Chapter Summaries

Ling Chu sent supplies and construction funds to Hope Island, then arranged for a special merchant to be welcomed there. After Give You a Dalieba reported a shortage of workers, Ling Chu offered teleportation tickets to recruit skilled players and contract ordinary players to work on the island.

• Ling Chu sorted seeds, rubber materials, nuts, and two hundred thousand Sea Shells and transferred them to Hope Island for farming and construction.
• Ling Chu told Give You a Dalieba to watch for Babu Guanguan, reserve him a shop near the main street, and meet his requests.
• Xiao Pai complained that Ling Chu had left it alone for four days, and Ling Chu apologized while sharing nuts with it.
• Give You a Dalieba told Ling Chu that Hope Island lacked workers to repair its walls, replant Farmland, build houses, and pave roads.
• Ling Chu offered free Hope Island Teleportation Tickets to skilled life-profession players and low-cost tickets to ordinary players who signed work contracts.
• Ling Chu instructed Give You a Dalieba to register arrivals at the docks, provide meals to workers who completed their hours, and remove players who freeloaded.

Ling Chu opened Hope Island to workers by selling inexpensive teleportation tickets, and players quickly arrived to help rebuild the island. After dinner, she reviewed the Fleet’s management options and appointed Huang Xiaowen as Vice Captain.

• Ling Chu explained that Hope Island needed workers to rebuild walls and roads, build houses, and farm, and her tickets sold out in less than ten minutes.
• Give You a Dalieba told Ling Chu that more than two hundred players had arrived and began arranging registration and labor contracts at the docks.
• Ling Chu ate dinner with her crew, who urged her to recover after her recent blood loss.
• Ling Chu reviewed the Fleet management options and learned that a Vice Captain would inherit control of the Fleet if she died.
• Ling Chu selected Huang Xiaowen for the Vice Captain position.

Ling Chu appointed Huang Xiaowen Vice Captain so the Ghost Ship and its crew would have a successor if she died, prompting the crew to joke about surrender flags and funeral preparations. Meanwhile, a flood of arriving players overwhelmed registration at Hope Island, where workers began rebuilding the damaged city walls and roads.

• Ling Chu appointed Huang Xiaowen Vice Captain and explained that she would inherit responsibility for the Ghost Ship if Ling Chu died.
• The Ghost Ship's crew discussed making white surrender flags or a threatening black flag, then laughed over their ideas.
• Players arrived in waves at Hope Island, and Dalieba struggled to register and organize the growing crowd.
• Dalieba expanded registration into separate areas for professions, identity checks, labor contracts, and job assignments.
• New arrivals joined construction teams to clear rubble, rebuild city walls, repair roads, and work the farmland.

Edmund used Mike Long’s earth-element skills to speed repairs to the roads and fields, while organizing a redesigned city. At lunch, Great Strength Creates Miracles recognized Mike Long and gave him an unusually generous serving of nuts.

• Mike Long flattened and compacted a damaged road with his earth-element skills, impressing Edmund.
• Edmund brought Mike Long to the fields, where he turned the soil, uncovered buried rocks, and helped farmers prepare land for new crops.
• Edmund outlined a new city plan, directing wider roads and separate areas for homes, warehouses, shops, and workshops.
• Edmund ordered more help for registration and asked staff to identify newcomers with urban-planning, drainage, or surveying experience.
• At lunch, Great Strength Creates Miracles recognized Mike Long and piled pine nuts, pistachios, and peanuts onto his tray.

Mike Long received an extra serving after doing ten people's worth of work at Hope Island's construction site, while Ling Chu used the Sea God Ritual Brazier to thank Salos for protecting the island. Salos accepted the duck stew and wine, then asked for another bottle of wine as a separate tribute.

• Great Strength Creates Miracles gave Mike Long an extra serving after Deputy City Lord Edmund praised his work, and Mike Long shared a photo of the meal in the Public Channel.
• Ling Chu found the Sea God Ritual Brazier in the Ghost Ship's hall and discovered that Salos could respond through it.
• Ling Chu offered Salos a basin of spicy wild duck stew to thank him for saving Hope Island from the Ten-Thousand-Bone Giant.
• Salos used divine power to bring the duck stew to his canoe, enjoyed it, and received a bottle of homemade fruit wine through the ritual connection.
• The brazier told Ling Chu that Salos gladly accepted the offering, then added that the tribute wine was separate and the bottle did not count.

Ling Chu checked on the Ghost Ship’s crew and their training while it sailed toward the area where Lucas had been active. She learned that her Skeleton Mage count had risen to four, while Huang Xiaowen still needed five player gambling matches to advance.

