Chapter Summaries

After Liu Zhi destroyed the ruby in Adam's statue, the bone dragon broke free of its restraints and revealed the souls of Adam's descendants trapped inside it. Adam transformed into a giant armored dragon, and Amanet rallied the remaining forces to stop him before the Nether Palace fell.

• The bone dragon tried to escape after the ruby was destroyed, but Amanet struck it with Glimmering Thorn and exposed the trapped souls of Adam's descendants.
• Amanet and the Mummy Spearmen attacked the bone dragon, awakening the souls inside it.
• Adam transformed into a giant dragon in Heavy Armor, leaving Sandru nearly out of magic as Videnina and the Spinning Fate Spider Woman attacked him.
• Sandru dropped the Dark Sky Curtain and called for every available unit, while Amanet sent zombies and the Mummy City Guard to reinforce the fight.
• Amanet ordered the five Headsmen to cut off Adam's head as the battered bone dragon lunged toward him, apparently trying to merge with him.

Adam was defeated when Sandru extracted his soul and the Executioners beheaded the dragon, though the undead siege of the Nether Palace continued. Liu Zhi assigned Amanet to secure the surrounding territory and began organizing the Dragon Duke’s lands and repurposing the fallen Dragon Tooth Soldiers.

• Adam’s descendants attacked him spiritually, allowing Sandru to cast Soul Extraction and pull Adam’s soul from the dragon’s body.
• Amanet’s troops attacked the Bone Dragon and dragon while the five Executioners struck the dragon’s neck in turn and severed its head.
• Adam’s soul was torn apart by the descendant souls, though Sandru could not tell whether any fragments escaped.
• Sandru reported that undead still surrounded the Nether Palace, so Liu Zhi ordered Mand to defend the city and Amanet to secure the surrounding territory.
• Liu Zhi sent Corpse Soul Naga to gather local administrators and had Fishmen move the Dragon Tooth Soldiers’ corpses, discovering that their bodies could quickly become an Undead Army when given souls.

Liu Zhi abandoned plans to move the Dragon Tooth Soldiers' corpses through the Nether Palace and began building a Teleportation Array at the Dragon Duke's Castle. He claimed the surrounding territory for the Ainfaster family, then killed an official who challenged his authority over the farmland.

• Liu Zhi decided the underground passage was too difficult to use for transporting supplies and chose to build a Teleportation Array between the real world and the Netherworld.
• Liu Zhi started digging up the castle's plaza to construct the array as the territory's officials and village chiefs arrived.
• Liu Zhi declared himself Sandru Ainfaster and claimed the territory for his family, showing the gathered people the dead Dolet family members.
• A village chief and an administrative official insisted Liu Zhi could take the castle but not their farmland.
• Liu Zhi stabbed the official through the forehead and demanded to know what the others thought.

Liu Zhi killed the village chiefs who defied him and learned that one of them was a werewolf from the Fililu Family, a powerful northern faction. He then questioned the remaining administrators and chiefs about the Dragon Duke’s territory and learned its main settlements and resources.

• Liu Zhi ordered the village chiefs to leave, but Sireide threatened him as the chiefs began to depart.
• Liu Zhi used Strong Wind and Starfall against the charging chiefs, while the Corpse Soul Naga wounded Sireide in werewolf form; the attacks killed the chiefs.
• An administrator identified Sireide as one of the Wolf King’s personal guards, and Liu Zhi recognized the Fililu Family’s connection to the Northern Glacier.
• Liu Zhi asked the administrators and village chiefs about the Dragon Duke’s territory, and they reported that it had eleven villages, two towns, two docks, six mines, and a pasture.

Liu Zhi took control of the Dragon Duke's territory, learned how its villages and resources were organized, and set new rules for taxes, corpses, inspections, and defenses. After dismissing the administrators and village heads, he noticed two more hidden supernatural beings among them.

• Liu Zhi heard reports on the territory's villages, mines, docks, ranch, and towns, and learned that a village administrator had concealed a werewolf among the mountain villages.
• Liu Zhi declared himself the territory's master, reduced the grain and gold taxes to eighty percent, and required that every corpse be sent to him.
• Liu Zhi announced that undead inspectors would visit every six months and warned administrators to report any hidden resources before inspections began.
• Liu Zhi assigned the soldiers and town militias to guard roads, villages, and mines while his undead took over the territory's defenses.
• Liu Zhi dismissed the administrators and village heads, then spotted two other hidden supernatural beings among the village heads.

