Chapter Summaries

Xi Ye set out for the imperial capital to confront the unknown lord before the world could be eroded, while Yu Nv Wu Gua and Lokes prepared for war. The chapter ended when Lokes lost control and stabbed Yu Nv Wu Gua in the chest.

• Xi Ye decided to risk traveling to the imperial capital and learned the closest Teleportation Point was three days away.
• Lokes returned to his estate and told Yu Nv Wu Gua that he had arranged to mobilize the four Border Armies.
• Lokes urged Yu Nv Wu Gua to flee south with her child, but she refused and said their safety depended on him.
• Lokes and Yu Nv Wu Gua discussed how he had mobilized the armies without his marshal's seal, and Lokes privately considered his feelings for her.
• Lokes's battle aura and body suddenly fell out of his control, and he stabbed Yu Nv Wu Gua as an Elf Player watched helplessly.

Yu Nv Wu Gua appeared to be killed by Lokes, but the players discovered that he had struck an Arcane Mirror Image while the real Yu Nv Wu Gua remained safe. The ancient soul possessing Lokes was subdued, and the white-haired boy in the dark palace learned that the assassination had failed.

• Lokes stabbed Yu Nv Wu Gua with a Netherworld metal weapon, and her apparent death left the Elf Players in despair.
• Two Elf Players overwhelmed Lokes, but the ancient soul inside him taunted them and claimed Yu Nv Wu Gua could not be saved.
• The real Yu Nv Wu Gua appeared after her Arcane Mirror Image shattered, revealing that she had used the decoy while speaking with Lokes.
• The ancient soul in Lokes offered Yu Nv Wu Gua a job after killing her lord, and she cheerfully agreed before Lokes passed out.
• The white-haired boy in a dark palace regained his awareness and told his undead subordinates that the assassination had failed.

A mysterious boy delayed confronting a new lord’s faction while preparing a blood sacrifice and an array ritual. Meanwhile, Pu Yunchuan learned that Liu Xincheng feared Isabelle had been abducted by Liu Kai and the others, then discovered the police had arrived at his door.

• The boy asked about the Beastmen and Alice, then ordered preparations to continue while postponing action against the mysterious force for another day.
• Pu Yunchuan’s mother called to celebrate winning at mahjong and urged him to take Isabelle shopping for clothes and have a mixed-race baby.
• Liu Xincheng visited Pu Yunchuan and said Liu Kai and two others had been missing all day, fearing they had abducted Isabelle and gotten into trouble.
• Pu Yunchuan realized Isabelle could defend herself but worried her actions might affect his mission to stabilize the NPCs.
• The doorbell rang again, and Pu Yunchuan saw the police outside.

Police questioned Pu Yunchuan and Liu Xincheng after three men were found brutally murdered, while investigators struggled to identify the women seen at the crime scene. The case drew public panic and intense media attention, and Director Zhang was left unsettled by Pu Yunchuan’s claim that he had met the woman in the game Star Sea.

• Police questioned Pu Yunchuan and Liu Xincheng about their argument with the three victims and learned that Liu Xincheng’s cousins had planned to kidnap a foreign woman.
• Liu Xincheng identified the woman as Pu Yunchuan’s girlfriend, and Pu Yunchuan said he had met her in the game Star Sea.
• Director Zhang arrived at the Police Station and was surrounded by reporters asking about rumors of an Evil Cult behind the killings.
• Lao Bai showed Director Zhang evidence that a hooded woman had left the victims’ hotel room and explained that neither of the two women had any record of entering the country.
• Lao Bai connected Isabelle to Pu Yunchuan through surveillance footage, then played their interrogation for Director Zhang, who reacted to Pu Yunchuan’s mention of Star Sea.

Alice pressured Isabelle to take her to the civilian home where she first arrived, suspecting Isabelle was hiding information to protect the people caring for her. Meanwhile, Lao Zhang questioned Pu Yunchuan about a woman linked to three deaths and realized she was the NPC brought into reality.

• Alice questioned Isabelle about the organization that connected the two worlds, but Isabelle concealed what she knew about Xim.
• Alice accused Isabelle of protecting the people who had cared for her and ordered her to lead the way to the home where she first arrived.
• Lao Zhang had the surveillance turned off and questioned Pu Yunchuan about the woman connected to the case.
• Lao Zhang revealed that he was also a Green Titan, and Pu Yunchuan admitted the woman was an NPC.
• Lao Zhang recognized Pu Yunchuan as the person who had brought an NPC into reality.

