Chapter Summaries

Liu Zhi combined the Life Essence with the Underworld Spring, transforming its power and gaining new benefits for the Nether Palace. After assigning his subordinates to manage the spring water and their populations, he was about to study the Ghoul Hounds when Amanet interrupted him with information about the Fishmen.

• Liu Zhi brought the stone sphere of Life Essence to the Underworld Spring with help from the Sprite Dragons and his subordinates.
• Liu Zhi meditated as the sphere entered the spring, causing plants to grow and a rain that blended life and death to fall over the Nether Palace.
• Liu Zhi learned that the evolved spring water could accelerate growth and enlarge adult creatures, then ordered Nasha to reserve its blessing for selected Fishmen.
• Liu Zhi tasked Spinning Fate Spider Woman with managing the spiders and gave her a book about ecosystems.
• Amanet stopped Liu Zhi before he could turn to the Ghoul Hounds and said she had information about the Fishmen.

Amanet explained the Fishman Empire’s factions and why Mechanized Shark Kuanglin was hunting Life Essence, then told Liu Zhi about the Goblins and their persecution. Liu Zhi suspected that green-skinned wolf renters in Fireblade City were Goblins in disguise and asked Amanet whether turning Goblins into undead was a good idea.

• Amanet told Liu Zhi that the Fishman Empire was a federation and that the Bloodbone Fishmen were outcasts among nearby tribes.
• Amanet explained that Mechanized Shark Kuanglin was a noble who controlled a living city and was collecting Life Essence to raise creatures for mechanization.
• Amanet said that Goblin Engineering was essential to mechanizing giant creatures and that Goblins had become targets across many continents.
• Amanet described the Commercial, Engineering, and Junk Goblins, explaining how some Goblins turned to piracy while others hid by changing their appearance.
• Liu Zhi recalled the green-skinned wolf renters at Fireblade City and asked Amanet whether turning Goblins into undead would be a good idea.

A green-skinned party split apart over the death of Mike’s brother and the loss of their Spear Launcher, while three Engineering Goblins secretly followed them in a disguised machine. Liu Zhi headed toward Fireblade City to identify the green-skinned players outside its gates, and spotted the same group before reaching the city.

• Mike and Mark argued over the failed Spear Launcher and the death of Mike’s younger brother, while a female player criticized both of them for their mistakes.
• The female player tried to keep the party together as they continued toward Fireblade City.
• Three Engineering Goblins followed the group in a junk-like mechanical creature, but their argument over its evaluation and their inventions distracted them.
• Liu Zhi left Amanet in the Nether Palace and drove his sun chariot toward Fireblade City to identify the green-skinned players outside its gates.
• Liu Zhi spotted the group he had encountered earlier before he reached Fireblade City.

Liu Zhi and the players encountered a giant Sludge Monster, and Liu Zhi blinded it and destroyed most of its eyes. After learning how the players planned to defeat it, he offered to break through its defenses so Mark could locate its core.

• Liu Zhi sensed danger, used Flash Explosion, and spotted a giant Sludge Monster approaching with harpoons embedded in its body.
• Liu Zhi struck the Sludge Monster with Reverse Storm, destroying seven of its nine eyes while Videnina attacked it with Wind Blade.
• Mark recognized the monster's impaired vision and sent Mike and his companions around behind it to try to bind it.
• Mark explained that the players needed to bind and weaken the Sludge Monster, then find its red Fishman skull core and deal with its subsidiary cores.
• Liu Zhi promised to open a path through the monster's defenses, and Mark agreed to follow his chariot and search for the core.
• Liu Zhi cast Sun Trail toward the Sludge Monster.

Liu Zhi and Mark led their companions into the Sludge Monster through a passage carved by the Sun Chariot, hoping to find its core before the flames faded. Liu Zhi used up his remaining magic to summon the corpses inside the monster, leaving the fight unresolved.

• Liu Zhi's Sun Chariot burned a passage through the Sludge Monster, and Mark grew bone armor before leading his companions inside.
• Liu Zhi joined Mark in the fiery passage, and Mark provoked the monster to draw its core toward them.
• Mark and his companions advanced in a coordinated battle formation while Liu Zhi went deeper with Videnina.
• Mike and his companions held the Sludge Monster in place as Liu Zhi's Sun Trail burst through its body.
• Liu Zhi dispelled the Sun Trail, drove the Death Long Staff into the monster, and spent his last magic to cast Summoning on the corpses within it.

Liu Zhi's undead power weakened the Sludge Monster, and he and Videnina destroyed its secondary cores. Their discoveries beneath the cores suggested the monster contained engineered goblin brains, and the chapter ended as a strange sound came from inside the dying creature.

