Chapter Summaries

Lin Xiao prepared to bet on his success in the Myriad Phenomena Ruins Tournament, then joined the other contestants as the ruins opened and revealed that entry was limited to one hundred people per day. As the Super Academies assembled to secure early access, War Throne’s Wu Zhonglin arrived and recognized Lin Xiao and Shen Yuexin.

• Lin Xiao asked his mother to place several ambitious bets on his tournament results, borrowed five points of Divinity from his Class Teacher, and sent the stake to her.
• Lin Xiao visited Lin Xu, then reunited with the other students as Jin Sisi warned them to avoid unnecessary infighting before the ruins opened.
• The Gravekeepers opened a portal, and an aged voice announced that contestants would have to survive for one year in ruins themed around “Contend.”
• Lin Xiao learned that only one hundred contestants could enter each day, and the first day’s slots filled before he could enter.
• Dongfang Piaoxue proposed forming a coalition, and the five Huaxia District Super Academies gathered sixty-five contestants before debating which teams to invite.
• Wu Zhonglin arrived with three other teams, greeted Lin Xiao and Shen Yuexin, and identified himself as a member of War Throne.

Lin Xiao rejected a War Throne student's attempt to control the extra places in the Myriad Phenomena Ruins and negotiated an even split with Wu Zhonglin. After Wu Zhonglin recognized Lin Xiao's strength as nearly his equal, Lin Xiao arranged for his uncle Lin Xu's team to join Radiance.

• Lin Xiao proposed dividing the four remaining places equally between Radiance and War Throne, then challenged Yi Lai when he objected.
• Wu Zhonglin calmed Yi Lai and said Lin Xiao's strength was almost catching up to his own, then arranged to spar with Lin Xiao during the holiday.
• Radiance and War Throne each received two places, and Lin Xiao claimed one for himself before messaging Lin Xu.
• Lin Xu told his arguing teammates that Lin Xiao had invited them to join Radiance, and they were impressed to learn Lin Xiao ranked first on Radiance's Wind and Cloud Rankings.

Lin Xiao and the other four Huaxia Super Academies claimed the next day’s slots at the Myriad Phenomena Ruins, but the Ivy League alliance challenged their claim. Carl, a powerful true-body descender carrying Akmond’s demon bloodline, declared that the Ivy League would take the slots, leaving both sides poised for a confrontation.

• Lin Xu joined the gathered teams and spotted his grandnephew among the elites, while the five Huaxia Super Academies assembled near the ruins’ entrance.
• Li Xiushen, after losing rock-paper-scissors to Dongfang Piaoxue, announced that the five academies were taking the next day’s slots, and most teams yielded.
• The Ivy League alliance approached to contest the claim, led by Aria, Bart, and the demon-horned Carl.
• Aria greeted Wu Zhonglin, while Carl’s strength and true-body descent drew the attention of Lin Xiao and the others.
• Li Xiushen explained that Carl was Immortal Authority’s top second-year student and had inherited power from Akmond, a commander of the Burning Legion.
• Carl declared that the Ivy League was taking the next day’s slots, setting up a direct clash between the two alliances.

Lin Xiao accepted the Ivy League University Alliance’s challenge and entered a Divine Domain battle against Bart, selecting water-rich terrain and deploying all his adult Kinfolk. As the battle began, Lin Xiao’s forces secured a riverbank starting area and started exploring and building defenses.

• Karl demanded either a team battle or three one-on-one matches, and Lin Xiao agreed to the three-match arrangement, choosing Wu Zhonglin to face Karl and Shen Yuexin to face one of the women.
• Shen Yuexin volunteered to fight, while Li Xiushen and Dongfang Piaoxue both hesitated over who would go.
• Jin Yunzhu and Lin Haolin watched the challenge broadcast, and Jin excitedly speculated that Lin Xiao and Shen Yuexin were romantically involved.
• The Gravekeepers approved the Divine Domain projections, and Lin Xiao entered the virtual plane to face Bart.
• Lin Xiao chose sea, river, and swamp terrain, deployed all his adult Kinfolk, and selected the western starting area opposite Bart.
• Lin Xiao’s forces camped beside a river; Slarda sent Greater Nagas and Little Fishmen downstream, while the main force gathered resources for the Wise Goblin Mages to build war machines.

