed the cannon on the island and told Little Red Horse it would have to pull it; Wenren Sheng concluded the World Will had delivered the cannon to one of its Children of Destiny.

Wenren Sheng observed the Pirate Captain’s repeated rebirths and watched him fail to change his nature, first trying to rule through freed slaves and then through sworn brothers. After the Captain died again, Wenren Sheng concluded that rebirth exposed a person’s traits but could not easily change them, and that the World Will might abandon him once his useful qualities were exhausted.

• Little Illusion hunted sharks with cannons while Little Red Horse hauled the cannon, and Wenren Sheng discovered that the Pirate Captain had been reborn with only his memories intact.
• The Pirate Captain analyzed his defeat, blamed his lack of intelligence and a loyal core team, and freed his chained crewmen to start over.
• Some freed slaves tried to kill the Pirate Captain, but other slaves rescued him; he then recruited sworn brothers and was betrayed and killed.
• The Pirate Captain was reborn again, tried modern management methods, and found that he lacked the desire to change his brutal nature.
• Wenren Sheng concluded that rebirth let the World Will test a person’s traits, while game-like worlds could reload but left their inhabitants careless about consequences.

Wenren Sheng observed the reborn Pirate Captain imposing order through cruelty and the reborn Ye Linxiao struggling to build a moral community in the raft world. Ye Linxiao decided to take over a vast Sea Island Raft, while Wenren Sheng watched him repeat the path of building power by seizing another's foundation.

• The Pirate Captain continued training his pirates through cruelty, while Wenren Sheng concluded that the method could produce temporary order but depended on the unreliable Little Illusion model.
• Wenren Sheng discovered that Ye Linxiao had been reborn three times and saw how Ye Linxiao's moral principles had repeatedly endangered his survival.
• Ye Linxiao gathered loyal subordinates, expanded his raft, and was defeated by the Pirate Captain after internal traitors joined the attack.
• Ye Linxiao asked where he could find a Zhuge, and Zhuge Guozhi proposed taking over a huge Sea Island Raft to the west.
• Ye Linxiao agreed to pursue the Sea Island Raft, reasoning that he could give its people a moral place to live afterward.

Ye Lingxiao rose from department manager to general manager of Sea Island Raft Company, expanding its territory while resisting calls to betray Little Illusion. As his power and family grew, his followers maneuvered him onto a Dragon Throne and dressed him as emperor, and the Pirate Captain learned of his transformation.

• Ye Lingxiao became Sea Island Raft Company's vice president and rejected Zhuge Guozhi's proposal to seize control from Little Illusion.
• Little Illusion appointed Ye Lingxiao general manager after dismissing his appeals to unify the world, and he led the company to conquer territory and gather more people.
• Ye Lingxiao's power and ambitions grew as followers urged him to rebel and pass the expanding enterprise to his children, but he refused to betray the boss.
• Ye Lingxiao's subordinates brought him a makeshift Dragon Throne and insisted he proclaim himself emperor, then lifted him onto it and put a Dragon Robe on him.
• The Pirate Captain heard the news and warned his people to be wary of Ye Lingxiao, whom he compared to an undiscovered Yue Buqun.

After Ye Lingxiao violated his contract and was expelled from Raft Sea Island, he warned its people about a force of raiders arriving through a whirlpool. The villagers retreated behind the city walls as the newcomers looted an empty village and advanced toward a larger one.

• Wenren Sheng had Little Illusion enforce the contract, stripping Ye Lingxiao of his gains and expelling him from the company and Raft Sea Island.
• Ye Lingxiao left with his loyal followers, realized his former supporters had used him, and discovered that no rebirth came when he tried to start over.
• A whirlpool brought a force of men and horses from the world of Mount & Blade, and its leader ordered his troops to seize the land and enslave its people.
• Ye Lingxiao warned the islanders about the raiders despite their distrust, and Little Illusion ordered the villagers to retreat behind the city walls.
• The raiders looted an abandoned village for supplies, found no people to capture, and marched toward a larger village.

Little Illusion’s guards defeated a Da Qian force and unlocked Mount & Blade attributes, while Pirate Captain was captured after trying to gain the same template and later joined Lord Locke. Wenren Sheng watched him enter the mounted world and considered whether the world was conscious as it began expanding its influence.