• Ling Chu reassured Salos that none of next year’s tribute wine would be missing and decided to keep her role as Acting Death God secret for now.
• Ling Chu used Undead Empathy to watch Raphael train skeletons, and two of them successfully became Skeleton Mages, raising her class count to four.
• Ling Chu saw You Jiali prepare salted wild duck eggs while Little Yellow chased Fluffball around the dining hall.
• Ling Chu watched Clumsy Bear practice Drunken Fist and Squid Ball train her Star Drawing Technique on deck.
• Ling Chu saw Huang Xiaowen lament that she needed five more gambling matches against players to advance.

Ling Chu decided that the Ghost Ship’s next target would be Lucas, then discovered that Lingering Wind and Fading Moon had developed a practical simplified Disguise Potion. The chapter ended with Ling Chu examining the potion and its ability to change someone’s appearance temporarily.

• Ling Chu chose Lucas as the Ghost Ship’s next target to avenge Titch, the others, and Emily’s village.
• On a triple Luck day, Ling Chu rolled the highest multiplier and gained ten Intermediate Magic Energy Mana Stones.
• Ling Chu encountered two You Jialis and learned that the apparent duplicate was Lingering Wind and Fading Moon using a Disguise Potion.
• Lingering Wind and Fading Moon demonstrated the potion and explained how it changed appearance and voice for twelve hours.
• Ling Chu inspected the simplified Disguise Potion and its restoration potion, pleased that the disguise was temporary and could be removed early.

Ling Chu gained the Chosen One buff and considered how to build faith as the Acting Death God. She asked Dalieba to make the planned City Lord statue depict her as the Death God, leaving her faith-gathering plan underway.

• Ling Chu spun the Lucky Prize Wheel and received the Chosen One buff, which greatly increased her chance of encountering special events for 24 hours.
• Squid Ball showed Ling Chu a comic, and Huang Xiaowen explained why she had not used public wagers to advance as a Gambler.
• Ling Chu reviewed her class progress and worried about how to gain Divine Power for her Acting Death God role.
• Ling Chu messaged Dalieba and asked for the City Lord's statue to show her in a black cloak with a scythe and an inscription about revering death and repaying blood debts.

Ling Chu received updates that Hope Island was rebuilding and organizing its finances, then encountered a drifting ship and triggered a Divine Office Quest to investigate its restrained souls. She boarded the vessel with her crew and found the stench of corpses growing stronger as they approached the Captain’s Cabin.

• Dalieba told Ling Chu that Hope Island had cleared rubble, planted seeds, revised its city plans, and appointed Flying Mouse to manage taxes and help establish a bank.
• Ling Chu ordered Flying Mouse to keep taxes, public funds, deposits, and bank income separately recorded, with her salary and bonuses tracked apart.
• Ling Chu went fishing and caught three venomous Sea Snakes before the skeleton Lookout spotted a sail-less ship drifting toward the Ghost Ship.
• A system notification triggered a Divine Office Quest after detecting thirty-six souls abnormally lingering under illegal restraint, and Ling Chu ordered the crew to approach the vessel.
• Ling Chu used Soulwarden’s Eye to see the chained souls, whose chains led to the Captain’s Cabin, then boarded the ship with her crew.
• Ling Chu and the crew encountered a powerful stench of rot aboard the ship, and Squid Ball began dry-heaving.

Ling Chu explored a corpse-filled ship while livestreaming and discovered that its thirty-six dead crew members were linked by soul chains leading to the Captain’s Cabin. She and her companions found evidence that most had been poisoned, then opened the cabin door and saw a man seated inside.

• Ling Chu sent Squid Ball, Clumsy Bear, and You Jiali back to the Ghost Ship while she, Huang Xiaowen, and Lingering Wind and Fading Moon searched the vessel.
• Ling Chu restarted her livestream and explained that she was doing a quest, then had the skeleton soldiers clear furniture blocking a cabin door.
• Ling Chu found a dead man whose soul was bound by black chains, but her Ghost Revival skill failed to reach him.
• Ling Chu counted thirty-six soul chains converging toward the Captain’s Cabin as the group discovered more bodies throughout the ship.
• Lingering Wind and Fading Moon concluded that most of the crew had been poisoned, likely through food or water, and the group headed to the Captain’s Cabin.
• Ling Chu sensed someone inside and opened the cabin door, revealing a man seated behind a table.

