Chapter Summaries

After Qin Ge left a note saying he would become a wild monster, Zhang Yang welcomed Reyn and twenty other human wild monsters into the village, gaining a two-star hero, soldiers, and skilled craftspeople. The newcomers settled in the tavern under Reyn’s leadership while Zhang Yang prepared for the village’s next stage of development.

• Zhang Yang found Qin Ge’s note in the Training Ground, which said he wanted to become a wild monster, and burned it.
• Zhou Datou told Zhang Yang that twenty-one refugees had arrived at the tavern, where they ate and packed away food under their leader’s orders.
• Reyn explained that Orc Lord Aharu’s army had destroyed his previous village and asked Zhang Yang to accept his group into the village.
• Zhang Yang accepted Reyn and the twenty others, gaining a two-star hero, six captain-level soldiers, an intermediate blacksmith, an intermediate tailor, and twelve ordinary villagers.
• Zhang Yang let Reyn’s group stay at the tavern and entrusted them with its patrols and defense, while he led his own patrol team away.

After defeating the orcs, Zhang Yang assessed the spoils, strengthened his forces, and exchanged demon souls for a First-Grade Foundation Establishment Pill he could not safely use yet. Determined to finish the Village Building Quest, he planned the village’s expansion and assigned his people new duties.

• Zhang Yang counted the battle’s losses and spoils, then decided how to use the demon souls, Fragments of Hope, equipment, and supplies.
• Zhang Yang upgraded four Berserker Swordsmen into Storm Swordsmen and appointed Wang Shen, whose Command and Resolve talents impressed him, to lead a patrol squad.
• Zhang Yang exchanged Fragments of Hope for food and supplies, secured the castle granary, and used 180 complete captain-level demon souls to unlock the Golden Scales’ fourth trade mode.
• Zhang Yang received a First-Grade Foundation Establishment Pill but learned that consuming it would trigger a class-change quest that could conflict with the Village Building Quest, so he put it away.
• Zhang Yang surveyed the territory with Wu Yuan and others, drafted a city plan, and resolved to build up the village cautiously rather than pursue a rush strategy.
• Zhang Yang assigned Qin Yidao and Wang Shen to patrol, Wu Yuan and others to begin building city walls, Song Dachui and Zhou Datou to reclaim farmland, and Zhao Tiezhu to apprentice as a blacksmith.

When a summer downpour threatened the Village’s crops and homes, Zhang Yang rallied everyone to dig drainage channels and embankments. Though no flood came, the shared effort united the villagers, activated a new Village Attribute, and left Zhang Yang feeling that the Village belonged to all of them.

• Worried that the torrential rain could ruin the crops, Zhang Yang asked Reyn how long it would last and learned that flash floods were the real danger.
• Zhang Yang rushed back to the Village and ordered everyone to dig drainage channels and embankments around the Farmland and Residential Houses.
• Reyn gathered more than a dozen men to help, and villagers worked together in the rain until it stopped without a flood.
• Villagers shared hot water, laughter, and teasing after the work, while children played in the mud and Zhang Yang observed them with his Soul Force Field.
• A Village Special Event activated the United as One attribute, increasing loyalty and prosperity and granting twenty new-recruit quotas.
• Zhang Yang realized he had begun to regard the Village as his own and as the villagers’ shared home.

Reyn tried to make a fresh start in the village after the rainstorm had brought him closer to its people. Zhang Yang set the villagers to work on flood defenses, housing, clothing, and a blacksmith shop, while Wu Yuan urged him to treat the villagers’ support as hope worth cultivating.

• Reyn shaved, trimmed his hair, and set out to return the clothes villagers had lent him after the storm.
• Reyn greeted the cook, Sun Er, who introduced himself and directed Reyn to Li Er’s house.
• Zhang Yang called Reyn over, ordered him to eat breakfast, then bring his people to receive houses and help repair the flood defenses and build a threshing ground.
• Zhang Yang told Reyn to have his sister Maria teach the village women to sew, and Reyn hurried off to carry out the order.
• Zhang Yang ordered Wu Yuan to bring Reyn’s blacksmith Zhao Tiezhu and ten craftsmen to build a Blacksmith Shop.
• Wu Yuan reminded Zhang Yang that the Popular Support he gained by distributing cloth was also a form of hope.

