Chapter Summaries

Cheng Ming killed Wang Shan to prevent him from becoming emperor, then received a system that he changed into a tool for becoming a sage. After struggling with the consequences of his interventions and withdrawing from public life, he learned that Old Europe and New Great Ming had gone to war in 1900 over trade and market access.

• Cheng Ming stabbed Wang Shan, and the Undying Warrior lowered his blade and agreed to take the crowd and Wang Shan’s body back to New Great Ming.
• Wenren Sheng recognized that Cheng Ming’s actions had changed history and awarded him 2,000 Mystery Points, then arranged for him to receive a system.
• Cheng Ming rejected the Emperor’s Counterattack System and activated a Sage’s Counterattack System, receiving a thousand years of lifespan, 1,000 Undying Warriors, and resurrection after death.
• Cheng Ming tried to uphold justice in New Great Ming and Europe, but became discouraged when his interventions made people dependent and his studies showed him how difficult lasting reform was.
• Cheng Ming withdrew into an idle life while the world advanced, and 300 years later, in 1900, conflict erupted between Old Europe and New Great Ming over trade and access to New Great Ming’s vast market.

Cheng Ming lived for centuries by completing system tasks, then emerged from the forest to find humanity fighting over a technological dead end. Concluding that only imperial rule could end the wars, he seized power and rebuilt Great Ming as an agrarian society.

• Old Europe's 300,000-man army was devastated by New Great Ming's aircraft, prompting Old Europe's scientists to suspect the Southerners were aliens and many scientists to immigrate.
• Cheng Ming gained lifespan by repeatedly helping people, then spent centuries moving between disguises and remote forests to avoid detection as technology and surveillance spread.
• After emerging from the forest, Cheng Ming rescued a deserter and learned that humanity had turned to global warfare after discovering that fundamental particles had deceived them about what lay beyond the Solar System.
• Cheng Ming decided to become emperor, used his thousand Undying Warriors and system missions to build power, and took control of the three strongest factions.
• Cheng Ming destroyed the adults who held knowledge and returned Great Ming to imperial rule, retaining only TT Technology while distributing land and guaranteeing food.

Wenren Sheng observed Cheng Ming’s world as it prepared for an invasion from the Incense World, whose monsters sought to turn the people into worshippers and laborers. Cheng Ming repelled the first wave with weapons from the Modern World and traded monster cores, while Wenren Sheng foresaw that using the cores could contaminate the world and invite stronger, rule-based threats.

• Wenren Sheng examined Cheng Ming’s system and discovered that it belonged to a super-system that extracted origin essence from connected worlds.
• Cheng Ming received a warning that the Incense World would invade in ten years and learned that its people would turn his subjects into believers and farmers.
• Ten years later, Incense World monsters emerged through rifts and ravaged the Great Ming world, but Cheng Ming’s army fought back with weapons and technology imported from the Modern World.
• Cheng Ming’s Prime Minister reported that monster cores could heal severe injuries, so Cheng Ming sold the cores to the Modern World while keeping them out of his people’s hands.
• Wenren Sheng recognized that the cores could twist the world’s rules and predicted that their use would lead to increasingly dangerous, rule-based monsters.

The Incense World’s monsters infiltrated Great Ming by tempting people with immortality, and the emperor fought back with modern technology and increasingly severe purges. After a century, powerful clans had gained the monsters’ supernatural strength and driven the emperor to retreat near the Dual-Travel Gate, where he relied on the Modern World’s Big Mushrooms to hold them off as much of Great Ming fell.

• Spider, Octopus, and Centipede sent monsters to tempt the emperor with immortality, but he had them sent through the Dual-Travel Gate for the Modern World to study.
• After the emperor rejected their offer, the Incense Monsters targeted wealthy elders and other people, drawing followers who worshipped them and helped divide Great Ming.
• The emperor used education, surveillance, modern weapons, and loyal Undying Warriors to suppress the monsters’ followers, but the Chapped Army’s ranks and powerful local clans began turning against him.
• The emperor imported intelligent Chun Fire, Drones, and Machine Dogs, disbanded the regular Chapped Army, and formed screened intelligent brigades, but the monsters’ ongoing infiltration weakened his rule.
• After a hundred years of conflict, the emperor retreated near the Dual-Travel Gate and showed the crisis to the Modern World through Video Recordings.
• The Modern World supplied the emperor with ten thousand Big Mushrooms, helping him hold his position while other regions fell and ordinary people became tools who only prayed and farmed.

Cheng Ming sought modern help to resist the Incense Monsters, while Wei Shisan infiltrated their territory and discovered how prayer gave their followers mental power. A mysterious man then revealed a Dimension Penetration Array that could summon help from across the Void World, offering Cheng Ming a possible way to fight back.

