Chapter Summaries

Linsey learned that Vivian would become a brilliant Awakened and successful territory leader, though her devotion to protecting life would bring her many trials. Several days later, strangers forced their way toward the forest, apparently seeking the aid described in Linsey’s task.

• Linsey returned home and found Hilude awake, then questioned her about the fate she had glimpsed.
• Hilude said Vivian would become a heroic Awakened and manage the territory well, but would face many trials because she valued life so deeply.
• Linsey said he would train Vivian while trusting her to face dangers herself, then asked Hilude whether she would continue training talent at the university if he left the Wasteland.
• Hilude said she would think about staying, and the two went to sleep.
• Over the next several days, Linsey continued receiving envoys while Forest City and the Insect Nest developed smoothly, but his task remained unresolved.
• On the fourth day, Hammer told Linsey that strangely dressed people were trying to force their way into the forest to see him and seemed to be seeking aid.

Linsey welcomed five young people who had come seeking help, freed them after his guards subdued them, and led them into Forest City. As they marveled at the city, three of the visitors’ neutral indicators turned friendly.

• Linsey went to the Banyan Forest gate after hearing that visitors had arrived, despite Hammer’s concerns about receiving strangers directly.
• Haine explained that the five young people had become agitated and fought the guards when told to wait, so the Sword Dancers had bound them.
• Linsey checked the visitors’ map indicators, judged that they meant no harm, and cut their ropes before inviting them into Forest City.
• The young people followed Linsey through the city, marveling at its bridges, enormous trees, and a Tree Spirit that swatted one of them.
• Linsey noticed that three of the four visitors with neutral indicators had turned friendly as they walked through Forest City.

Linsey met five young people who asked him to unite against the Mutated Ones and revealed that their main base lay in the north. They also warned him about a new insect threat, leaving Linsey with another danger to investigate.

• Linsey showed the five young people around Forest City, then invited them to rest and explain their request for aid.
• The calm young man told Linsey that the five had escaped from underground, where the Mutated Ones had imprisoned and dehumanized people; Linsey revealed that he had already fought the Mutated Ones and cleared several camps.
• The young man said the Mutated Ones' main base was in the north and that their strongest leader had headed east several years earlier before disappearing.
• Linsey understood that the young man wanted him to destroy the northern base and rescue the people still trapped underground, and he appeared willing to help.
• The young man warned Linsey that hideous insects had appeared across the land and were frequently fighting the Mutated Ones.

Levi and his companions debated whether to trust Linsey and what to do if he refused to help, with Levi resolved to return underground to rescue their people. Linsey agreed to fight the Mutated Ones and planned to announce the threat at Forest City's Sports Meet, asking the five to train and demonstrate their strength there.

• Levi's companions argued over whether to remain in Forest City, while Levi said he would return underground alone if Linsey refused to help.
• One companion volunteered to join Levi's dangerous rescue plan, and the five spent the night with their decision unresolved.
• The next morning, Linsey summoned the five to his Plant Shop and announced that the Mutated Ones had to be dealt with.
• Linsey said he would tell the Wasteland's envoys about the threat at Forest City's Sports Meet in one month.
• Linsey asked the five to pledge loyalty, train their abilities, and demonstrate their strength at the Sports Meet to help convince others.

Linsey organized Forest City's preparations for war against the Mutated Ones after learning their main base was in the north and their strongest Awakened leader had left. He assigned key responsibilities and sent Sand Dune south to guard against a possible attack from Green Swamp.

• Linsey planned the campaign, selecting trusted fighters for strategic training at the Insect Territory and considering logistical needs.
• Linsey told Ryan, Hammer, and Vivian about the Mutated Ones and assigned them supply, personnel, and expedition preparations.
• Linsey ordered Tie Yu to prepare medicine and establish protocols for treating and caring for the wounded.
• Sand Dune arrived eager to fight, but Linsey ordered him to lead people south and guard against a sneak attack from Green Swamp.

During Forest City's Sports Meet, Linsey prepared to reveal news about the Mutated Ones at the closing ceremony and argued with Hilude over her exclusion from the war plan. Hilude asked to train artists and then reviewed Linsey's draft speech about a crisis beneath the Wasteland.