Zhang Yang expanded the village and unlocked new population and village-development benefits, then organized a heavily guarded harvest of its first 210 mu of Farmland. The harvest began in celebration, but Wu Yuan warned that the village’s food reserves were still insufficient for the coming bitter winter.

• Zhang Yang offered land according to household size and children, prompting villagers to reclaim Farmland while he used the remaining recruitment slots and redirected workers to construction.
• The expanded village activated United as One and Greatness Through Inclusivity, raised villager Loyalty and Prosperity, improved 16 children into Excellent Population, and triggered a village-upgrade quest with population, Prosperity, and city-wall requirements still unmet.
• Zhang Yang celebrated the newly unlocked option for a third child, then halted further construction so villagers could harvest the 210 mu of wheat before the weather turned.
• Zhang Yang assembled farmers and soldiers to guard the harvest, while Duan Kuan and Wang Shen competed to cut wheat with their blades.
• Wu Yuan told Zhang Yang that even the harvest from 200 mu would not provide enough food and that the bitter winter would arrive in three and a half months.

Zhang Yang’s harvest revealed a food shortage, while Reyn warned that winter would bring dangerous Fiendish ghosts and phantoms. After questioning the Ghost Priest, Zhang Yang learned what enemies could emerge and that a rare Ghost Lady could threaten even the Orc Tribe.

• Zhang Yang calculated the harvest and learned the village’s grain and dwindling meat supplies could not comfortably sustain its soldiers and villagers until the next crops matured.
• Wu Yuan and the other leaders discussed hunting, attacking the Orc Tribe, and the danger of acting without enough information about its forces.
• Reyn recalled a warning that large groups with strong life auras attracted Fiendish ghosts and phantoms during winter, and urged the village to prepare before the season began.
• Wu Yuan connected Reyn’s warning to the Village Imps and Ghost Assassins controlled by nearby tribes, suggesting they had survived winters that empowered such creatures.
• Zhang Yang summoned the Ghost Priest, who explained that winter weakened the world’s suppression of the Abyssal Ghost Tribe and brought attacks from Fiendish ghosts, Ghost Assassins, Ghost Priests, and phantoms.
• The Ghost Priest warned Zhang Yang that a rare Ghost Lady could evolve from a Ghost Priest late in winter and leave even the Orc Tribe with little chance of survival.

Zhang Yang questioned the Ghost Priest about Yin energy and Phantom Crystals, then killed it after suspecting it was connected to the Earth-Walking Wood Demons. He prepared the village for winter and planned to reopen Hero's Trial, but the chapter ended as Reyn and Wang Mumu saw the enormous tower shields he had commissioned.

• The Ghost Priest told Zhang Yang that Yin energy gathered into clouds, where Phantom Crystals formed and could repair the Wood Demon Tower.
• Reyn explained that Earth-Walking Wood Demons appeared each spring, threatened villages, and vanished near the end of the season, leading Zhang Yang to suspect the Ghost Priest was hiding its connection to them.
• Zhang Yang destroyed the Ghost Priest and explained that such beings could not be trusted, then ruled out an imminent Orc Tribe attack and ordered more farmland reclaimed.
• Zhang Yang planned to restart Hero's Trial with Duan Kuan in ten days and ordered the village to prepare for winter by rebuilding its homes, storing food, making charcoal, and training sixty recruits.
• After ten days of forging, Zhang Yang had two roughly two-ton tower shields made for Reyn and Wang Mumu, who despaired when they saw them.

Zhang Yang refined the deer demon’s vital essence and used mana and the Fireball Spell to forge the Stag Tower Shield, a top-grade magic artifact. He gave it to Reyn, who swore loyalty, while Wang Mumu had to wait for a shield of his own.

