Chapter Summaries

After absorbing most of the Ice Marrow Pill’s power, Zhang Yang recovered much of his strength and discovered that the escaped Ghost Lady was gathering Yin Energy to become a Ghost Queen. Unable to defeat her directly, he organized the village to gather fuel and build an improved heating system to protect everyone until winter ended, then set out to visit the mountain god.

• Zhang Yang spent three days nourishing his body with the Ice Marrow Pill’s remaining spiritual efficacy, growing taller and improving his physical abilities.
• After Zhang Yang emerged from seclusion, Wu Yuan and the others showed him the strange clear sky above the village and the vast Yin Energy Cloud gathering in the distance.
• Wang Shen warned that the Ghost Lady was likely preparing to advance into a Ghost Queen and that the village would face a decisive battle before winter ended.
• Zhang Yang ordered Wu Yuan to gather trees, sent Wang Mumu, Reyn, Duan Kuan, Song Dachui, and Zhou Datou to seek coal, and instructed Wang Shen to mobilize smiths and craftsmen to improve housing and make charcoal.
• Zhang Yang drew heating-system blueprints with the Fragment of Hope, assigned Zhao Tiezhu and Mabun to forge iron plates, and went to seek the mountain god’s help.

Zhang Yang asked the Mountain God to divine a way to help with the coming battle against the Ghost Mother, and received a talisman that opened an unknown Mountain God Trial. Meanwhile, an exploration team searching for coal reached the Orc Tribe’s ruined town and discovered signs that the Orc Lord and humans had recently been there.

• Zhang Yang questioned the Mountain God about its power and ordered it to find a way to help prepare for the likely battle against the Ghost Mother before winter ended.
• The Mountain God spent one point of divinity to divine a Mountain God Trial Talisman, which the Village Building Order warned could lead to a place outside its control.
• Zhang Yang took the talisman and returned to the castle to prioritize making seamless iron pipes for a heating system.
• Wang Mumu, Reyn, Duan Kuan, Song Dachui, Zhou Datou, and their troops found an exhausted coal mine at the Jackalmen ruins and continued toward the Orc Tribe.
• At the Orc Tribe’s ruins, Wang Mumu revealed footprints in the frost, including tracks from the Orc Lord, its warriors, and humans, and Reyn ordered the team to follow the human tracks.

Reyn’s exploration team discovered that fire could destroy the Sons of the Ghost Mother and prepared to investigate their source. After defeating several hundred of them, they heard Village Chief Wang Shun call out from the mountain ridge.

• Reyn’s team encountered four unkillable figures, and Reyn burned them to ashes after Wang Mumu identified them as Sons of the Ghost Mother.
• Reyn ordered the team to investigate the mountain, where Wang Mumu found a cluster of buildings and several hundred Sons of the Ghost Mother.
• A Ghost Priest summoned the Sons of the Ghost Mother, so Reyn organized the team to fight with their backs to a fire.
• Wang Mumu froze and smashed the attackers into the flames while Reyn and the others kept the fire burning, wiping out several hundred Sons of the Ghost Mother.
• Village Chief Wang Shun called to Reyn’s team from the mountain ridge and claimed he was their ally and a friend of Wu Yu.

Reyn's party returned with Wang Shun, a displaced village chief whose settlement had been destroyed by a Ghost Lady, and Zhang Yang rejected his demand for help rebuilding. Zhang Yang imprisoned Wang Shun but planned to use him to develop the distant coal and iron reserves after winter.

• Reyn recognized Wang Shun as the rude soldier who had delivered a message months earlier, and Wang Shun revealed that a Ghost Lady had destroyed his village.
• Wang Shun offered to cooperate with Zhang Yang in exchange for food and help rebuilding, arguing that his death would let foreign races gain his share of the Earth Civilization Code.
• Zhang Yang accused Wang Shun of hypocrisy over his failure to help Wu Yu and threatened to imprison him until he was erased for failing his village-building mission.
• Wang Shun tried to bargain by claiming he could solve the village's bloodline crisis, but Wang Mumu and Reyn hauled him away to be imprisoned.
• Zhang Yang told Wu Yuan to keep Wang Shun alive and said he intended to support him near the distant coal and iron reserves after winter.