• The Sports Meet drew participants and representatives from across the eastern part of the world, while Linsey monitored the Insect Nest from Flower Square.
• Hammer told Linsey that the foreign envoys were ready and that the closing ceremony would announce news about the Mutated Ones.
• Hilude confronted Linsey for excluding her from the war plan, but he refused to involve her because he doubted her loyalty to victory.
• Hilude asked Linsey to assign her Awakened students to teach art when Harvest Day came in two years.
• Linsey gave Hilude his closing ceremony speech draft, which described his goal of building a civilized city and an unseen crisis brewing beneath the Wasteland.

At the Sports Meet’s closing ceremony, Linsey exposed the Mutated Ones’ underground threat and urged the assembled factions to unite against them. He announced that his army would march north in one month and told everyone to bring the warning home.

• Linsey read Hilude’s revised speech, blaming the Mutated Ones for the world’s decline and the theft of the dead.
• Linsey displayed captured Mutated Ones and burned them before the crowd as proof of the danger underground.
• Levi and the other four refugees described how humans were raised, stripped of intelligence, infected, and slaughtered beneath the Wasteland.
• Ryan urged the crowd to ask their elders about the plague from decades earlier and warned that the Mutated Ones had caused it.
• Linsey announced that his army would march north in one month and told the departing attendees to take the news back to their factions.

Linsey directed the Banyan Forest’s underground campaign against the Mutated Ones, coordinating thirteen human-insect armies as they cleared tunnels and pushed north. He sent Na Rui to reinforce the Seventh Legion and led reserves toward the Twelfth Army, where powerful enemies were still resisting.

• Banyan Forest workers emerged onto the surface to extend expedition routes and supply roads behind the advancing army.
• Human-insect forces used Head Shield Beetles, Blade Arm Insects, and fire arrows to clear Mutated Ones from underground caverns.
• Linsey’s forces reopened blocked tunnels and advanced through the underground while clearing enemies and checking for survivors.
• Linsey reviewed the Strategic Map and sent Na Rui with troops to the Seventh Legion while he took reserves to support the Twelfth Army.

Na Rui used his control of earth and fire to trap and defeat a Fourth Stage Mutated One, helping the Seventh Legion clear its target. At the harder battlefield, Linsey killed a Fifth Stage Mutated One with a swift strike and ordered his troops to attack.

• Na Rui arrived with an elite force and took command of the fight against the Mutated Ones.
• Na Rui opened a fissure beneath the Fourth Stage Mutated One, then used flaming arrows to keep it trapped while the insect swarm attacked the others.
• The Seventh Legion destroyed the underground enemy position with explosives, and Na Rui collapsed from the strain.
• Linsey reached the more difficult battlefield, where a Fifth Stage Mutated One was battering the Head Armor Beetles.
• Linsey activated three Sports module skills and cut the Fifth Stage Mutated One in half with the Annihilation Blade.
• Linsey ordered his subordinates to begin the attack.

After Linsey’s forces killed the Fifth Stage Mutated One, Linsey turned its remains into a Source Material Emblem that could guarantee an awakening during the Source Material Tide. Back at camp, he and Vivian discussed the leaderless Mutated Ones and Linsey planned to weaken them gradually before they could unite.

• With the Fifth Stage Mutated One dead, Linsey’s troops cleared the cave, found an enclosure where humans were being raised, and began purifying the area with Withered Overlord Flowers.
• Linsey used a Withered Overlord Flower to extract a Source Material Seed from the Fifth Stage Mutated One’s corpse, then synthesized the seed into a Source Material Emblem.
• Linsey examined the emblem’s synthesis formulas, noticed a hidden formula involving the Distant Shore Stars core, and decided to store his rare cores rather than experiment.
• Linsey returned to camp, where Vivian analyzed the underground map and noted that the Mutated Ones had not organized a large-scale resistance.
• Linsey explained that the Mutated Ones’ former leader had disappeared and planned to gradually weaken their forces before a powerful enemy could drive them to unite.