• Zhang Yang extracted and refined the deer demon’s vital essence into ten units of mana.
• Zhang Yang used a controlled fireball and the ten firewood piles to smelt a massive iron ingot into molten steel.
• Zhang Yang shaped the steel with his mana, creating the Stag Tower Shield, a top-grade magic artifact with powerful defensive traits.
• Reyn and Wang Mumu fought over the shield, but Zhang Yang gave it to Reyn because he was the village’s King of Shield Soldiers.
• Reyn swore that he and his descendants would serve Zhang Yang, while Zhang Yang decided Wang Mumu would have to wait until suitable materials became available.

Zhang Yang met Wu Yu, a human village chief who had spent five years wandering instead of building a village, and learned how Hope Fragments could unlock a quest to return to Earth. After exchanging information and weapons, Zhang Yang prepared to negotiate further trades with Wu Yu.

• Zhang Yang led his fighters to meet Wu Yu and his large, heavily armed band, then learned the Village Building Order prevented humans from killing one another.
• Wu Yu explained that collecting ten White Fragments of Hope triggered a quest to gather one hundred within twenty years and wish to return to Earth.
• Zhang Yang traded five hundred kilograms of wheat for Wu Yu's information about fiends, wraiths, and the seasonal attacks on villages by Earth-Walking Wood Demons.
• Wu Yu said he had unlocked the Hero's Trial through constant fighting and offered wandering warriors for Hope Fragments; Zhang Yang offered Duan Kuan's Evil-Slaying Longblade in exchange for two White Fragments of Hope.
• Zhang Yang showed Wu Yu a hundred Imprisonment Spears and invited him into the tavern to negotiate their price.

Zhang Yang negotiated with Wu Yu to exchange weapons for soldiers and information, then welcomed the new people into his village. As the village faced a worsening food shortage and his people feared being abandoned, Zhang Yang vowed to stay and fight alongside them.

• Zhang Yang and Wu Yu bargained over weapons and soldiers, finally agreeing to exchange 200 Imprisonment Spears and 20 Evil-Slaying Longblades for Wu Yu's people and a damaged Village Building Order.
• Zhang Yang placed the new arrivals under his Village Building Order, raising their initial loyalty, then questioned Wu Yu for three hours about the surrounding world and settlements.
• Zhang Yang gave Wu Yu additional weapons and supplies, and the two parted after Wu Yu refused an invitation to shelter in the village during winter.
• Zhang Yang realized that the village's food supply had shrunk from twenty days to twelve after 88 newcomers arrived, and told Wu Yuan to welcome them and ask the women where they wished to live and serve.
• Wu Yuan questioned whether the newcomers could be trusted, while Zhang Yang understood that the villagers feared he might abandon or trade them away.
• Zhang Yang promised that he would never flee from battle and would live and die with the village.

Zhang Yang entered the Transcendence Trial without Duan Kuan and awoke beneath the corpses in a village massacred by monsters. After analyzing the battle and recovering weapons and armor, he hid in a valley to temper them and prepare for what came next.

• Zhang Yang selected the Transcendence Trial and entered it with Duan Kuan, but the trial separated them upon arrival.
• Zhang Yang crawled out from beneath the dead in a ruined village and deduced that three types of monsters had slaughtered its inhabitants.
• Zhang Yang found four fallen soldiers and a dead Giant Monster beside a river, then took their armor and weapons.
• Zhang Yang followed the monsters' tracks into the river, traveled downstream, and hid in a wooded valley.
• Zhang Yang gathered firewood and began using his Soul Force Field to temper the weapons and armor.

Zhang Yang escaped a pursuing troop, infiltrated a town, and used a brief refuge to recover and study his surroundings. After spotting Duan Kuan imprisoned with other men, he realized the Transcendence Trial Mission involved multiple players and decided to exploit his current advantage.

• Zhang Yang fled the trackers through a storm and entered a walled town, hiding in an empty courtyard.
• Zhang Yang changed into dry clothes, analyzed the house and its owners, and recovered his Soul Power after sleeping for two hours.
• Zhang Yang left the courtyard, blended into the town, learned local expressions, and bought steaming cakes.
• Zhang Yang saw Duan Kuan chained inside one of twelve iron cages but continued on without helping him.
• Zhang Yang concluded that the trial was an online multiplayer mission and planned to gather benefits, including using the cakes as military rations.