Pu Yunchuan told Director Zhang that Isabelle had appeared in the real world and killed Liu Kai’s group, while the system offered no help. On the New Map, Xi Ye encountered a vast magnetic field that drained color from the world as Swain watched the transformation begin.

• Pu Yunchuan described Isabelle to Director Zhang, who showed him photographs of Liu Kai and the others’ gruesome deaths.
• Pu Yunchuan tried to contact the system, but received an automated message saying it was unavailable.
• Xi Ye discovered that his flying machine could not work, so he rode his strengthened Dragon Horse toward Imperial Avenue.
• Xi Ye’s Dragon Horse stopped as a vast magnetic field spread across the land and turned the surrounding plants gray.
• Swain watched the world lose its color, while the fish in Galen’s tank turned violent and transformed into grotesque predators.

Xi Ye rode through the increasingly mutated landscape and reached Rustar, where soldiers barred desperate civilians from entering. He entered the city unseen and recognized the Black Goat Diagram as a brutal Training Ground that turned mutated creatures into a source of Energy Crystals for a few survivors, then continued toward the imperial capital.

• Xi Ye traveled along Imperial Avenue as the dragon horse grew restless amid the rapidly evolving plants and animals.
• Xi Ye arrived at Rustar and saw soldiers refuse shelter to villagers and mercenaries while driving infected people out.
• Xi Ye concealed himself with arcane magic and entered Rustar through a small gate without stopping to help the civilians.
• Xi Ye realized the Black Goat Diagram mutated plants and animals, while intelligent lifeforms could grow by killing Mutated Creatures and absorbing Energy Crystals.
• Xi Ye judged the Training Ground a means of cultivating a small number of powerful survivors and pressed onward toward the imperial capital to reach Yu Nv Wu Gua and the players.

The Black Goat Diagram’s mutations devastated the Imperial Capital and infected many military officers, who were then ostracized and ordered into isolation. At Lokes’s residence, the generals sought his help, and he asked Lady Ikacio whether she could cure them.

• The Imperial Capital suppressed the mutated creatures, but soldiers who had fought them began undergoing physical changes while retaining their sanity.
• The Gus Family spread panic about the infected, and Mage Families pushed to confine them, deepening conflict between mages and military commanders.
• Enzos and other infected generals visited Lokes and warned that their agitated soldiers might soon erupt against those ostracizing them.
• Lokes saw the officers’ mutations and heard that His Majesty had ordered them isolated while Arcane Mages sought a treatment.
• Lokes asked Lady Ikacio whether she could cure his infected subordinates.

Yu Nv Wu Gua explained that the generals’ increased strength came from absorbing magical energy released by the imperial capital ritual, but warned that too much energy could turn them into mindless monsters. She revealed that the Shadow Stream Organization intended to use successive waves of evolution to train soldiers by making each mutated group the next group’s food.

• Yu Nv Wu Gua told Lokes and the generals that their mutations were a form of evolution caused by magical energy from the creatures they had killed.
• She warned that absorbing too much energy could cause further mutation and eventually destroy their reason.
• A general attacked Yu Nv Wu Gua, but a beautiful woman intervened and dislocated both of his arms with a single move.
• Yu Nv Wu Gua identified the Shadow Stream Organization as the force behind the ritual and said it was meant to train troops.
• Yu Nv Wu Gua explained that the organization would feed one wave of mutated soldiers to the next to drive further evolution.

Emperor Jia Wen considered Shadowflow’s plan to eliminate the old generation and use the Mutated Soldiers to strengthen his rule. Meanwhile, Mortson began transforming in the Imperial camp, and a black hoof emerged from his mouth.

• Dieter Meigen told Jia Wen that Lokes had calmed the Mutated Soldiers and persuaded most generals to accept quarantine.
• After Dieter left, the scarlet-cloaked man urged Jia Wen to kill the old generation and seize the chance to become the true Emperor, and Jia Wen struggled with the temptation.
• Enzos reported that nine infected generals and more than 173,000 soldiers had mostly agreed to quarantine under Lokes’s authority.
• Yu Nv Wu Gua warned Lokes that the situation would not remain stable because the Black Goat Diagram required slaughter and mutation.
• Mortson began vomiting a foul, ink-like substance, and a black hoof thrust out through his mouth.