Linsey’s underground campaign continued to succeed, but he worried that his army would be too small for the coming decisive battle. Reinforcements from the Yongquan Tribe arrived, and Linsey welcomed the tribe and its vulnerable members into Forest City.

• Linsey assessed the campaign’s progress and worried that fewer than 1,500 insects would face multiple Sixth Stage Mutated Ones at the main base.
• Linsey spotted Green Markers approaching from the surface and recognized them as likely reinforcements inspired by the Sports Meet.
• Linsey met Lania, an Awakened leading fighters from the Yongquan Tribe, and learned that her people had few resources and little information.
• Lania explained that she had brought the fighters her tribe could spare, while the old, sick, disabled, weak, and children remained behind.
• Linsey welcomed Lania and her tribe into Forest City, regardless of how the expedition ended.

Over two months, Linsey expanded his army and advanced the campaign against the Mutated Ones. When the expedition returned to a place where Levi’s companions had sacrificed themselves, Linsey helped him prepare to search for survivors, and Levi recognized one during the ensuing assault.

• Wasteland tribes pledged allegiance to Linsey, and their warriors trained in Forest City before joining the growing army.
• Hilude and her scholars helped captive humans develop skills and intelligence, while the expeditionary army reduced its casualties and accelerated its campaign.
• Levi recognized the place where his companions had covered his group’s retreat and told Linsey that two Fifth Stage Mutated Ones were in nearby caves.
• Linsey planned to seal the escape routes and lent Levi the Lava Jet Stream Sword, warning him not to let anger endanger the others.
• The expedition launched its assault the next morning, and Levi spotted a low-stage Mutated One he recognized as his brother and approached with his sword aflame.

In the south, the Green Swamp’s leaders responded to the Banyan Forest’s growing strength as a possible unprecedented crisis, while in the north Linsey continued his expedition against the Mutated Ones. After Levi found his friend Yingfei dead, Linsey invited him to stand and help destroy the enemies.

• Yarrowen stopped Bull from attempting a revolt, insisting the prisoners wait for a chance to resist.
• Two Black Robes in Green Island City learned that Kingfisher had called an emergency assembly over the Banyan Forest’s rapid growth and dangerous new insects.
• Linsey killed a Fifth Stage Mutated One and saw that his forces were winning another battle nearby.
• Linsey found Levi mourning Yingfei, who had sacrificed himself to help Levi and others escape.
• Levi said he had not found the other two people who had sacrificed themselves, and Linsey urged him to rise and burn the Mutated Ones together.

As the expedition advanced north, soldiers struggled to fight Mutated Ones bearing the faces of their dead loved ones, though the army remained on course for its final battle. Linsey discovered that Levi had rescued a childhood friend and broken through to the Fifth Stage, leaving the two together while reminding Levi to master his new power.

• Linsey watched Kleiman grieve over Theresa after the army cleared a cave of Mutated Ones.
• Linsey considered how seeing the faces of dead relatives among the Mutated Ones was affecting the soldiers, then reviewed the expedition's plans and the Insect Base's approaching upgrade.
• Linsey detected a surge of Fifth Stage power near the Seventeenth Army and went to investigate.
• Levi reunited with a girl he had known underground after rescuing her from a human pen, and his will helped him advance to the Fifth Stage.
• Linsey congratulated them by leaving them to catch up and told Levi to consolidate his new skill that night.

Linsey rewarded Levi for advancing to the Fifth Stage and helped him understand his sound ability as vibration, then agreed to send Freeni to Forest City for treatment. A new task revealed that forces from Green Swamp were moving against Banyan Forest, and Linsey spotted them on the Strategic Map.

• Linsey gave Levi the Shining Flame Hell Sword as a reward for becoming the first Awakened under his command to reach the Fifth Stage.
• Levi explained that his ability had changed, and Linsey identified its new direction as controlling vibration.
• Levi asked Linsey to send Freeni to Forest City for Corruption Poison treatment, and Linsey agreed to arrange her departure the next morning.
• The Task Bar issued the Two-Front War task, warning that enemies were plotting behind Linsey's expedition.
• Linsey spotted several Red Dots traveling northeast from Green Swamp along Sand Dune's route back to the Banyan Forest.