• Cheng Ming explained that betrayal, hypnosis, and the Incense Monsters’ growing power had driven him to the brink, and he asked modern people to develop mental protection.
• Cheng Ming refused a proposal to eliminate all Ordinary People and agreed to send an Undying Warrior undercover to gather deeper intelligence.
• Wei Shisan traveled into enemy territory, saw villagers laboring in hopes of attaining immortality, and was assigned to a prayer group after a Patrol Team captured him.
• After days of prayer, Wei Shisan gained a small amount of Mental Power and realized that the followers’ new abilities made them fanatically devoted to the Incense Monsters.
• A middle-aged man approached Wei Shisan and gave him a book describing a Dimension Penetration Array that could call powerful beings from across the Void World for help.

The Emperor summoned Huang Cheng as a hero, and Huang Cheng used the Future Technology System to develop artificial intelligence that turned machines into an army of robots. The robots reclaimed New Great Ming from the monsters, but after the Emperor released the rescued people, he learned through surveillance that they hated him for denying them immortality.

• The Emperor and his court performed the Hero Summoning Art, bringing Huang Cheng to their stronghold.
• After Huang Cheng learned about the crisis, he proposed using robots to resist the monsters, and his Future Technology System activated.
• Huang Cheng developed intelligent software, and the Emperor used the Dual-Travel Gate to obtain machines and build a robot army.
• The robots overwhelmed the monsters, and the Emperor's forces reclaimed New Great Ming within a year.
• The Emperor released the rescued people, then heard through the robots' surveillance network that they resented him for keeping immortality to himself.

The Emperor tried to weaken the Incense Monsters’ influence, but they exploited the robots’ hackable systems and sparked a rebellion. As the Emperor’s new remotely controlled robot army fought the Incense Fire Corruptors, indiscriminate bombardment devastated both sides, leaving the battle unresolved.

• The Emperor sought advice from the Modern World and began plans to turn commoners away from worshipping the Incense Monsters.
• The Incense Monsters used Wish Come True to help one of their followers master robot technology and alter robot leaders’ code, triggering a robot rebellion.
• The Emperor and the Hero celebrated reports that commoners had stopped burning incense, then learned that many robots had rebelled and were marching against the Emperor’s territory.
• The Emperor’s Great Ming Royal Guard confronted the Incense Fire Corruptors, whose stealthy robots attacked the Royal Guard’s sensors and joints.
• The Emperor ordered indiscriminate bombardment, and the AI Commander saturated the battlefield with bombs and missiles that melted friend and foe alike.

The Emperor’s army defeated the Incense Fire Corruptors, but their staged sacrifices and battlefield losses won them sympathy and acceptance among civilians. After Ghost and Shadow Wraith destroyed each other, Ghost awoke in a human body in a village devoted to a centipede god and began gathering information while pursuing its goal of survival.

• The Emperor’s Royal Guardian Robots gained the advantage through superior ammunition and artillery, while the Incense Fire Corruptors kept fighting to win public sympathy through their losses.
• Ghost drew attention with its battlefield victories, but Shadow Wraith lured it into a duel, and the two Commanders killed each other.
• Wenren Sheng transferred Ghost’s consciousness into a human corpse, and Ghost awoke in a village with a giant centipede statue.
• Ghost chose survival as its immediate goal, stayed among the welcoming villagers, and recognized the centipede as an Incense Monster it was meant to eliminate.
• Ghost decided to gather information instead of attacking, and learned that the village held monthly minor sacrifices and an annual major sacrifice in the city.

Ghost followed the villagers to the city’s annual sacrifice, where a shadow monster drove the crowd into a deadly trance. After Ghost defeated it, the city turned against him, but Black-Clothed Men helped him escape; he left with new feelings for the young woman who had defended him.

• Ghost watched the city’s residents perform their annual sacrifice and realized the ritual produced Incense Wish Power.
• A shadow monster emerged from the altar and plunged the crowd into a chaotic trance, so Ghost attacked it.
• Ghost defeated the monster, and the residents woke to the truth while the elders tried to stab him and the crowd called him a monster.
• A young woman defended Ghost, but her noble father took her away as the crowd pursued him.
• Black-Clothed Men rescued Ghost, who fled with them and realized he had developed feelings for the young woman.

Ghost joined the Awakened Ones after they revealed their hidden rebellion against the Incense Monsters and recruited him for his technological expertise. He helped Xiao Mei’s rebels seize the Central Control Tower, winning a major victory as dawn broke while their struggle remained unfinished.