Ling Chu confronted Auston, a dead captain using the Soul-Sinking Anchor to bind his crew’s souls and prolong his own existence. After revealing that she was the Acting Death God, she refused his offer to leave and demanded thirty-six million Sea Shells for the thirty-six trapped souls.

• Ling Chu used the Soulwarden's Eye to discover Auston had been dead for twelve days and was drawing power from bound souls through the Soul-Sinking Anchor.
• Auston admitted that he had killed his crew and trapped their souls, claiming they owed him for supporting them.
• Lingering Wind and Fading Moon explained that Auston was dead, and Ling Chu drew Death God's Scythe and identified herself as the Acting Death God.
• Auston offered Ling Chu 120,000 Sea Shells and unique equipment to leave, but she countered by demanding thirty-six million Sea Shells for the thirty-six souls.

Ling Chu attacked Auston but discovered that killing him could damage the 36 souls linked to his Soul-Sinking Anchor. As Auston used the anchor to raise corpse puppets and wield the Ghostfire Command Sword, Ling Chu fled the Captain's Cabin to dismantle the anchor's connections.

• Ling Chu slashed Auston, then stopped when Soulwarden's Eye warned that destroying his core soul could harm the 36 connected souls.
• Auston drew power from the Soul-Sinking Anchor and raised the ship's corpses as puppets; Ling Chu warned Huang Xiaowen and the skeleton soldiers not to damage them.
• Auston took up the Ghostfire Command Sword and attacked Ling Chu, whose strikes inflicted mental shock and disrupted her perception.
• Ling Chu decided to dismantle the Soul-Sinking Anchor's connections and ran from the Captain's Cabin, with Auston chasing her.

Ling Chu destroyed the first Soul-Lock Node in the kitchen, freeing six souls and weakening Auston. Auston retaliated with a distortion of her sense of direction and attacked her chest.

• Auston pursued Ling Chu as she followed the soul chains toward the kitchen, while Huang Xiaowen and Lingering Wind and Fading Moon held off the Corpse Puppets.
• Ling Chu found a black iron nail beneath the converging soul chains, and Auston disrupted her senses before attacking.
• Ling Chu used Soul Slash to split the node, freeing six souls and causing six Corpse Puppets to collapse.
• The destroyed node weakened Auston's sword and allowed his corpse to decay, and Ling Chu told him she would destroy the other five.
• Auston distorted Ling Chu's sense of direction and lunged at the bone armor over her chest.

Ling Chu dismantled the second Soul-Lock Node in the cargo hold, freeing six more souls and weakening Auston’s borrowed power. She told Auston that four nodes remained as he faced her again.

• Ling Chu escaped Auston and ran toward the cargo hold while six Corpse Puppets collapsed after the first node was destroyed, freeing their souls.
• Ling Chu gained Divine Power from the freed souls as Huang Xiaowen explained their release to the livestream audience.
• In the cargo hold, Ling Chu used skeleton soldiers’ immunity to Auston’s mental interference to make them topple the shelves and force him to withdraw his soul-power trails.
• Auston distorted Ling Chu’s senses, but she followed the soul chains with the Soulwarden’s Eye and shattered the second Soul Nail.
• Six more Corpse Puppets collapsed, Auston’s power weakened, and Ling Chu told him that four nodes remained.

Ling Chu destroyed the third and fourth Soul Nails, weakening Auston and freeing the souls bound to them. Auston reached the fifth node first, but Huang Xiaowen, Lingering Wind and Fading Moon, and the Skeletons cornered his remaining Corpse Puppets as the struggle continued.

• Ling Chu broke the third Soul Nail after cutting through Auston's brief mental illusion, freeing eighteen ordinary souls and causing Auston's corpse to deteriorate further.
• Auston offered Ling Chu two hundred thousand sea shells and his ship to stop her, but she reminded him that she had quoted thirty-six million.
• Ling Chu discovered poison residue in the water barrels in the water storage hold and used rolling barrels to evade Auston's focused attacks and shatter the fourth Soul Nail, freeing twenty-four souls.
• Auston's remaining soul power dwindled and rigor mortis began to stiffen his sword hand as Ling Chu announced that two nodes remained.
• Auston reached the fifth node beneath the wheelhouse and blocked its entrances with his twelve remaining Corpse Puppets, but Huang Xiaowen, Lingering Wind and Fading Moon, and the Skeletons arrived and forced the puppets into a cabin.

Ling Chu destroyed the final soul-lock node beneath the Captain's Cabin, freeing the last crew souls and severing Auston's link to his corpse. Auston's corrupted soul emerged from his body and fled as Ling Chu watched.