Mortson transformed into a Black Goat Spawn and attacked the generals in the command room. Lokes failed to wound the monster, but a female general’s golden bow pierced it, revealing that the Steel Empire’s forces possessed powerful weapons.

• Yu Nv Wu Gua identified the black slime as a Black Goat Spawn, the first form of mutation caused by uncontrolled energy.
• Mortson emerged as a towering monster covered in tentacles and mouths, while Yeger muttered that he had warned them not to trust someone.
• Lokes charged Mortson with his greatsword, but his strike barely marked the monster and he was pulled into its flesh.
• Four Elf Players rescued Lokes by grabbing him and using arrows to pull him free.
• A burly female general shot Mortson with a golden bow, blasting a hole in its body, and other generals readied similarly powerful weapons.

After the generals killed the mutated Mortson, Eve explained that she and five others had betrayed their comrades because aging had left them without hope of improving. Yeger’s rapid evolution put Lokes at a disadvantage, while Enzos retreated toward Yu Nv Wu Gua, who recognized his act of shielding her as a performance.

• The generals used Alchemy Weapons to destroy the immobile Black Goat's Son and absorb its energy.
• Eve admitted that she and five other generals had turned against their comrades, driven by despair over their declining strength, and Yeger revealed that Mortson had swallowed the poison intended for Lokes.
• Yeger transformed into a lean, faster fighter and overwhelmed Lokes, shattering his ordinary sword with his Alchemy Weapon.
• Yu Nv Wu Gua sent an Elf Player to help Lokes while another took over Enzos’s fight against Eve.
• Enzos stood in front of Yu Nv Wu Gua and told her to step back, and she called his behavior good acting.

Yu Nv Wu Gua’s group defeated the commanders and discovered that the Green Titans could absorb Black Goat energy without mutating. The white-haired boy grew suspicious of their exceptional genes, then received word that Isabelle had betrayed them and watched a strange scene appear on the green crystal.

• Yu Nv Wu Gua revealed that she did not trust Zornes, and a black-clad Shadow Walker killed Enzos before the commanders retreated.
• The Shadow Walker said the other players were in position, and green figures returned carrying the commanders’ corpses.
• Yu Nv Wu Gua warned that Black Goat energy could mutate their bodies and urged the players to share it as they fought the Black Goat Spawns.
• The white-haired boy observed the battle and was stunned when Dog Bro and the other Green Titans absorbed the energy without changing.
• The white-haired boy asked Keli Su for news about Alice, and Keli Su reported that Isabelle had betrayed them.
• Keli Su placed a tumor-like lump on the green crystal, revealing a bustling world filled with traffic and lights.

Xiu investigated the strange faction’s origins but remained uncertain about its lord’s power. Meanwhile, Jia Wen eliminated Lokes’s allies and empowered his own mutated knights, leaving Lokes to realize the Empire was being driven toward a slaughter.

• Xiu concluded that the civilization shown on the crystal was likely indigenous and ordered one last test before deciding whether to act.
• Lokes learned that Jia Wen had executed thirty-seven recalled generals and summoned him to the palace.
• Yu Nv Wu Gua warned Lokes that entering the palace would get him killed and that his death could trigger a massacre between mutated and uninfected soldiers.
• Yu Nv Wu Gua explained that the mastermind wanted infected soldiers to kill the uninfected so their energy could be absorbed and purified again.
• Jia Wen’s young, mutated generals praised their new strength and pledged loyalty as he anticipated conquering the continent.

Jia Wen persuaded the Mage Family representatives to support his campaign against Lokes by arguing that the infected soldiers could flee and spread the disaster. The mages began to waver, unaware that Jia Wen intended to use them as vessels for the Black Goat’s energy.

• The Mage Family representatives questioned Jia Wen’s decision to execute thirty-four former generals, then watched him enter with two heavily armored knights whose power unnerved them.
• Jia Wen announced that Lokes had rebelled because he had refused a summons to the palace, and asked the mages for help.
• Jia Wen claimed Lokes might take the infected soldiers beyond the capital and warned that they could spread the infection to the mages’ territories.
• The mages considered the danger of the infected soldiers escaping and began to accept that Jia Wen’s harsh actions might be justified.
• Jia Wen saw that the mages were no longer opposing him and considered them useful vessels for absorbing the Black Goat’s energy.