Zhang Yang completed the village’s heating system and prepared for his dangerous Mountain God Trial, making arrangements for the village in case he did not return. Wu Yuan consumed the Ice Marrow Pill and became a powerful Transcendent hero, but he and the others still urged Zhang Yang not to go as he left without changing his mind.

• Zhang Yang finished installing a coal-fired heating system for the residents and soldiers, then halted coal mining and tree cutting once the village had enough fuel.
• Zhang Yang named Zhang Wenyuan as his successor and instructed Wu Yuan and the others to protect the village if he failed to return from the Mountain God Trial.
• Zhang Yang gave Wu Yuan an Ice Marrow Pill, and Wu Yuan absorbed its power before advancing to Transcendent with three Transcendent attributes.
• Wu Yuan demonstrated his strength by estimating that he could defeat Wang Mumu within three spears and kill the Orc Lord in three.
• Wu Yuan and the others pleaded with Zhang Yang to abandon the trial, but Zhang Yang left, convinced that a draw against a Ghost Queen would only postpone disaster.

Zhang Yang entered the Mountain God Trial and awoke injured in a deserted campsite in an unknown world, without access to his Village Building Orders or Soul Force Field. After treating his wound and crafting a wooden spear, he learned the Mountain God had spent most of their divinity keeping him alive and that they needed ten units of divinity to find a way home.

• Zhang Yang activated the Mountain God Trial Talisman, leaving his village and losing access to his Village Building Orders while away.
• Zhang Yang woke in a crude leather tent with a badly infected leg, found the Mountain God Temple ornament on his chest, and suspected the Mountain God was suppressing the injury.
• Zhang Yang cut away the rotten flesh, packed the wound with ashes, and surveyed the abandoned campsite, where he found signs of a departed merchant caravan.
• Zhang Yang used a log and his dagger to craft a wooden spear through the rainy days, passing out several times before finishing it.
• Zhang Yang heard the Mountain God's voice and learned that the Mountain God had used divinity to stabilize his wound and divine a Creation Talisman, leaving only 0.4 units available and requiring ten units to find the way home.

Zhang Yang searched an abandoned camp and found a wounded, plague-stricken warrior who recognized him as Cobbler Rick Joseph and rejected his offer of salvation. Zhang Yang tried to weaken the man’s resolve and suspected his hatred of heretics explained his refusal.

• Zhang Yang inspected a decomposed warrior’s tent and inferred that a contagious epidemic had caused the camp’s hasty abandonment.
• Zhang Yang opened another tent and narrowly avoided a crossbow bolt before a burly man attacked him with a dagger.
• Zhang Yang pinned the man with his wooden spear and offered to save him if he became a believer in the Mountain God of Divine Wood Peak.
• The man identified Zhang Yang as Cobbler Rick Joseph, denounced him as a heretic, and refused to cooperate.
• Zhang Yang backed toward the crossbow while studying the man’s clothing and bearing, then guessed that the man’s hatred of heretics drove his rejection.

Zhang Yang tried to win the faith of a steadfast big man rather than kill him, while both men prepared to survive and fight in the wilderness. With heavy rain approaching, their struggle became a contest of preparation and endurance.

• Zhang Yang removed the big man's weapons and supplies while keeping his distance, hoping to break his will without driving him to suicide.
• The big man escaped to a boulder and began crafting tools and defenses, while Zhang Yang started stringing the crossbow and gathering strength.
• The Mountain God warned Zhang Yang that heavy rain would arrive within three days and urged him to convert the big man into a believer.
• Zhang Yang and the big man independently dug drainage channels, built defenses, repaired weapons, and prepared for beasts and the coming rain.
• Zhang Yang resisted the temptation to let the big man abandon his faith, resolving to continue the Mountain God's trial despite the difficult contest.

Zhang Yang survived a night attack by a supernatural shadow with help from the Salted Fish Mountain God, Zhao Xiao'er. By worshipping the Mountain God plaque, he created a Beginner Mountain God Order and regained access to the Village Building Order.