• Ling Chu used Death God's Cloak to absorb and reflect Auston's mental attack, then shattered the fifth soul-lock node.
• Ling Chu went to the hidden hold beneath the Captain's Cabin, where Auston guarded the final node and warned that the trapped souls would die if he did.
• Ling Chu disarmed Auston and destroyed the final black soul nail, freeing all thirty-six normal undead souls.
• Auston's corpse collapsed as his soul separated from it, and he failed to return to his body because the Soul-Sinking Anchor had severed their connection.
• Auston realized Ling Chu was no longer restrained from attacking him and ran away.

Ling Chu captured Auston's anomalous soul and stored it until she could send him to the Death Realm prison. The thirty-six freed souls learned how Auston had poisoned and imprisoned them, and Ling Chu made sure they knew she had saved them.

• Ling Chu used Soul Extraction to drag Auston's fleeing soul back and seal it in an Anomalous Soul Orb.
• The system explained that Auston's altered soul had to be detained in the Death Realm Dungeon, and Ling Chu stored the orb in the Ring of Bones until she could open the passage.
• The thirty-six freed souls appeared and recalled how Auston had poisoned them, trapped them aboard the ship, and drained their souls for twelve days.
• Ling Chu told the crewmen she had removed their Soul Locks and insisted they remember that the Acting Death God had saved them.

Ling Chu completed the Divine Office quest by freeing the thirty-six souls trapped aboard Auston’s ship, earning Divine Power and an Excellent evaluation. After burying the dead and looting the ship, she found Chips, a letter, and a diary in a locked drawer.

• Ling Chu freed the thirty-six souls, received their gratitude and Faith Points, and considered how Mortus had used the Death’s Blind Box Gashapon Machine to intercept souls.
• The system declared the Soul-Sinking Anchor destroyed and the quest complete with an Excellent evaluation, awarding Ling Chu 30 Divine Power and increasing her compatibility with the Death Office.
• Ling Chu discussed her reward with Huang Xiaowen, then closed Soulwarden’s Eye and reflected on the Death God’s duty to protect the normal process of death.
• Titch and the skeletons identified the dead sailors and Auston, and Ling Chu had their bodies buried at sea before ordering the crew to search the ship’s warehouse.
• Ling Chu searched Auston’s cabin, found valuables in a safe, and pried open a locked drawer with Death God’s Scythe, uncovering black Chips, a letter, and a diary.

Ling Chu found Auston’s diary and learned that he had bought a Soul Artifact from Lucas’s Nautilus Fleet at Black Reef Island Free Port. The diary gave the group a likely meeting point and schedule, and they planned to reach the port ahead of the fleet’s next visit.

• Ling Chu ended her stream, received 280 Faith Points, and opened Auston’s diary.
• Lingering Wind and Fading Moon explained that Auston’s symptoms suggested irreversible organ failure that Life Potions could only temporarily relieve.
• Ling Chu read that Auston had sought a life-extending drug at Black Reef Island Free Port and heard of a fleet flying a nautilus flag.
• Ling Chu, Huang Xiaowen, and Lingering Wind and Fading Moon found Black Reef Island on the Nautical Chart and connected the fleet to Lucas.
• Ling Chu read that Auston bought a Soul Artifact from Lucas’s broker at Pier Thirteen on June 29, and Lingering Wind and Fading Moon estimated the fleet would return in about a month.
• Lingering Wind and Fading Moon calculated that the Ghost Ship could reach Black Reef Island in twenty days, giving them time to watch for Lucas.

Ling Chu prepared to ambush Lucas's fleet at Black Reef Island while her skeleton crew argued over how to punish him. After salvaging Auston's ship, she merged its Nautical Chart with the Marauder's Map and discovered how to copy and trade ship routes.

• Ling Chu told Titch that Lucas's fleet regularly resupplied at Black Reef Island, and the skeletons eagerly proposed punishments for Lucas before Ling Chu ordered them to move the supplies.
• Ling Chu's crew stripped Auston's ship and found less money than Auston had promised, while Ling Chu concluded that Lucas had taken much of Auston's fortune for the Soul-Sinking Anchor.
• Ling Chu let Lingering Wind, Fading Moon, and Clumsy Bear choose equipment, then stored an unwanted Agility-boosting bracer as a future reward.
• Ling Chu merged Auston's Nautical Chart with the Marauder's Map, revealing Black Reef Island and routes to previously unexplored northern waters.
• The system explained that blank parchment could copy an unowned ship's routes, and Ling Chu learned that Nautical Charts could be traded but might expose valuable intelligence.