Liu Zhi returned to the Nether Palace to find the undead still blocking the area where he wanted to build a Teleportation Array. When Adam’s corpse transformed, it produced three strange objects, and Liu Zhi used one on Dragon Hill before examining the other two.

• Liu Zhi returned from the first level and found that the undead outside the Nether Palace had not been cleared, preventing him from placing a Teleportation Array outside the city.
• Adam’s corpse began changing, and Liu Zhi stopped Sandru from attacking it so he could observe what happened.
• The transformed dragon contracted into three objects after Adam’s ruby collided with its lights, and the system identified them as a Netherbreath Dragon corpse, a Dragonkin bloodline, and corrupted Dragon Herder experience.
• Liu Zhi sent the silver dragon figurine toward Dragon Hill, where it swallowed the hill, the botanist’s trees, and the plants into the ground.

Liu Zhi sent Adam’s corrupted items to the Scarab Secret Hall, then learned that the Netherbreath Dragon corpse had triggered a transformation of the Nether Palace. After consulting Amanet and Mand, he chose the Mountain Range Woodland Type and began adjusting the terrain.

• Liu Zhi sent the Dragonkin bloodline and corrupted experience into the Scarab Secret Hall and warned Amanet and Sandru not to use them.
• The system notified Liu Zhi that the Netherbreath Dragon corpse had been absorbed and offered three terrain transformation options for the Nether Palace.
• Liu Zhi asked Mand and Amanet which terrain would best support the Nether Palace’s defense and development; Mand favored the Mountain Range Woodland Type, and Amanet agreed despite preferring plains.
• Liu Zhi adjusted the proposed mountain layout, reassured Mand that the battle would continue, and started the Nether Palace’s transformation.

After Liu Zhi chose to raise Dragon Hill, it became a vast mountain that lifted and expanded the Nether Palace, changing its defenses and layout. Liu Zhi planned districts across the slopes, while Mand organized defenses against undead attackers.

• Dragon Hill rose into a mountain more than five hundred meters tall, expanding the Nether Palace and separating the Underworld Sea Area from the rest of the territory.
• Mand moved the walls to block the mountain path and planned artillery, successive defensive lines, patrols, and terraces to protect the enlarged Nether Palace.
• Liu Zhi found that the mountain was covered in Snake Bone Wood and Venomous Snake Flowers, then began reorganizing the Nether Palace around the Scarab Secret Hall.
• Liu Zhi assigned upper platforms to the Dream Forest, undead conversion district, and Tomb Chamber, and planned for spiders to hollow out an underground complex.
• Liu Zhi designated lower platforms for training, equipment, enhancements, ice troops, magic troops, and residential areas, with further development planned around the mountainside.

Liu Zhi ended the siege of the Nether Palace by using the Dark Sky Curtain to herd hundreds of thousands of undead into a battle with the half-dragon undead. He then set up a Teleportation Array and began moving Dragon Duke Castle’s supplies and treasures.

• Liu Zhi reviewed his plans for the Nether Palace’s buildings, defenses, and seven walls, then saw that Mand was struggling against a vast undead army.
• Liu Zhi and Sandru covered the undead with the Dark Sky Curtain and led them away from the palace toward the dragons’ former resting place.
• Liu Zhi released the undead among the half-dragon undead, and the two groups began fighting in a cycle where each kind appeared from underground as the other died.
• Sandru stayed behind to study the area and improve his necromancy, while Liu Zhi returned to the Nether Palace and assigned Amanet and Mand to organize and defend it.
• Liu Zhi built a Teleportation Array near the Traveling Orb, went to Dragon Duke Castle, relieved its troops, and began transporting its supplies and treasures.

After suffering heavy losses against Adam, Liu Zhi took control of the Dragon Duke's castle and began salvaging its resources and developing the territory. News of the conquest reached the Blood Duke, who ordered the high priest to seek help from Lord Blood God Xilik and sent Bloodseekers to investigate Liu Zhi.