• Zhang Yang prepared stake traps around his camp and waited through the cold, rainy night, wary of the injured big man and wild beasts.
• After the mountain wind stopped, a black shadow attacked Zhang Yang, and he activated possession through the Salted Fish Mountain God pendant.
• Zhao Xiao'er possessed Zhang Yang and killed the shadow with twenty-seven spear thrusts, leaving Zhang Yang exhausted and the wooden spear destroyed.
• The shadow was absorbed into the wooden pendant and became a plaque depicting a level-five Mountain God Temple.
• Zhang Yang bowed three times to the plaque, which grew larger and brought him into an illusion of the Mountain God Temple.
• Zhang Yang received a Beginner Mountain God Order that offered a level-fifteen special building and storage for hero and warrior spirits.

Zhang Yang learned that the corpse he had scavenged became a soul ghost and that Salted Fish Mountain God had consumed it, then met a professional ghost hunter. The hunter agreed to become a broad-faith believer of the mountain god and temporarily partner with Zhang Yang as a ghost hunter.

• Salted Fish Mountain God told Zhang Yang that killing the soul ghost had strengthened him and that fifty more could help him gain a level.
• Zhang Yang spotted the burly man approaching and trained his Steel-Plate Gear Crossbow on him.
• The burly man explained that he was a professional ghost hunter and offered Zhang Yang a partnership after learning he had killed a soul ghost.
• Zhang Yang refused to become a ghost hunter until the burly man offered to believe in his mountain god alongside many other gods.
• Zhang Yang named the mountain god Zhao Xianyu, and One-Legged Robin knelt and declared himself a broad-faith believer, leaving Salted Fish Mountain God wailing in despair.

Zhang Yang recruited Broken-Legged Robin as Zhao Xianyu’s ordinary believer and agreed to hunt soul ghosts with him, hoping to prove he was the mountain god’s Sky Priest. The pair set out north along the trade route, while Zhang Yang secretly prepared another possession spell and learned that soul ghosts had recently appeared there alongside an unknown plague.

• Zhang Yang learned how the Mountain God Order converted Fanaticism Value into resources and questioned Broken-Legged Robin about his many gods and suspicion of Zhao Xianyu.
• Broken-Legged Robin refused to become a sincere believer but agreed to judge Zhang Yang after they hunted five more low-level soul ghosts together.
• Broken-Legged Robin explained that blue skulls served as spirit vessels and that he had taken a bounty from Crocodile Jory to clear the trade route of soul ghosts.
• Zhang Yang agreed to act as bait, let Broken-Legged Robin retrieve the Ebony Ogre crossbow, and secretly exchanged 50 Fanaticism Value for 5 Sincerity Value.
• Zhang Yang and Broken-Legged Robin left their camp and headed north as Broken-Legged Robin described the soul ghosts appearing on the trade route and the unexplained plague.

Zhang Yang and Broken-Legged Robin hunted a soul ghost, but the intermediate ghost attacked them and nearly killed Robin. Zhang Yang used a temporary divine art and Robin’s conversion to an Honest Believer to gain the resources to restore his Soul Force Field, then sealed the ghost in its blue-glowing skull.

• Broken-Legged Robin explained why Ghost Hunters had risen to prominence and helped Zhang Yang set bait for a soul ghost.
• The bait burned, and the soul ghost froze Zhang Yang before attacking Broken-Legged Robin; Zhao Xianyu revealed that it was an intermediate soul ghost.
• Zhang Yang used Holy Light Illumination to interrupt the ghost’s attack, allowing Robin to regain control of his soul and become an Honest Believer of Mountain God Zhao Xianyu.
• Zhang Yang exchanged the faith value Robin generated for Fanaticism Value and Gray Fragments of Hope, then briefly restored his Soul Force Field.
• Zhang Yang used Soul Tremor and the Imprisonment Spell to expose and seal the soul ghost’s blue-glowing skull, then picked up the skull as an Intermediate Soul Artifact.