• Liu Zhi used Summoning to give the corpses inside the Sludge Monster undead attributes, causing death power to spread through its body and turn it back into filthy water.
• The Sludge Monster sent two red secondary cores toward Liu Zhi, and Mark warned him and Videnina not to let them merge.
• Liu Zhi and Videnina fought and destroyed the red cores, with Videnina cleanly revealing a skull beneath one of them.
• Liu Zhi found that the skulls held living brains connected to tubes, including a goblin skull, and withdrew with both skulls rather than investigate further.
• As the Sludge Monster slowed and the players prepared for its possible explosion, a strange sound came from inside it.

Liu Zhi negotiated for a share of the Sludge Monster’s spoils as Mark and his companions destroyed it and recovered their quest item. Three Engineering Goblins reclaimed the item, and Mike demanded to know why they wanted it.

• Liu Zhi negotiated a share of the spoils and asked for skulls and any usable corpses.
• Mark and his companions found the Sludge Monster’s core, causing it to dissolve and reveal piles of corpses and broken weapons.
• Mark carried out the strange machine while Mike searched the corpses for his younger brother’s body.
• A mechanical rhinoceros disguised itself as a heap of garbage, and three Engineering Goblins jumped out and rushed to Mark.
• The Engineering Goblins reclaimed the quest item and offered to settle the quest.
• Mike handed the item to a goblin but demanded an explanation, and the goblin claimed the machine had only a tiny problem that they needed to fix.

A goblin explained how rival designs corrupted the Intelligent Brain Joint Plan and created the Sludge Monster, while Liu Zhi learned the goblins offered engineering blueprints as quest rewards. Liu Zhi showed interest in having them modify his Gem Hunting Machine blueprint, but the goblin proposed adding a missile and a network system.

• The goblin said the Intelligent Brain Joint Plan was meant to create a Wisdom Spring, but unauthorized designs had turned the machine into the source of the Sludge Monster.
• Liu Zhi pieced together how the goblins' competing designs and the deaths of intelligent creatures had made the Sludge Monster grow into a menace near Fireblade City.
• A goblin explained that the quest reward for killing the Sludge Monster and returning the device was a biological city foundation blueprint.
• Liu Zhi asked whether the goblins could modify machines from blueprints and mentioned his Gem Hunting Machine design.
• The goblin offered to add a T-999 missile and a Sky Net network system to Liu Zhi's Gem Hunting Machine.

Liu Zhi commissioned a goblin to design and build a Gem Hunting Machine while Mark and the Mattrib Guild sorted the battlefield’s corpses and equipment. After agreeing that Liu Zhi could take the corpses once the equipment was divided, Mark brought a female player over.

• Two goblins pitched weaponized and nuclear-powered designs to Liu Zhi, but he requested a machine that could locate and excavate gems without weapons or artificial intelligence.
• Mark and the other players sorted the corpses scattered across the balancing point while three goblins competed to design Liu Zhi’s Gem Hunting Machine.
• Liu Zhi chose one goblin to produce completed blueprints in three days and a prototype in about ten days.
• Mark introduced himself as a Level 4 warrior and the Mattrib Guild’s third tank, while Liu Zhi gave his name as Sandru and identified himself as a Level 2 Necromancer.
• Mark agreed that Liu Zhi could take the corpses after the players removed and divided the equipment, which they sorted and recorded.
• After Liu Zhi finished meditating and the sorting was complete, Mark brought a female player over to him.

Liu Zhi negotiated a share of the battle spoils, then escorted the haul back to the Nether Palace before heading to Fireblade City with Videnina. At the city gates, he found the green-skinned seller who had sold him wolves and reminded him that he was a Necromancer.

• Liu Zhi rejected the female player's attempt to divide the spoils by value and proposed taking three of every ten items.
• The female player agreed to sort the equipment into ten piles and let Liu Zhi draw three, though he suspected the draw had been rigged.
• Liu Zhi loaded his share of the equipment and corpses onto carts and escorted them to the Nether Palace.
• The goblins promised to deliver their goods within ten days, then their rhinoceros cart exploded before they had gone far.
• Liu Zhi and Videnina reached Fireblade City at night, where Liu Zhi asked about the wolf seller and the seller eagerly greeted him.

Liu Zhi negotiated with a disguised goblin about bringing Commercial Goblins to his city to run a market and merchant caravan. The goblin agreed to sign an agreement after Liu Zhi explained his offer and asked whether goblins could become underworld creatures.