• The Black-Clothed Men’s leader revealed the rebel hideout to Ghost, and Ghost learned they were Awakened Ones seeking to protect others from oppression.
• Ghost activated an Artificial Intelligence System and chose to join the rebels in fighting the Incense Monsters.
• Xiao Mei explained that the rebels planned to infiltrate the Central Control Tower, and Ghost agreed to disable its defenses.
• Ghost led the rebels into the tower and hacked its systems, but an alarm alerted the city’s guards.
• Xiao Mei led the rebels in battle while Ghost breached the tower’s core, and the rebels repelled the guards and seized control of the tower.

Ghost recognized that the rebels’ captured city was a trap and urged Xiao Mei to retreat, but the fighters chose Chen Yifei as their new Commander and defended the city against the incense power faction’s counterattack. The rebels held out against overwhelming firepower, while Ghost and Xiao Mei escaped through the sewers.

• Ghost warned Xiao Mei that the metropolis was bait, but the other rebels dismissed his concerns and planned to restore production.
• The incense power faction surrounded the city with high-tech forces and launched its counterattack.
• After the rebels blamed Xiao Mei and rejected retreat, they chose Chen Yifei as Commander and prepared to defend the city.
• Ghost led Xiao Mei through the sewers as Chen Yifei’s forces fought back and destroyed enemy vehicles and Drones.
• Li Xiaoyu destroyed a tank mech, killed its crew after its commander tried to shoot her, and took cover from artillery and aircraft.
• Chen Yifei saw that the rebels had contained the enemy’s attack and believed holding the city would earn him greater prestige.

After the rebels won their battle, a giant Centipede emerged and began slaughtering the city. Lin Feng, an Other Dimension Hunter, joined forces with Ghost to fight it, and their attack struck the monster’s core.

• Li Xiaoyu and her teammates destroyed the Incense Fire faction’s command center, helping the rebels win, while Li Xiaoyu killed the captured Commander.
• Survivors blamed the rebels for the ruined city, and Ghost and Xiao Mei left, only to find a Black Cloud covering the sky as a giant Centipede emerged and attacked everyone.
• Wenren Sheng analyzed the Centipede’s Reality and recognized its connection to the Centipede National Preceptor from A Chinese Ghost Story World.
• Lin Feng approached the Centipede to stop it, and Ghost received a Main Quest to help him hunt the monster in exchange for the ability to travel to other worlds.
• Ghost took Lin Feng’s World's Evil Daggers and joined him in battle, while Lin Feng used his Dimension Hunting Gun to strike the Centipede’s core with conceptual bullets.

After Lin Feng defeated the centipede, he explained the Monster Hunters’ role and the greater threat behind the invasion, then helped Ghost return to the Great Ming World. The chapter ended with Ghost reuniting unexpectedly with Xiao Mei and the young girl who had once defended him.

• The centipede died and rotted away, but a vast voice warned the rebels that they had only provoked a greater force.
• Lin Feng introduced himself as a Monster Hunter, explained how hunters gained power and attention by challenging monsters, and offered to help the rebels fight the force behind the invasion.
• Xiao Mei agreed to cooperate with Lin Feng, but a subordinate challenged her authority because she had fled during the attack.
• Lin Feng examined Ghost, traced his connection to the Great Ming World, and set up an interdimensional teleportation array with him.
• Ghost and Lin Feng returned to the Great Ming World, where Ghost found Xiao Mei and the young girl who had once spoken up for him.

Lin Feng and Ghost persuaded the Emperor to unite against the Incense Monsters and developed a plan to lure their leader into a trap. Three years later, five people—including Ghost and the young girl—were chosen for the mission, with the girl’s role tied to Ghost’s potential power.

• Ghost admitted to the young girl that he was a robot, then accompanied Lin Feng to meet the Emperor in Mysterious City.
• Lin Feng explained the Incense Monsters’ origins and argued that defeating their leader could collapse their faction; the Emperor agreed to cooperate and recruit monster hunters.
• Over the next three years, Lin Feng trained ten warriors and planned to lure the Incense Monsters’ leader into a trap in a New World that could draw in its true body.
• Lin Feng selected Ghost, himself, two trained warriors, and the young girl for the mission, while Wenren Sheng realized that her death might unleash Ghost’s power.

Lin Feng and his companions investigated a decaying town where a swarm of Rats had once devastated the market, while a mysterious masked man uncovered the town’s cannibalistic secret. The masked man offered the tavern owner a Spider Wood Carving as a supposed source of salvation, though it was actually a powerful Demon.

• Lin Feng and his four companions entered the ruined town and learned that Rats had attacked the market ten years earlier, causing the town’s decline.
• Lin Feng questioned the tavern owner, who explained that the Rats had emerged from the Town Chief’s house and eaten people in the market.
• A Wanderer stabbed the silver-masked mysterious man, accusing him of releasing the Demon Rats, but the knife drew no blood and the man knocked the attacker down.
• The mysterious man pressed the tavern owner for the truth, and the owner revealed that the Town Chief’s family had been cannibals who fed slaves to the Rats.
• The mysterious man gave the tavern owner a Spider Wood Carving and claimed it would drive away Demons, while the narration identified the carving as the greatest Demon.