Zhang Yang traded the Blue Skull for a First-Grade Foundation Establishment Pill, but an unknown power shattered the Golden Scales projection and trapped him in the strange world. After consuming the pill, he recovered some of his sealed Soul Power and emerged with improved physical abilities, while the world’s mysteries remained unresolved.

• Zhang Yang sold the Blue Skull through the Golden Scales, paying 150,000 points of energy to exchange it for a First-Grade Foundation Establishment Pill.
• An unknown power shattered the Golden Scales projection, and Zhao Xianyu warned Zhang Yang that the exchange had alerted a great terror and might prevent their return until winter ended.
• Zhang Yang stopped Broken-Legged Robin from waking, cleaned up the scene, and questioned Zhao Xianyu about being bound by the Intermediate Soul Ghost.
• Zhang Yang swallowed the First-Grade Foundation Establishment Pill and endured its fiery effects as black blood poured from his body.
• Zhang Yang sensed that his body and Soul Force Field had been sealed, reclaimed some Soul Power, and found that the pill had strengthened his body without activating the Immortal Cultivation World Village Building Task.

After sensing that the First-Grade Foundation Establishment Pill had opened a path to magical power, Zhang Yang hid his abilities and devised a safer way to gather spiritual qi. He ended by concealing a small reserve of magical power inside what looked like rotten wood.

• Zhang Yang realized he could cultivate magical power but feared that openly absorbing spiritual qi would draw a deadly response.
• He knocked Broken-Legged Robin unconscious again, then chose a large tree to use as a safer vessel for spiritual qi.
• Zhang Yang reasoned that taking the First-Grade Foundation Establishment Pill without the earlier Village Building Orders could trigger a dangerous Immortal Cultivation Village Building Task.
• He slowly infused the tree with Soul Power and spiritual qi, transforming it into jade-transformed wood in half an hour.
• Zhang Yang absorbed the wood’s magical power, used it to cast an Imprisonment Spell, and left a tiny reserve concealed in its rotten core.

After Broken-Legged Robin awoke, Zhang Yang lied about Zhao Xianyu’s fate and learned that high-level soul ghosts could threaten gods. As Zhang Yang escorted Robin toward Storm City, they encountered a caravan hunted by powerful creatures, and Zhang Yang offered to save them in exchange for help becoming a god.

• Zhang Yang told the confused Broken-Legged Robin that Zhao Xianyu had driven off a soul ghost and granted him a stronger divine art.
• Broken-Legged Robin explained that soul ghosts were called Godslayers and warned that a high-level one might have attacked Zhao Xianyu.
• Zhang Yang pretended to insist on contacting his lord, then ran away until Robin offered him a manor and his daughter in exchange for help getting home.
• Zhang Yang helped Robin over a ridge and spotted a fleeing caravan pursued by two creatures moving at terrifying speed.
• Zhang Yang identified the pursuers as unlike ordinary soul ghosts and asked Robin to help him become a god in exchange for rescuing him and the caravan.

Zhang Yang and Broken-Legged Robin joined forces to confront two apparent soul fiends, but Robin was killed when they revealed themselves as paper figures. Zhang Yang destroyed both attackers and learned they planned to capture him as an outsider and alert their master.

• Broken-Legged Robin proposed cooperating with Zhang Yang to become a god and offered Divine Ashes to hinder the soul fiends.
• As the caravan fled toward them, Robin scattered the ashes and activated a bronze emblem while Zhang Yang prepared to fight.
• Zhang Yang immobilized one attacker with his Imprisonment Spell, but Robin was killed by a sharp implement after the supposed soul fiends proved to be paper figures.
• The paper figures recognized Zhang Yang as an outsider and discussed capturing him and wiping out his civilization; Zhang Yang retaliated with fireballs and repeated Imprisonment Spells.
• One paper figure escaped the flames, but Zhang Yang killed it with burning wooden spears, then trapped and burned the second figure to ashes.

Zhang Yang destroyed the paper figures’ mysterious beads, gathered divinity and faith from their remains, and used them to revive Broken-Legged Robin as a new god. He later spotted Robin’s caravan near Storm City and decided to help Robin’s hidden religious enterprise grow while seeking more Dry Rations.