• Liu Zhi returned to the Dragon Duke's castle with the surviving Toga guards and Toga Archers and ordered resources and corpses hauled away.
• Liu Zhi tasked the botanist with learning how to propagate Dragon Tooth Soldier seeds, the mummy scholar with searching the castle and cemetery, and Letoz with finding secret rooms.
• Liu Zhi planned to build a dock and a new town where the Nether Palace had stood, settling Fishmen and Blackwater Goblins there.
• The major powers learned that the Ainfaster family had captured the Dragon Duke's castle, though they did not know what had happened in the underworld.
• The Blood Duke asked the high priest to contact Lord Blood God Xilik for help and ordered the Bloodseekers to investigate where Ainfaster came from.

Liu Zhi reorganized his surviving troops into three legions and sent Duan Xu and the Fishmen to build a new city alongside the goblins. As the city took shape, a fleet of self-proclaimed Pirate King’s pirates arrived, aiming to seize the Dragon Duke’s territory.

• Liu Zhi organized his forces into the Nether Palace Guard, the Dragon Slaying Corps, and the High Wall Legion, then tasked Amanet with overseeing recruitment.
• Liu Zhi sent Duan Xu and Dead Lake Fishmen to build a city at the Nether Palace’s former site, with the goblins allowed to claim land but barred from governing.
• The Fishmen established a village along both banks of the river, while the goblins built a large market between their settlement and their claimed land.
• A fleet of pirates sailed toward the Dragon Duke’s territory, hoping to take advantage of Liu Zhi’s recent conquest.

While Liu Zhi was away, pirates attacked the Fishmen and Goblins’ developing city, and Duan Xu led the Fishmen into battle. The first clash turned bloody, leaving the pirate captains questioning their attack on the Dragon Duke’s territory.

• A Goblin decided to abandon trading and become a Builder Goblin, but a cannonball struck the city under construction as he announced his plan.
• The Goblins spotted six or seven pirate ships and raised the alarm, while Duan Xu ordered them to retreat into the forest and led the Fishmen toward the water.
• The pirate captain said the Pirate King had ordered them to destroy the docks and told his crew to attack the Fishmen.
• Duan Xu ambushed a pirate in the water, and the Fishmen killed the first pirates who entered the harbor.
• More pirates jumped into the water to fight, and the pirate captains began doubting their decision to attack the Dragon Duke’s territory.

The Pirate King ordered his pirates to seize the Dragon Duke’s territory, revealing his ambition to build a maritime empire. After Fishmen outfought the first pirate ships underwater, the pirates suspected they were Dragon Tooth Soldiers, and their delay gave Duan Xu time to reinforce his forces.

• The Pirate King declared that he would take the Dragon Duke’s territory and ordered his men to break through the castle gates within three days.
• The Pirate King kept his larger plans secret from his pirates and read a book titled The Harem of the Child of Destiny: The Secret History of the Dragon Duke.
• The pirates examined Fishman corpses and wondered whether the underwater fighters were legendary Dragon Tooth Soldiers.
• The first seven pirate warships withdrew after the Fishmen wounded their crews with underwater attacks and Firearms.
• The pirates debated the Fishmen and waited half a day before passing on the Pirate King’s orders, giving Duan Xu time to reinforce his forces.

Nasha arrived with the Dead Lake Fishmen and challenged Duan Xu, claiming authority over the Fishmen and trying to establish their power. He controlled the river despite Duan Xu’s warning, as seven pirate ships returned with plans to attack the Dragon Duke’s docks.

• Nasha brought his Professional Fishmen to Duan Xu’s location, where Duan Xu and the goblins objected to his arrival.
• Nasha dismissed Duan Xu and demonstrated that he could cast a water spell, slowing and lifting part of the river’s current.
• Duan Xu warned that Nasha’s control of the water could destroy the newly built dock, but Nasha insulted him and declared himself king of the Dead Lake Fishmen.
• Duan Xu and the Fishmen with him raised their weapons as tensions threatened to turn into a fight.
• The seven pirate warships returned, and the pirates planned to leave one ship to suppress the Fishmen while sending the others upstream toward the Dragon Duke’s docks.

Nasha unleashed a flood against the pirates, but his poor timing let their ships weather the waves while the Sun Boats suffered damage. He pursued the scattered ships with his Fishmen, still convinced he could capture them and win the goblins’ favor.