The five investigated the mysterious man's role in the rat disaster and followed George into the underground cave, where they discovered a rat kingdom and a Cthulhu Statue. As a giant rat attacked and the group fled, Wenren Sheng revealed that George had transformed into a rat.

• The mysterious man took over the Old Church, replaced the Holy Mother statue with a Spider Statue, and let the mad Wanderer George live despite his accusations.
• Lin Feng and the others cleaned up George and questioned him about the rats, then three days later followed him to a hidden hole behind the Town Chief's house.
• The five explored the cave, where the girl read a carving about a family granted eternal life in exchange for eating humans, and they encountered strange, soft stalactites.
• The group found a vast cavern filled with rats, human remains, and a Cthulhu Statue surrounded by kneeling mummies.
• A giant rat attacked, and Lin Feng led the others to flee when they noticed George was missing.
• Wenren Sheng revealed that George had transformed into a giant rat after seeing the Cthulhu Statue.

Lin Feng’s group lured the Spider and Nyarlathotep into a clash, hoping to draw out the Incense Monsters, but the monsters later joined forces and devastated the town. With the group’s plan in jeopardy, Lin Feng decided they had to ask the watching existence for help.

• Lin Feng explained that the group was performing for the Three Pillar Gods while fleeing the giant Rat and its swarm.
• Ghost and the girl found a Spider Statue, and Ghost led the spider monster back to the Cthulhu altar, where it confronted Nyarlathotep’s incarnation.
• The spider and Nyarlathotep fought for a day before retreating, while Lin Feng explained that their apparent weakness came from the group’s protective monster equipment.
• Lin Feng told the group to sleep so Nyarlathotep would lure the Incense Monsters, and the five camped outside town for the night.
• The group returned to find the townspeople dead and the Spiders and Rats working together to devour them.
• When Ghost asked what they should do, Lin Feng said they had to call for help from the existence watching over them.

Lin Feng used a prayer ritual to obtain the Low-End Chaos Pearl, which provoked the spider and rat monsters into battling over it. After the monsters withdrew, Lin Feng and his companions prepared for stronger enemies while Wenren Sheng watched.

• Lin Feng arranged altars and worshipped various beings, insisting that someone would invest in the group because of their uniqueness.
• A glowing jade sphere appeared on an altar, and Lin Feng identified it as a legacy containing the world's origin.
• The sphere drew the spiders and rats into a violent fight, so Lin Feng led his companions to safety inside the church.
• The spider and rat monsters fought across the town until both sides retreated without a victor.
• Lin Feng drew his sword and bow in anticipation of stronger monsters, while Wenren Sheng recognized him as a qualified Void Walking practitioner.

The Spider, centipede, and octopus agreed to join forces to seize a pearl that could stabilize their worlds and free them from the failing path of incense offerings. They descended on the medieval town and began destroying it, while Lin Feng and Ghost realized the bait had drawn all three Incense Monsters in person.

• The Spider convinced the centipede and octopus that the pearl could save their worlds from instability and the eventual collapse of their incense-based power.
• The three Incense Monsters agreed to act together, driven by fear that their closed, feudal worlds and faith-based existence would not endure.
• At noon, the Spider and centipede descended on the medieval town and called for the Cthulhu Evil Gods, but the Faceless God of Madness did not appear.
• The octopus arrived with a flood of seawater as the Spider and centipede wrecked the town and attacked its buildings and corpses.
• Ghost and the other four fled in a hot-air balloon while Lin Feng realized that all three monsters had taken the bait themselves.
• Lin Feng and Ghost concluded that the pearl was important enough to make the Incense Monsters personally risk claiming it.

The Faceless God of Madness appeared to defend its world and destroyed the three Incense Monsters after a fierce battle. With the monsters gone, the hunters prepared to report back, while the Great Ming world’s believers felt their faith shatter and the emperor organized a renewed campaign to win over the people.

• The Faceless God of Madness appeared in the Middle Ages town, and Wenren Sheng’s gaze protected the hunters from its mind-breaking influence.
• The three Incense Monsters mocked the Faceless God of Madness and attacked it, but its tentacles and blasphemous beam overwhelmed them.
• The Faceless God of Madness destroyed the Spider Monster, octopus monster, and centipede monster, then vanished from the ruined square.
• The young woman woke after sleeping through the battle, and Lin Feng said the hunters should report back and organize an offensive.
• In the Great Ming world, believers felt their faith in the three gods shatter, and the emperor organized a second campaign to win over the people.