• Zhang Yang used intense heat to crack open one crimson bead, releasing black mist and a mountain of stored items, then found divine weapons among the remains.
• Zhang Yang collected thirteen units of divinity, four incomplete divine positions, and faith, converting the faith into fanaticism value.
• Zhang Yang ordered Zhao Xianyu to revive Broken-Legged Robin, gave Robin divinity and divine positions, and burned the remaining evidence and loot.
• Broken-Legged Robin emerged from the flames as a god, gaining five fanatics and turning the rest of the caravan into sincere believers.
• Zhang Yang disguised himself as a melon seller outside Storm City and, five days later, watched Robin’s caravan pass without revealing its true nature.
• Zhang Yang decided Robin’s enterprise needed to grow to protect them from the paper figures’ master, then left to obtain more Dry Rations.

Zhang Yang infiltrated Hammer Daim’s blacksmith shop to investigate Broken-Legged Robin and safely open a second Storage Orb. He neutralized a terrifying hidden power inside and forged specialized weapons, leaving him with valuable materials and equipment.

• Zhang Yang spent five days preparing, investigated Storm City, and arranged for a family to pose as his parents so he could become an apprentice at Hammer Daim’s shop.
• Zhang Yang worked at the shop for three days while waiting for a chance to handle the second red orb, which had belonged to Xixi.
• When Hammer Daim and the other blacksmiths left, Zhang Yang overheated the furnace and used three Curved Force Fields to melt the orb.
• A terrifying presence emerged from the orb, but the collapse of the Curved Force Fields annihilated it before anyone nearby noticed the danger.
• Zhang Yang salvaged divinity, Fanaticism Value, and several unusual items from the orb, then cast blue molten steel into weapons and crossbow components.

Zhang Yang discovered that the jade contained tens of thousands of living souls and witnessed a deadly gray-fog attack devastate Storm City. He then learned that Broken-Legged Robin had made Zhao Xianyu a powerful mountain god by spreading his faith, despite Zhang Yang's efforts to avoid contact.

• Zhang Yang probed the jade and found tens of thousands of trapped living souls, which Zhao Xianyu identified as material for evil ghosts and Magic Treasures.
• Zhang Yang told Zhao Xianyu to weaken his divine position and avoid responding to Broken-Legged Robin, fearing they would expose their origins.
• A freezing gray fog swept through Storm City, and Zhang Yang used the forge's heat to protect the blacksmith shop from it.
• Zhang Yang saw an illusion of a vast throne surrounded by vengeful ghosts and realized the Abyssal Ghost Tribe had entered the world.
• The gray-fog disaster killed more than five thousand people in Storm City and devastated other settlements, driving refugees back into the city.
• Broken-Legged Robin became Zhao Xianyu's fanatic believer and Earth Priest, offered him two divine positions, and helped him rise to level 26 as hundreds of new believers joined.

Zhang Yang ordered Zhao Xianyu to organize Storm City’s believers into a force to restore order, then prepared to fight the invaders by strengthening Zhao Xianyu’s divine abilities. After dismissing the chance to establish a Heavenly Divine Kingdom, Zhang Yang focused on improving communication and divination, leaving his plan to exploit the enemies’ vulnerability still in progress.

• Zhang Yang directed Zhao Xianyu to issue Divine Edicts establishing the Divine Wood Royal Guard, appointing Broken-Legged Robin as Earth Priest, forbidding looting, and organizing corpses and loyal commoners.
• As the crisis drew more believers, Zhao Xianyu reached level 35 and gained the ability to establish a Heavenly Divine Kingdom, fuse divine positions, and advance to Heavenly God.
• Zhang Yang rejected those advances, reasoned that the world’s civilization code had been deciphered, and began auditing his divine positions and resources for a way to change the code.
• Zhang Yang raised Zhao Xianyu’s Divine Edict to level 25, improving its range, its effects on believers and troops, and its ability to intimidate nearby enemies.
• Zhang Yang spent 50 units of divinity to raise Zhao Xianyu’s Divination Divine Art from level 10 to level 28, valuing it as an ability the invaders’ deciphered code did not cover.