Lokes prepared his Mutated Soldiers to fight their way out of the capital after Jia Wen approved their request, while Yu Nv Wu Gua and Dog Bro debated which gate to use. They chose the South Gate, and Lokes began drawing on his knowledge of the mages’ methods to plan for a possible ambush.

• Lokes ordered his soldiers to prepare for battle, explaining that the fight was about survival rather than the Empire.
• Yu Nv Wu Gua showed Lokes the map and explained that the South Gate offered the safest route to Colunsi, though it was also the likeliest place for an ambush.
• Yu Nv Wu Gua weighed the risks of the gates and routes, but worried that she could not contact the lord for help after they escaped.
• Dog Bro argued that the group should take the South Gate and face the danger in one decisive battle, and Lokes agreed.
• Lokes said he had no experience with magic traps but had learned something about mages’ methods through past cooperation.

Lokes tried to persuade the imperial soldiers to stand down at the South Gate, but Jia Wen rallied them to defend their homeland against the infected. While the speeches bought time, infiltrating players moved to sabotage the magic array, and Shadow confronted a crimson-scaled knight guarding its core.

• Lokes led the infected troops to the South Gate and urged the defenders to stop fighting their former comrades.
• Jia Wen reminded the imperial soldiers that the infection threatened their loved ones, and a Magic Matrix restored their resolve.
• While both sides listened to the speeches, several players infiltrated the city and an Elf Player found the magic array's core.
• Six shadowy figures attacked the mages at the array's core, but a crimson-scaled knight drove them back and wounded Shadow.
• Shadow revealed a severed head that looked like the Gray-robed Mage, while the mage remained unharmed inside the core, startling the knight.

Shadow and the other assassins disabled the Magic Matrix, allowing Lokes's mutated army to charge the city, but Yu Nv Wu Gua grew wary as the battle went too smoothly. Shadow returned alone in a horrifying condition and begged for help.

• Shadow killed the Gray-robed Mage, avoided fighting the knight, and escaped into the shadows.
• Shadow met his companions, who said they had also killed their assigned mages and fled from guards; then he sensed a danger nearby that no one else could see.
• Yu Nv Wu Gua realized the Magic Matrix had gone dark, and Lokes led seventy thousand mutated soldiers in a charge against Jia Wen's forces.
• The mutated soldiers overwhelmed the defenders' formation, and the two armies clashed in a brutal battle.
• Yu Nv Wu Gua questioned why the enemy had not revealed a stronger move, then recognized Shadow returning alone and ordered him stopped.
• Dog Bro halted Shadow and saw his face had become bark-like as Shadow struggled to beg, "Save... me..."

Yu Nv Wu Gua recognized the strange light attacking Ying as the deadly biological weapon Color of the Stars, which then enveloped Dog Bro and began draining him. Meanwhile, Luo Ba Gu Dan’s Gravity Totem pinned Lokes’s soldiers down as Jia Wen prepared to fire on them.

• Dog Bro reached out to help Ying, but Yu Nv Wu Gua warned him to stay back as a strange mass of light attacked him.
• The light wrapped around Dog Bro, entered his body, and caused him to writhe in pain while his body withered.
• Yu Nv Wu Gua recognized the creature as Color of the Stars, a biological weapon that could ignore physical attacks and devour living beings from within.
• Luo Ba Gu Dan’s Gravity Totem appeared above the battlefield and flattened Lokes’s soldiers against the ground.
• Lokes realized the Gravity Magnetic Field would amplify the crossbow volley, and Jia Wen ordered the crossbowmen to fire.

Xi Ye arrived in time to save Dog Bro and capture Color of the Stars, but a mysterious white-haired boy soon appeared, revealing himself as a powerful being who had escaped the realm of death. Xi Ye offered him a chance to leave the planet and never return, leaving the boy stunned by the proposal.

• A white-haired boy watched the battlefield from the Underground Palace, then left to act in person.
• The archers and Jia Wen froze as Xi Ye arrived on a towering, dragonlike mount, and Jia Wen recognized the newcomer as a kingly figure.
• Color of the Stars fled from Dog Bro, but Xi Ye grabbed it from afar and held it captive.
• Xi Ye told the players that Dog Bro would recover after two days in a Nutrient Pod and said the Elf Players had not been killed.
• A white-haired boy appeared in a black-and-white world, and Xi Ye shielded the players before offering to let him leave the planet if he never returned.