After learning that seven fast-moving enemies were attacking Green Swamp, Linsey decided to return to Forest City alone and leave his expeditionary force behind. He founded the Underground Fortress as a frontline stronghold and entrusted its defense to the Legion Commanders before his survival construction level rose to 6.

• Linsey concluded that seven elite Awakened were attacking Green Swamp and that Sand Dune’s Wilderness Hunters could not stop them.
• Linsey summoned Vivian and the Legion Commanders, then explained that he would return to Forest City while they remained with the expeditionary force.
• Linsey built an underground room, designated it as a new Town Hall, and began upgrading the resulting Underground Fortress using stored stone.
• Levi and Vivian pledged to defend the fortress, and Linsey assigned the commanders tasks to clear and stabilize the surrounding area before his departure.
• Linsey noticed that his Survival Construction Level had increased from 5 to 6.

Linsey’s Survival Building Module upgraded after he established a third city, unlocking automated facilities, and the Underground Fortress completed its transformation. He left Vivian and Levi in charge, ordering them to sacrifice Mutated Ones to meet the city’s upgrade requirement before departing for Forest City.

• Linsey discovered that establishing Forest City, the Insect Nest, and the Underground Fortress had upgraded the Survival Building Module and unlocked automated facilities.
• Linsey organized a night operation, and the expedition force cleared Mutated Ones from the surrounding area by the following morning.
• Linsey inspected the Underground Fortress’s new buildings and explained their functions to Vivian, Levi, and the other Legion Commanders.
• Linsey learned that upgrading the Underground Fortress required sacrificing 1,000 slaves and ordered Vivian and Levi to sacrifice Mutated Ones in the Dark Dungeon, then use the rest to cultivate the Withered Overlord Flower.
• Linsey finished preparing the city and left along the newly built road, vanishing from the land as daylight broke.

Linsey reached the southern mountains to help the hunters prepare for the approaching Green Swamp attackers. With the enemy expected in three or four days, he assigned Sand Dune to organize an ambush while Insect Nest support arrived.

• Linsey traveled east at high speed and estimated he would reach Forest City well before the Green Swamp attackers.
• Lamenter sent three insects carrying food south, and the insects delivered supplies to Sand Dune and the hunters.
• Sand Dune reflected on the hunters’ improved life and thanked Lord Linsey for their provisions.
• Linsey reached Sand Dune’s position after visiting Forest City and warned him that seven people from Green Swamp were approaching.
• Linsey gave Sand Dune explosives and ordered him to gather the hunters, place the charges, and keep four enemies occupied while Linsey fought the other three.

Green Swamp's Awakened traveled toward Yarrow Camp and split up after spotting a hunter shooting down a bat. Linsey ambushed the four who continued east, killing one with a silent arrow, and Obsidian led the survivors toward him.

• Green Swamp's seven Awakened crossed the mountains toward Yarrow Camp while discussing Forest City and the people who had cultivated a woodland there.
• The group spotted a bat flying near an ash-white peak, and an arrow from the mountains struck it down.
• Obsidian sent Gray Rhino, Squirrel, and Eagle to investigate the hunter while the other four continued east.
• Linsey killed one of the four with a silent black arrow, then fired again as the survivors turned to face the attack.
• After identifying the attacker as a Fourth Stage Awakened, Obsidian charged toward Linsey and ordered his companions to leave the others to their own fight.

Linsey ambushed three Awakened and killed two of them, including a Law Knight, before discovering that their leader, Obsidian, was a Sixth Stage fighter. Obsidian revealed his Stone Fist identity and prepared to battle Linsey while fighting continued elsewhere on the mountain.

• Linsey recognized the Law Knight’s Law Power and charged the three Awakened with the Law of Icing.
• Linsey broke the Law Knight’s golden defense and killed him with a single blow.
• Linsey killed one of the remaining Awakened and gravely wounded another, while Obsidian struck Linsey aside with a powerful punch.
• Linsey identified Obsidian as a Sixth Stage fighter and refused his offer to leave without fighting.
• Obsidian removed his robe, named his style as War School, Combat Essence, Fernosen School, Sea Dragon: Stone Fist, and declared that he would kill Linsey.