Bart unleashed his Blood Demons across the Virtual Plane, confident that his forces and hidden trump card would defeat Lin Xiao and win a Myriad Phenomena Secret Treasure. On the fifth day, the two sides located each other and gathered their forces near an abandoned town, preparing to test one another before a decisive battle.

• Bart summoned his Kinfolk and sent them across the peninsula to slaughter natives, turn Orcs into Blood Slaves, and gather forces.
• Bart recalled his ancestors’ Myriad Phenomena Secret Treasure and vowed to defeat Lin Xiao, whom he believed was still far weaker than himself.
• On the fifth day, Bart learned that his Kinfolk had found Lin Xiao’s forces and ordered his scattered units to gather near an abandoned town.
• Lin Xiao saw the approaching enemy through his Kinfolk and ordered one of his detached forces, led by a Seventh Order Naga, to camp and summon the other units.
• A Blood Demon representing Bart and Lin Xiao’s Greater Naga exchanged words and agreed to test each other before their main armies clashed.
• Bart gathered roughly a third of his forces in the town, including five Seventh Order Blood Demons, more than two hundred Sixth Order Blood Demons, and tens of thousands of vampires, Thralls, and Slaves.

Lin Xiao's forces battled Bart's Kinfolk, with the Little Fishmen's Salted Fish Thrust devastating the enemy's cannon fodder before Bart's magic-draining Blood Mages forced them back. Bart's anti-magic relic then destroyed Lin Xiao's attempted summoning Gate and knocked down the Great Mages, leaving the battle unresolved.

• Bart's anti-magic relic nullified Lin Xiao's Meteor Fire Rain, and Bart sent his Kinfolk charging while claiming he would hold back his reinforcements.
• The Little Fishmen used Salted Fish Thrust in repeated waves, killing or wounding tens of thousands of Blood Slaves and Blood Thralls in under half a minute.
• Bart ordered his reinforcements into battle after the initial charge devastated his cannon fodder.
• Bart's Blood Mages drained the Little Fishmen's vitality and stamina, so Lin Xiao ordered a retreat screened by Mud Swamp Spell and summoned elementals.
• The Blood Mages dispelled Lin Xiao's summoned elementals, and Bart's Level 7 Blood Demon commander unleashed a blood-red anti-magic array that destroyed the Great Mages' barrier and collapsing Gate, knocking the mages down.

Lin Xiao’s Asura Greater Nagas and Wise Goblin Mages faced Bart’s Blood Demons, whose spell immunity let them massacre the Mage Corps’ apparent position. The chapter left Bart’s forces deceived by illusions while the real mages remained hidden and the Greater Nagas devastated the Blood Thralls.

• Bart sent more than two hundred Blood Demons to attack the Wise Goblin Mage Corps, and they tore through its barriers and killed or scattered the mages.
• Bart claimed his Blood Demons could ignore magic, but Lin Xiao revealed that his Kinfolk were true mages and had begun assembling a magic array.
• Bart’s arriving reinforcements split up as the Greater Nagas hurled javelins at the airborne vampires and charged the Blood Thrall cavalry.
• A Level Seven Greater Naga led more than two thousand Greater Nagas in a devastating assault that wiped out the five-thousand-strong cavalry regiment.
• The Blood Demons attacked the apparent Mage Corps and discovered that the mages and their magic array were illusions created with Mirage and Permanent Illusion, while the real mages were hidden nearby.

Lin Xiao defeated Bart after his mages trapped the magic-immune Blood Demons and summoned Truth Saint Slarda and the main force. With Wu Zhonglin also victorious, Huaxia District won all three matches and the rival alliances yielded their positions near the Myriad Phenomena Ruins.