Zhang Yang disguised himself as a Demon Slaying Warrior and joined Sun Wencai’s military-provision convoy, hoping to use the journey toward the Great Wall Defense Line to secure a legal identity. After the convoy left Tianliang Town, a hidden escort mission appeared, and Zhang Yang began preparing his weapon for the battle ahead.

• Zhang Yang pieced together Tianliang Town’s history, its war against the Mirage Demons, and the strict travel-permit system by listening to locals through the night.
• Zhang Yang followed grain transporter Sun Wencai to his shop and disguised himself in a Demon Slaying Warrior’s armor.
• Zhang Yang persuaded Sun Wencai to let him travel with the convoy, accepting a pouch of silver in exchange for escorting it toward the defense line.
• Sun Wencai’s convoy left Tianliang Town without attracting suspicion, and Zhang Yang triggered the three-star hidden mission to escort military provisions.
• Zhang Yang read that the mission could reward him with money, Great Wei reputation, and a legal identity, then began tempering an Armor-Piercing Cone and preparing it with the Imprisonment Spell.

Zhang Yang escorted a grain convoy through the mountains and fought two captain-level Mirage Demon Twin Demon Soldiers, risking exposure to protect the travelers. He killed the agile demon and destroyed the stronger one with a compressed-air attack, leaving the convoy alive and his identity still concealed.

• Zhang Yang nurtured three Armor-Piercing Cones while traveling with Sun Wencai’s grain convoy toward the Great Wall Defense Line.
• A monkey-like Mirage Demon Soldier broke away from its companion and charged the convoy, so Zhang Yang stepped forward to meet it.
• Zhang Yang killed the agile demon with an Imprisonment Spell and an Armor-Piercing Cone, then destroyed its head to conceal evidence of his methods.
• The remaining strength-type demon resisted Zhang Yang’s mental control and charged him, forcing him to use his last two Armor-Piercing Cones to strike its eyes.
• Zhang Yang compressed air inside a Curved Force Field and launched it into the demon’s open mouth, causing its body to swell and explode.

Zhang Yang was mistaken for the dead Lieutenant Colonel Dong Cheng after killing the Twin Demon Soldiers, and the trial assigned him Dong Cheng’s identity and a survival mission. At the Great Wall, he began planning to buy grain for the villagers, but a military order sent him to command the Death Warrior Camp at Bald Head Ridge.

• Lian Kouzhi mistook Zhang Yang for Lieutenant Colonel Dong Cheng and credited him with killing the Twin Demon Soldiers.
• Zhang Yang completed the escort mission, accepted the survival mission, and received Dong Cheng’s identity, gold, and Great Wei Dynasty reputation.
• At the Great Wall, Zhang Yang asked Sun Wencai about buying military grain and learned he could purchase up to six thousand kilograms with his reputation.
• Soldiers delivered General Andong’s order for Zhang Yang to take command of the Death Warrior Camp and reach Bald Head Ridge before midnight.

Zhang Yang learned that his Death Warrior Camp held a King-tier Population and was tasked with keeping its soldiers alive while reclaiming the deadly Bald Head Ridge. He chose to investigate how to get there in time and sought help from the Great Wall Defense Line’s chief steward.

• Zhang Yang discovered that the Death Warrior Camp contained one King-tier Population, nineteen Noble Population, and sixty-six Elite Population, and that saving them could make them his subordinates.
• A white-haired old man explained that Bald Head Ridge had fallen to the Mirage Demon Soldiers and that the Death Warrior Camp would lead an attack alongside thirty thousand elite troops.
• Zhang Yang considered abandoning the mission but learned that doing so would end his chance at another Transcendence Trial, so he asked about reaching Bald Head Ridge by the deadline.
• The old man told Zhang Yang that a large wagon could reach the fortress in an hour, though he doubted Zhang Yang could obtain one.
• Zhang Yang went to the granary, where Sun Wencai introduced him to the chief steward and praised his valor; the steward offered to grant a reasonable request for his little sister’s sake.