• Little Illusion’s thousand armored guards defeated General Luo Zeqing’s two hundred soldiers after she knocked him unconscious with an arrow, and the guards gained Mount & Blade data panels with Hero NPC traits.
• Pirate Captain tried to unlock his template by attacking a village Guard Team, but reinforcements captured him and he remained imprisoned until mounted-world forces rescued him.
• Pirate Captain joined Lord Locke’s organization, pledged loyalty to King Ha Lao Si, and entered the mounted world through the Great Vortex with Locke.
• Wenren Sheng reasoned that a world’s strength depended on the attention it received and considered whether the Raft World and the mounted world possessed consciousness.
• Wenren Sheng observed Pirate Captain robbing people, recruiting soldiers, and discovering the Surgery skill in the mounted world.

Wenren Sheng watched Raft World and Mount & Blade compete as their worlds began to merge, with the Pirate Captain using rafts and naval tactics to gain an edge. Mount & Blade initially won people over with its system, but Raft World drew most commoners away to safer islands, leaving its lords with emptied villages.

• Wenren Sheng observed the Pirate Captain adapt to Mount & Blade, using waterways, rafts, and offshore bases to transport supplies and escape danger.
• Wenren Sheng realized Mount & Blade appealed to people with its system and Hero-level status, while Raft World's synthesizer offered fewer advantages beyond the water.
• As the worlds merged, Raft World became a sea within Calradia, and displaced farmers built rafts to reach its islands and escape plunder and forced labor.
• Raft World attracted nearly eighty percent of Mount & Blade's lower-class commoners, leaving the lords to find their villages deserted.
• Wenren Sheng considered how Raft World had prevailed by taking Mount & Blade's people, and compared the outcome to people fleeing Qin's harsh rule.

Wenren Sheng watched Raft World defeat Mount & Blade World and fuse with it, then turned to a historical world to observe Yu Qian’s execution after Emperor Yingzong’s restoration. As the condemned officials faced death, Wenren Sheng’s indignation stirred the heavens and terrified everyone at the execution ground.

• Raft World’s commoners escaped Mount & Blade World’s sea bans, and their migration helped Raft World overcome its rival as the worlds merged into a new maritime world.
• Wenren Sheng understood how Raft World had used its pieces to win and received the incomplete Secret of World Fusion, then chose to observe historical worlds in a new mode.
• In Jingtai 8th Year, Shi Heng and Cao Jixiang seized power, Emperor Yingzong Zhu Qizhen returned to the throne, and Yu Qian and others were sentenced for treason.
• Wenren Sheng felt indignation at Yu Qian’s execution and changed the weather above the drill ground, frightening the onlookers and executioners.

As Yu Qian faced execution, ominous weather and lightning struck down the execution supervisor, Xu Youzhen, and Cao Jixiang, while reports spread that Jingtai Emperor had returned from the dead. Ming Emperor Yingzong and his court were left in chaos as Jingtai Emperor headed toward the Imperial Palace.

• Dark clouds and fierce winds gathered over the execution ground as thousands of commoners mourned Yu Qian and condemned his sentence.
• Xu Youzhen ordered the execution, but Fan Guang cried out against the injustice as heavy snow began to fall.
• Ming Emperor Yingzong rejected a minister’s plea to delay the execution, then a thunderbolt struck the Imperial Court.
• The execution supervisor, Xu Youzhen, Cao Jixiang, and people searching the condemned officials’ homes were struck by lightning, while the capital’s residents celebrated Heaven’s apparent judgment.
• The Minister of Rites urged Ming Emperor Yingzong to repent, and frightened officials struggled to explain the supernatural events.
• Reports announced that Jingtai Emperor had come back to life and was walking toward the Imperial Palace.

The resurrected Jingtai Emperor reclaimed the throne after Wenren Sheng’s thunderbolts forced Ming Emperor Yingzong to abdicate, then received Heaven’s favor and ascended after a century of rule. The promise of divine rewards transformed later rulers and officials, leaving a minister eager to earn a high position in Heaven through frontier achievements.

• The Jingtai Emperor confronted Ming Emperor Yingzong in the grand hall, and Wenren Sheng’s lightning struck around the throne until Yingzong abdicated.
• The Jingtai Emperor took the throne, and a eunuch reported that Yingzong had drowned in a latrine while changing clothes; Empress Dowager Sun collapsed after hearing the news.
• Wenren Sheng continued striking corrupt officials with lightning until the ministers accepted the Jingtai Emperor’s restoration, and the thunder stopped after the Emperor prayed at the Temple of Heaven.
• A hundred years later, the Jingtai Emperor ascended to Heaven, joining ministers and generals who had earned divine investiture through their achievements.
• A later Minister of Personnel saw his great-grandfather speaking with the immortal Jingtai Emperor through incense and resolved to pursue frontier achievements so he could earn a better divine office.

The Minister of Personnel, the Minister of War, and the Minister of Works plotted an eastward expansion to earn divine appointments, deciding East Hundred was their best target. They agreed that conquering it would be easy, but annexing its people without draining Great Ming’s resources would be difficult.