• Lin Xiao’s mages trapped the Blood Demons in a Space Maze while they stabilized the summoning array, then Slarda and the main Kinfolk arrived and drove the Blood Demons to retreat.
• Bart saw Lin Xiao’s assembled forces and their extraordinary Kinfolk, realized his magic immunity could not counter true mages, and conceded the challenge.
• Lin Xiao’s companions congratulated him, while Father Lin watched the battle in astonishment and Jin Yunzhu watched Little Aunt’s challenge against Aria.
• Lin Xiao saw a brief glimpse of Shen Yuexin’s Thunder Winged-people and Lord of Heavenly Wrath Sorcerers defeating Aria’s side.
• Huaxia District won all three battles, and the Ivy League University Alliance, the Giant Enterprise Alliance, and the Council of Nobles withdrew from the entrance to the Myriad Phenomena Ruins.

Lin Xiao entered the Myriad Phenomena Ruins and received a strategic attribute panel, starting resources, troops, and treasures before the competition began. He summoned one hundred spearmen to fight nearby undead and then surveyed the ruins from a broken pillar.

• Lin Xiao and Wu Zhonglin agreed to spar in Dongning during the Midterm Exam holiday, and Lin Xiao entered the ruin with Shen Yuexin.
• The ruin's system gave Lin Xiao four strategic attribute points and allowed him to choose resources, troops, and treasures using seven extra option cards.
• Lin Xiao selected resources, three additional Resource Cards, two Troop Cards, and two Treasure Cards, obtaining Gold Coins, materials, two hundred spearmen, a Fist of Strength, and a Ring of Life.
• The system announced the one-year competition rules, and the fog cleared to reveal undead wandering through the ruins.
• Lin Xiao summoned one hundred spearmen, directed them to kill nearby Skeletons and Zombies, and learned that killing a Skeleton gave only 0.1 experience.
• Lin Xiao climbed a broken stone pillar to survey the ruins, but mist limited his view to less than a hundred meters.

Lin Xiao led his troops through the undead-filled ruins, grinding for experience and gathering Skeleton Card fragments while deciding against summoning his living Kinfolk. After camping near the city wall, he was caught in a sudden eruption of death fog and escaped the ghosts by abandoning his troops and charging beyond the ruins.

• Lin Xiao led ninety-eight spearmen south through the ruins, fought off undead, and considered how the ruins weakened true-body contestants and made summoning his Kinfolk too risky.
• Lin Xiao fought undead for hours, suffered heavy troop losses, obtained Skeleton Card fragments, and combined four fragments to summon Skeletons that inflicted Death Aura Entanglement on his army.
• Lin Xiao camped near the city wall as night fell, but death aura surged from the ruins and ghostly wills began forming around his camp.
• Lin Xiao ordered his troops to draw the ghosts’ attention, then charged toward the outskirts while ghosts killed spearmen and Skeletons.
• Lin Xiao used the remaining Skeletons as cannon fodder and escaped beyond the city wall, where the death fog and freezing chill disappeared.

Lin Xiao escaped the undead ruins, then returned by day to farm its respawning Skeletons and Zombies until he reached Hero Level One. He chose the Master of Truth talent and ended with an army of 841 Skeletons.

• Lin Xiao fled the ruins after its awakened deathly will unleashed ghosts, then realized he had run deeper into the jungle and returned toward the ruins.
• Lin Xiao discovered that the ruins' undead respawned each day, so he summoned Skeletons and farmed the creatures for experience and card fragments.
• Lin Xiao investigated the ruins at night, but escaped into the jungle when the awakened deathly will sent ghosts after him and killed his subordinates.
• Lin Xiao farmed undead for twelve days until he gathered the resources to raise his hero core to Level One and unlock Hero Talents.
• Lin Xiao chose Master of Truth, which increased the attributes of his Skeletons, then used accumulated fragments to summon 800 more Skeletons, bringing his force to 841.

Lin Xiao left the undead ruins, discovered and captured a Spearman Camp, and fused its Spearman Cards into Elite Spearman Cards. After three heroes ambushed him outside the camp and were defeated, he continued along the road to a fork pointing toward Savage City and Glory City.