• Liu Zhi privately asked the green-skinned strong man whether he was a goblin, and the man initially denied it.
• Liu Zhi proposed recruiting goblins to trade his city's resources and specialties through a market and merchant caravan.
• The goblin explained why Commercial Goblins struggled to survive in the cities, including the destructive practices of the Venture Capital Company.
• Liu Zhi said he could transform living creatures into underworld creatures and asked whether goblins would retain their abilities.
• The goblin said goblins could adapt to the underworld and, after hearing Liu Zhi's offer, demanded that they sign an agreement.

Liu Zhi led a group of recruited goblins back from Fireblade City, but noticed that some had been replaced by impostors. He surrounded them with Skeleton Soldiers and began checking the roster, leaving the confrontation unresolved when he challenged one goblin whose clothes did not fit.

• Liu Zhi recruited Commercial Goblins who met his requirements and started back with them, while the burly man left to travel toward Grom High.
• The burly man returned to his normal goblin size, cut away his excess skin, and continued toward Grom High.
• Liu Zhi noticed goblins exchanging information and wearing clothes that did not fit, and suspected someone had swapped out members of his group.
• Liu Zhi summoned Skeleton Soldiers, reminded the goblins of their agreement, and began calling names from his roster.
• After several goblins stepped forward, Liu Zhi challenged one whose clothes did not fit and demanded to know who he was.

Liu Zhi exposed Venture Capital Company goblins who had infiltrated his ranks and fought off their lumberjack machines. As more enemies closed in, he transported himself, the goblins, and his troops away, leaving the attackers an empty battlefield.

• Liu Zhi exposed the fake Talkative Doka, and the impostor fired a signal that summoned Venture Capital Company goblins in lumberjack machines.
• Liu Zhi ordered the goblins to crouch and attacked the machines with his Skeleton Mages and Mummy Spearmen.
• Liu Zhi used Strong Wind to blow undead Yellow Sand into the machines, then trapped some with arms rising from the earth.
• Liu Zhi discovered that Static Shock could disable the lumberjacks, but heard more enemies approaching from every direction.
• Liu Zhi drew a glowing circle around the fighters and transported everyone inside it away before the next wave arrived.

Liu Zhi brought his forces to Skull Rock, where he uncovered Venture Capital Company agents among the goblins he had recruited. After questioning one, he discovered the goblins carried mysterious coordinates and a mark that resembled an organized-unit insignia, leaving him to investigate its abnormal number.

• Liu Zhi summoned Amanet and his idle troops from the Nether Palace to Skull Rock, where the Dead Lake Fishmen attacked lumberjacks who had landed in the sea.
• Liu Zhi ordered his undead to arrest the goblins and discovered that the Venture Capital Company had replaced one-seventh of them.
• Liu Zhi questioned a captured goblin, who said the company had recruited him with promises of benefits and instructed its members to follow Liu Zhi into other worlds.
• The goblin revealed that each recruit carried a coordinate that could be activated to switch them over after entering a game.
• Liu Zhi examined the goblin's gear-like mark and recognized it as an organized-unit insignia, but noticed that its number's data looked wrong.

Liu Zhi turned the Venture Capital Company goblins into half-undead bait and sent them into the sea to draw out an enemy. Zhi Xu, searching for a way into Toga's Slumber, encountered the goblins as they charged his troops.

• Liu Zhi learned the goblins' marked shares belonged to them and their descendants could not inherit them, so he abandoned turning them into undead and decided to punish them instead.
• Liu Zhi forced the goblins to drink Underworld Spring water and coated them with Fishline Grass, then sent them into the sea for three days.
• Liu Zhi ordered his men to bring the lumberjacks and dead enemies back to Toga's Slumber while the goblins swam toward their undisclosed destination.
• Zhi Xu, Kuanglin's Brain Trust, searched the sea near Toga's Slumber with three units of troops and ordered his men to question the approaching goblins.
• The goblins charged at Zhi Xu's Mechanized Fishman troops, shouting in defense of the Venture Capital Company and their shares.

Liu Zhi agreed to let the Blackwater Goblins trade in the underworld and hire his idle undead under rules that protected his ownership and the Nether Palace. After negotiating for a market, a bank, currency-design rights, and freedom to travel, the goblins joined the Nether Palace.

• Liu Zhi learned that three enemy heroes and their armies were approaching, and he told Letoz to guard the Nether Palace's secrets while he prepared for battle.
• A group of goblins asked Liu Zhi to rent them the Sun Boat so they could trade with ghosts in the underworld, and he agreed at a low price.
• The goblins began hiring Liu Zhi's idle undead for their businesses, so Liu Zhi established limits, service requirements, and terms that kept the undead as his property.
• The goblins negotiated for stakes in a market and bank, currency-design rights, freedom to travel, and paid transactions with Liu Zhi.
• Liu Zhi signed a contract with the goblins, who had drunk from the Underworld Spring and renamed themselves the Blackwater Goblins, making them members of the Nether Palace.