• The Minister of Personnel met the Ministers of War and Works at Flying Swallow Tower to discuss using Great Ming’s accumulated silver and military strength for a new expansion.
• The three ministers agreed to cooperate in pursuit of divine appointments, while recognizing that competition for the highest honors could emerge as their campaign neared success.
• The owner of Flying Swallow Tower sent a carrier-pigeon message reporting that three ministers were secretly plotting an Investiture of the Gods, prompting officials and commanders across the empire to mobilize.
• The ministers ruled out further western expansion and identified East Hundred as the remaining eastern target, despite its long obedience to Great Ming.
• The Minister of War warned that although Great Ming could defeat East Hundred, incorporating its tens of millions of people could become a costly, prolonged burden.

The three Ming ministers planned to absorb East Hundred by simplifying Chinese characters, using a pirate invasion as an excuse to send troops, and winning over the people with high-yield crops and generous soldiers. Great Ming’s army entered East Hundred and gradually gained support, while officials and commoners debated annexation and the promised Investiture of the Gods.

• The Ministers of Works, War, and Personnel agreed to simplify Chinese characters and use Roman letters to make literacy easier to spread.
• The Minister of War proposed provoking the Dwarf Pirates into attacking East Hundred, then annexing the country under the pretext of rescuing it.
• The Minister of Personnel revealed that Sweet Potatoes and Potatoes could grow in poor soil and produce abundant food.
• Six months later, the Dwarf Pirates invaded East Hundred, and Great Ming sent a large army that taught Chinese, distributed Sweet Potatoes, and helped villagers.
• Great Ming soldiers won popular support through their conduct and pay as East Hundred’s territory gradually fell under Ming control.
• Some East Hundred people resisted integration, arguing that their country had been independent for centuries and that joining Great Ming would not let them attain godhood in their own lifetimes.

Four East Hundred envoys reached Great Ming’s capital and pleaded with the Emperor to withdraw his troops, but he dismissed their appeal while his ministers justified Great Ming’s expansion. Over the following years, East Hundred’s gentry submitted, and Great Ming prepared to occupy its capital after securing the surrounding lands.

• East Hundred’s ministers resisted Great Ming’s expansion, but its officials and gentry backed the campaign in hopes of earning a place in the Investiture of the Gods.
• After a perilous journey that reduced their delegation of 360 to four, the East Hundred envoys arrived in Great Ming’s capital and waited months for an audience.
• The East Hundred envoy accused Great Ming’s soldiers of occupying his country, but the Minister of Rites defended the troops and the Emperor ordered an investigation before dismissing him.
• Over the next several years, East Hundred’s people and gentry gradually accepted Great Ming’s rule, while loyal ministers spread rumors and blamed Great Ming troops for local violence.
• After Great Ming secured the surrounding lands and won over East Hundred’s court, its troops entered the capital to take control.

Great Ming forces met Xiao Xi Zhengzong’s Dwarf Pirates at Pingcheng Road and defeated their probing army with disciplined artillery, ranged weapons, and cavalry. Xiao Xi escaped with his elite men, while his remaining troops were killed or scattered, and the Ming Deputy General recognized the Dwarf Pirates as formidable enemies.

• East Hundred wavered between Great Ming and the Dwarf Pirates as both sides reinforced their armies.
• Xiao Xi Zhengzong sent eight thousand men to probe the Ming force at Pingcheng Road, where the Deputy General arranged a Chariot Formation.
• Great Ming artillery and volleys of arrows disrupted the Dwarf Pirate advance, while Xiao Xi’s cannon fire failed to break the Ming formation.
• The Deputy General sent cavalry around the Dwarf Pirates and used infantry, Matchlock Gunners, archers, and Thunder Crash Bombs to drive them back.
• Xiao Xi fled with more than four hundred elite men and left Samurai to cover his retreat, after which Great Ming routed the remaining army.
• The Deputy General called the Dwarf Pirates formidable enemies after Xiao Xi’s army collapsed.

Great Ming conquered East Hundred and invested eighty-one people with godhood, transforming its rulers and driving the empire to modernize and expand. After Wenren Sheng left a program to reward good and punish evil, Old Liu reported that a powerful immortal had arrived in the East Continent Great World and demanded its people serve him.