• Lin Xiao led his skeletons out of the forest, spotted a Big Ear Monster tribe, and avoided it to follow a stone road.
• Lin Xiao entered a newly spawned Spearman Camp ahead of a Lizardmen hero and defeated its defenders, gaining 142 spearmen and looting twelve Spearman Cards, resources, and a camp fragment.
• Lin Xiao fused the twelve Spearman Cards into six veteran cards and then three Elite Spearman Cards, which he stored for later.
• Three heroes ambushed Lin Xiao as he left the camp, but his skeletons defeated their combined forces and drove the survivors away.
• Lin Xiao continued down the road and reached a fork marked Undead Ruins, Savage City, and Glory City.

Lin Xiao reached Glory City after disbanding his undead troops and met Jia Sanyue, who explained how heroes could earn resources and revealed three known treasure locations. The chapter left Lin Xiao eager to learn more about the treasures, though Jia warned that they were too dangerous for his current strength.

• A Glory City patrol barred Lin Xiao from entering with undead troops, so he disbanded them and summoned more Elite Spearmen.
• Lin Xiao traveled through Sacred Pass and reached a city where heroes gathered, hiring a guide to show him the way.
• Jia Sanyue recognized Lin Xiao and invited him to eat, offering information about Glory City and its opportunities.
• Jia explained that heroes could earn resources through missions, monster hunts, dungeons, exploration, and raids on hostile factions.
• Jia revealed that the Undead Ruins, Treasure Bay, and Ogre Fortress were known treasures whose locations appeared on maps, but warned Lin Xiao not to enter them yet.

Lin Xiao gathered information about the three treasures, prepared supplies and troops, and entered the Battle of Saran dungeon to build experience and earn rewards. The dungeon began with a Barbarian Hero charging his forces, leaving Lin Xiao's Elite Spearmen facing their first battle.

• Jia Sanyue explained the entry restrictions for the Undead Ruins, Treasure Bay, and Ogre Fortress, and advised Lin Xiao to claim their quests in advance.
• Lin Xiao studied the quest board, chose three dungeon quests, and spent 23,500 Gold Coins on a map, a warhorse, equipment, and Archer Cards.
• Lin Xiao recognized the Undead Ruins on the map as the place where he had first appeared, then summoned over four hundred Spearmen and one hundred Veteran Archers.
• Lin Xiao entered the Battle of Saran dungeon, where Salan's forces were fighting a Barbarian Hero and a Wolfman Hero.
• The Barbarian Hero gathered his troops and charged Lin Xiao, who ordered his Elite Spearmen to form ranks.

Lin Xiao cleared the first three levels of several instances, gaining troops and resources while preparing to challenge stronger enemies. When he returned to the Battle of Saran, he learned that Yi Lai was about to attempt its fourth level.

• Lin Xiao defeated the Barbarian Hero's forces in the Battle of Saran and entered the instance again, where he overcame its stronger second and third levels.
• Several Huaxia District contestants, including Yi Lai, arrived at Sacred Pass and began developing while wary of their rivals.
• Lin Xiao decided to clear the first three levels of the other five nearby instances before attempting a more difficult challenge.
• After spending nearly a week clearing those instances, Lin Xiao returned to the Battle of Saran and met Jia Sanyue and other Huaxia District contestants.
• Jia Sanyue told Lin Xiao that Yi Lai had also cleared the third level and planned to try the fourth.

Lin Xiao reorganized his troops around three hundred Elite Archers and cleared the fourth floor of the Battle of Saran instance despite heavy losses. The fifth floor had a 24-hour cooldown, but he realized he could still challenge the fourth floors of other instances around Glory City.