Zhang Yang secured supplies and weapons for the Death Warrior Camp, then inspired the Qiao family’s veterans to prepare to retake Bald Head Ridge. Their recognition of him as Dong Cheng triggered a hidden mission that gave him a Game Village Building Order and only three days to prepare for a new struggle for supremacy.

• Zhang Yang used his money and Sun Wencai’s connection to obtain five carts, provisions, armor, weapons, heavy crossbows, and bolts from Dou Wen’s storehouse.
• Zhang Yang fed the imprisoned Qiao family and urged them to arm themselves and retake Bald Head Ridge for a chance to live.
• Qiao Gongda rallied his family’s veterans, who equipped themselves and set out with Zhang Yang toward Bald Head Ridge.
• Qiao Gongda praised Zhang Yang for securing the supplies, while one veteran recognized him as the former wastrel Dong Cheng.
• Qiao Gongda interpreted Zhang Yang’s actions as a return to honor, triggering hidden missions and awarding him a Game Village Building Order.
• The system revealed that Zhang Yang had three days to prepare, 999 rivals to face, and a future mission to establish a dynasty that endured for three hundred years.

Zhang Yang realized the Game Village Building Order required him to capture and hold Bald Head Ridge Fortress for three days without losing anyone, and he tried to win the Veteran General’s support. The Veteran General agreed the fortress could be taken but said holding it depended on supplies, and questioned whether any relief force would arrive.

• Zhang Yang figured out that he had to keep the eighty-six members of the Veteran General’s family alive and capture Bald Head Ridge Fortress before the story paused for three days.
• Zhang Yang questioned the Veteran General about demon soldiers crossing the Great Wall Defense Line, provoking resentment among the old man’s sons and subordinates.
• Zhang Yang tried to coax information from the Veteran General’s son and then used jokes and shameless talk about marriage to break the group’s grim silence.
• The Veteran General said he and his men could take Bald Head Ridge Fortress, but they needed five thousand crossbow bolts, one hundred replacement bowstrings, and twenty heavy shields to hold it.
• The Veteran General asked Zhang Yang whether he truly believed a relief force would arrive in three days.

Zhang Yang led the Death Warrior Camp to Black Rock Fortress, where the Great General ordered them to spearhead an assault on Bald Head Ridge at dawn. As the attack began, Zhang Yang reorganized the family’s formation and declared they would fight for themselves, leaving their survival and the fortress’s fate uncertain.

• Zhang Yang had the women and older girls walk while he chopped and dried timber to fill the wagons, then secretly crafted nine high-grade magic artifacts using refined mana.
• Zhang Yang led the Death Warrior Camp to Black Rock Fortress and requested that its women and children stay behind, but the Great General ordered the whole camp to attack Bald Head Ridge at dawn.
• Zhang Yang agreed to the order, and the Qiao family set up camp outside the fortress before forming up at first light with shields, crossbows, and wagons.
• As the drums sounded, the old man urged Zhang Yang and the young men to charge while the elders covered their retreat, expecting many of them to die.
• Zhang Yang ordered the strongest people to carry shields and charge with him, assigned the old men to support them with heavy crossbows, and told the women and children to protect the wagons.

Zhang Yang and the Qiao family used his magical artifacts and the old man's battlefield strategy to disrupt the demon army and help the allied forces seize Bald Head Ridge Fortress. The old man warned Zhang Yang that the fortress would soon face a full assault, despite their supplies being sufficient for ten days.

• The old man directed Zhang Yang to attack the demon army's right wing while he led the Qiao family fighters and their families toward the enemy.
• Zhang Yang used his Soul Force Field to divert arrows, then launched Armor-Piercing Cones that killed hundreds of demon soldiers and threw their formation into chaos.
• The old man and twenty-two guards fired heavy crossbows at the demon right wing's commander, killing him and worsening the disorder.
• Great General Zhang Yetin sent thirty thousand allied troops into the disrupted right wing, and they seized Bald Head Ridge Fortress and drove the demons back five li.
• The old man praised Zhang Yang's rebellious streak, then warned that Zhang Yetin had withdrawn and the demons would likely assault the fortress by nightfall.