• The Great Ming Deputy General led a charge against the routed Dwarf Pirates, and Great Ming eventually defeated East Hundred after ten years of war.
• The Emperor and ministers prayed at the Temple of Heaven, where Heaven bestowed godhood on eighty-one people, including the Emperor and the Minister of Revenue.
• Great Ming’s Investiture of the Gods encouraged ambition, reform, technological adoption, and further territorial expansion.
• Wenren Sheng left a program in Great Ming’s world to reward the good and punish the wicked, then considered strengthening the Seed of Mystery.
• Old Liu urgently told Wenren Sheng that an immortal had arrived and demanded that all of Eastern Continent worship him and assist his cultivation.
• Wenren Sheng inferred that the immortal came from a stronger world, explaining why the Otherworldly Users could not defeat him.

Wenren Sheng confronted an apparent immortal threatening East Continent Starbase and exposed him as a chubby shut-in from another world using faith-powered projections. The man was captured and interrogated, where he claimed he had targeted East Continent because of information he found online and a mistaken account of its history.

• Wenren Sheng traveled with his cousin to East Continent Starbase after Old Liu warned him that an immortal was demanding the world’s submission.
• Mogao Shangren threatened the planet’s people with destruction and mocked them as potential slaves, prompting Wenren Sheng to intervene.
• Wenren Sheng erased the giant hand holding the planet and dragged Mogao Shangren’s real body into space, revealing him as a chubby shut-in.
• The warships captured the man, and the Otherworldly Users interrogated him about his faith-based Esper ability and his plan to conquer East Continent.
• The man said he had found East Continent’s coordinates on an Esper network and had come because his research suggested its people had repeatedly submitted to foreign powers.

Wenren Sheng questioned the Special Operations Group after discovering that its agents had used the Eastern Continent World as bait to track the fat man. The agents apologized and explained how they had found him, while the fat man remained in Wenren Sheng’s custody.

• The fat man failed to intimidate the people of the Eastern Continent World and gradually let down his guard as they praised Wenren Sheng and befriended him.
• Wenren Sheng projected an avatar into the fat man’s world and found three Special Operations Group agents searching the fat man’s apartment.
• The agents discovered the fat man was missing and found his computer displaying the Eastern Continent World, along with clues about his ability and habits.
• Wenren Sheng revealed himself to the agents and challenged them for using his world as bait.
• Captain explained that the Special Operations Group had tracked the fat man through its Fishing X Forum, apologized for the consequences, and promised compensation.
• Wenren Sheng heard the agents’ explanation and said he would reserve judgment for now.

Wenren Sheng watched the Special Operations Group and the Han family scheme to capture him for his supposed power to grant longevity. Ten days later, a woman approached him in a library, and he immediately saw through her past and future.

• The three members of the Special Operations Group reported Wenren Sheng to the city’s administrators, who debated how to handle him.
• Administrator B decided to use a contract ability and the Han family as a White Glove to capture Wenren Sheng, while the Captain feared the plan would end badly.
• The Han family head and his sons planned to lure Wenren Sheng into marriage, while arranging for the eldest son to avoid responsibility.
• Ten days later, a woman in a white dress approached Wenren Sheng as he read in a library.
• Wenren Sheng saw the woman’s causes, past, and future with a single glance.

Wenren Sheng punished the Han family for trying to manipulate him, then met the Ability Core, the consciousness behind the world's supernatural powers. The Ability Core proposed an alliance to merge worlds, while Wenren Sheng said he might agree if it let him study it.

• Wenren Sheng rejected the woman in white, who left her contact information before reporting to the Han family that he was uninterested in women.
• The Han family planned to send a handsome man to approach Wenren Sheng, so he altered the world's underlying code and erased their bloodline abilities.
• Wenren Sheng sensed resistance and entered a mysterious space, where he met the Ability Core, the source of the world's supernatural powers and its consciousness.
• The Ability Core proposed that Wenren Sheng join it in conquering and merging other worlds, offering him wealth, status, immortality, and other rewards.
• Wenren Sheng rejected those offers and said he might cooperate if the Ability Core let him study it.

Wenren Sheng traded with the Ability Core for secrets and agreed to help it attack a dangerous Small World filled with technologically engineered demons. After Wenren Sheng doubled the Ability Core’s power, the Demon Monster World contacted him and tried to recruit him instead.

• The Ability Core revealed that it had encountered a protected world centered on a Death Book and offered Wenren Sheng a secret about how it granted abilities to Ordinary Persons.
• Wenren Sheng accepted the Ability Core’s proposal to help it take a Small World, correcting its language to describe the venture as a friendly exchange of knowledge and power.
• The Ability Core explained that the Small World contained countless monsters, advanced technology, and dangerous experiments that created technological demons.
• Wenren Sheng entered the void and blessed the Ability Core, doubling its power.
• The Demon Monster World contacted Wenren Sheng, criticized the Ability Core, and tried to recruit him by describing its demon-organ transplant experiments.