• Lin Xiao combined his saved troop cards, adjusted his army to the command limit, and entered the fourth floor of the Battle of Saran instance.
• Lin Xiao set his Elite Archers on a slope behind Elite Spearmen and used their range and firepower to inflict heavy losses on the Barbarian Hero’s forces.
• The Barbarian Hero sent Ogre Mages into the fight, but Lin Xiao concentrated his archers’ volleys on them while his spearmen held off the other attackers.
• Lin Xiao’s forces killed most of the Big Ear Monsters and Half-Orc Throwing Axemen, repelled the Dire Wolf Knights, and won the battle despite losing many spearmen.
• Lin Xiao received the instance rewards and learned that the fifth floor had a 24-hour cooldown, then decided to farm the fourth floors of the other instances around Glory City.

Lin Xiao cleared the fourth floors of the remaining instances, but learned that two powerful True Body Descenders had arrived and were targeting contestants. After narrowly avoiding Li Wenze’s force, he decided to leave the area before they could catch him.

• Lin Xiao adjusted his army for a larger defensive instance, lost his first attempt, then barely cleared the fourth floor on his second try.
• Jia Sanyue warned Lin Xiao that two True Body Descenders had arrived and humiliated contestants, so Lin Xiao avoided returning to Sacred Pass.
• Lin Xiao weighed exploring neutral territory against joining a battlefield, then chose to finish the remaining instances first.
• Two days later, Lin Xiao cleared the last of the six instances and spotted Li Wenze’s joint force approaching, so he hurried away.
• Li Wenze sent an underling after Lin Xiao, then ordered his men to stop him if they saw him again.
• After escaping pursuit, Lin Xiao decided he had to leave the area immediately because the True Body Descenders made it too dangerous.

Lin Xiao upgraded his Archer Barracks, traded for griffins, and used the Creation Cube to create a rare Griffon Archer troop. He led his army into the Deep Jungle to avoid the battlefield, where he found Tier Five treants guarding an already-looted chest and continued along a monster-filled river.

• Lin Xiao combined his rewards into upgraded Archer Barracks and troop cards, then traveled to Strength Castle to trade excess troops for Griffin Cards.
• Lin Xiao fused an Elite Archer Card with an Elite Griffin Card, creating a rare Tier Three Griffon Archer card that required a small amount of Creation Energy.
• After leaving Strength Castle, Lin Xiao avoided the battlefield and entered the wilderness, while Yi Lai and others secretly followed him.
• Lin Xiao recruited one hundred Elite Griffon Archers and decided to seek a Griffon Barracks so he could produce the hybrid troops directly.
• Lin Xiao found a group of Tier Five treants around an empty treasure chest, then led his army onward beside a river where monsters were growing more numerous.

Lin Xiao fought Yi Lai and three other players at a river bend, using superior combat technique to kill Yi Lai and another attacker. True Gods watching the Myriad Phenomena Ruins recognized Lin Xiao’s skill and raised his odds to the top tier.

• Lin Xiao confronted Yi Lai and three other players who had ambushed him, and their forces clashed at the river bend.
• Lin Xiao drew the four heroes into a separate duel while his troops and Griffon Archers fought their armies.
• Lin Xiao used his shield to disrupt the attackers’ coordinated assault, then killed one player with a sword strike to the throat.
• Lin Xiao overpowered Yi Lai with precise techniques and vibrating force, then killed him with Sword Qi and a final slash.
• True Gods viewed Lin Xiao’s fight, praised his technique, and adjusted his odds to the top tier.

Lin Xiao crossed into the wilderness and discovered a Stone Golem Treasure House, but its 2,400 defenders were too much for his forces to defeat. After he left, the Swamp Lizardmen hero returned and used a silver scroll to shrink the Treasure House before entering it.

• Lin Xiao defeated Yi Lai and the other attackers, then let the Native Heroes deal with their remaining troops.
• Lin Xiao crossed the river with his troops and found a Stone Golem Treasure House near a Swamp Lizardmen hero.
• Lin Xiao entered the Treasure House and saw 2,400 Stone Golems closing in from eight directions.
• Lin Xiao withdrew before combat began, realizing his troops could not defeat the Stone Golems.
• The Swamp Lizardmen hero circled back, used a silver scroll to shrink the Treasure House, and led his troops inside.