Liu Zhi discovered that Rust Bone had become the hero Toras Rust Bone, then ordered him to build a fighting force from the undead at the Mass Grave. Toras selected troops for his command as Liu Zhi prepared for a possible battle against three enemy heroes.

• Liu Zhi sent the corpses to the Burial Desert and Mass Grave, assigning Amanet the thirty-seven squad-leader opportunities produced by the Burial Desert.
• Liu Zhi rushed to the Mass Grave when he saw its squad-leader opportunities rapidly disappearing, then watched a golden corpse rise from a mound.
• Liu Zhi called the corpse Rust Bone, who awakened, declared his name was Toras Rust Bone, and became a level 1 hero.
• Liu Zhi ordered Toras to organize the undead from the Burial Grounds around the Golden Skeleton troops and prepare to face a possible enemy hero alone.
• Toras selected Golden Skeletons, Skeleton Soldiers, Plague Zombies, Battleaxe Zombies, thirty Skeleton Archers, ghosts, and the scattered Golden Skeletons for his force.

Liu Zhi and Nasha prepared their forces and defenses for the expected Fishmen attack while waiting for the enemy to arrive. After Zhi Xu studied Liu Zhi’s troops, he declared that his side had an over eighty percent chance of winning and said he had plans for all three opposing heroes.

• Nasha sent the spellcasters and Fishman Musketeers to defend the reefs, then trained available Fishmen as Musketeers to attack any enemies entering the Underworld Sea Area.
• Liu Zhi assembled Falcon Corps troops, fighting dogs, War Wolves, spies, assassins, guardians, and spiders, and upgraded the Soul Suppression Tower to level four.
• Liu Zhi prepared an escape plan by choosing an underworld location where he could move the Nether Palace if the battle went badly, then sent Letoz and spies to investigate the absent Fishmen.
• Amanet handled Liu Zhi’s final two ship trades, while returning Goblins established a trade route with an underworld city and Liu Zhi considered ordering two more Sun Boats.
• The Engineering Goblins delivered a huge Gem Hunting Machine that could retrieve about three gems each day, and Liu Zhi considered recruiting more Goblins after the battle.
• Zhi Xu reviewed intelligence about Liu Zhi’s forces, estimated his side had better than an eighty percent chance of success, and announced a plan to deal with the three enemy heroes.

Liu Zhi’s preparations were interrupted when goblin saboteurs exposed Toga’s Slumber and brought the fishmen’s attack forward. As the battle began, Liu Zhi redirected Rust Bone’s troops to guard Toga’s corpse while Zhi Xu ordered the fishmen to attack without waiting for the missing hero.

• Liu Zhi ordered Letoz to deal with goblins who had infiltrated the space, but they detonated a device that exposed Toga’s Slumber along the coastline.
• Liu Zhi ordered everyone to prepare for battle as Nasha reorganized the troops and fishmen gathered their eggs and young for safety.
• Liu Zhi destroyed the first mechanical sea turtle with the Eye of Horus, realized the turtles were decoys, and suspected the enemy would attack near Toga’s corpse.
• Liu Zhi ordered Rust Bone to lead his troops to Toga’s corpse and act freely while defending the area.
• Zhi Xu learned that the mummy-like hero had not joined the battle and ordered the fishmen to attack anyway.

Liu Zhi realized the Fishmen had planned a three-pronged attack to draw away his heroes and infiltrate the Nether Palace, but the iceberg blocked their rear approach. He set out through the Underworld to hunt their commander while Nasha fought the disorganized Fishmen in the Nether Palace's sea area.

• Liu Zhi deduced that the Fishmen had lured his main combat hero away, occupied the defenders, and intended to sneak into the Nether Palace from behind.
• Liu Zhi ordered Amanet to guard the Nether Palace and told her to have Rust Bone retreat if he could not hold his ground.
• Liu Zhi took Videnina and the Corpse Soul Nagas aboard a Sun Boat and entered the Underworld to pursue the hidden Fishman commander.
• Nasha initially sent the Fishman Musketeers to attack, then led his Fishmen into battle after noticing the enemy force had no leader directing it.
• The Fishman Musketeers killed a third of the enemy before Nasha's forces reached them, and the surviving Fishmen fell into chaos as some charged Nasha out of fear for their villages.