• Nasha released the flood too early, and Duan Xu judged that the wave would not catch the pirate ships at the right moment to capsize them.
• The flood swept away the docks and shipyards and hurled the goblins’ Sun Boats toward the pirates; their crews escaped to the Underworld, but the boats were damaged and some goblins died.
• Nasha called the Dead Lake Fishmen to charge, but the waves pushed the pirate ships more than ten miles away before his forces could reach them.
• Nasha led his Fishmen after the scattered ships, hoping to kill the pirates and give their vessels to the goblins.

Liu Zhi stopped outside Fireblade City to rescue Red Gloves’ brother, Black Gloves, and hired him as an Engineering Goblin. After learning about Black Gloves’ disastrous experiments and his sister White Gloves’ inventions, Liu Zhi was left regretting the rescue.

• Liu Zhi arrived at Fireblade City and heard Black Gloves call for help while men dragged him out of the city.
• Black Gloves identified himself as Red Gloves’ younger brother, so Liu Zhi paid ten Universal Currency to buy him and offered him work.
• Black Gloves revealed that he was an Engineering Goblin whose experiments had caused thousands of explosions and casualties without ever injuring him.
• Black Gloves told Liu Zhi that his sister White Gloves made Self-Destructing Sheep, Self-Guided Fire Arrows, and Self-Loading Mines.
• Black Gloves explained that his former employer had collapsed and asked Liu Zhi why he looked pale.

Liu Zhi sent Black Gloves away with the Goblin Pathfinder and went to Fireblade City to search for Necromancer advancement paths. He entered a hidden library of secondary professions, where he began exploring options while keeping his ambition to become a god of death in mind.

• Liu Zhi suggested Black Gloves become a Goblin Pathfinder, and Black Gloves agreed to learn from the Pathfinder.
• The Goblin Pathfinder took Black Gloves away to turn him into an undead and watch over him.
• Liu Zhi and Videnina entered Fireblade City, where Liu Zhi headed to the slums to find a Necromancer trainer.
• An old man directed Liu Zhi to a hidden library containing Necromancer-related secondary professions, charging him ten Universal Currency per hour.
• Liu Zhi entered the library alone and discovered that its space guided visitors toward relevant bookshelves.

Liu Zhi searched the Necromancer archive for a path to develop the Feathered Serpent God's Divinities and studied the fates of previous Necromancers. After weighing several approaches, he considered following a path that combined sun and death, but the fifth book described a failed experiment and offered no better guidance.

• Liu Zhi asked the space for a path suited to his Divinity and found six books about Necromancers who had obtained the Feathered Serpent God's Divinity.
• Liu Zhi read how a Pale Overlord turned the Feathered Serpent God into a bone serpent, then stalled at level 14 and died trying to advance.
• Liu Zhi rejected a vampire's unfinished plan to transform the Feathered Serpent God into a Blood God.
• Liu Zhi learned that a level 15 god had taken only the Feathered Serpent God's Death Divinity, while another Necromancer had pursued a promising path combining sun and death.
• Liu Zhi considered following the sun-and-death path if the remaining books offered no better choice, then read about a Necromancer whose clone's experiment ended in a fatal clash of Divinities.

After studying the final book, Liu Zhi decided that his path should follow a cycle between life and death, and that his next career should be Druid. He then sought a source of people and corpses for his undead followers and followed the old man's lead to a hidden market in Fireblade City.

• Liu Zhi read about a player who split the Feathered Serpent God's divinity among four avatars and learned which careers suited each divinity.
• Liu Zhi concluded that his meditation and Underworld Ecosystem pointed toward a life-and-death cycle, so he chose Druid as his next career.
• Liu Zhi asked the old man where he could trade for people and corpses, and the old man recommended a private sale of people taken from a conquered city.
• The old man gave Liu Zhi an address near the Black Passage Bar in Fireblade City, and Liu Zhi set out with Videnina.
• Two green ghosts opened a hidden entrance in an alley wall, and Liu Zhi walked inside.

Liu Zhi visited a trading gathering of Necromancers and Druids, where a player auctioned creatures and other goods brought out of the game. He bought a pack of black swan troops and spent nearly 10,000 Universal Currency before leaving with Videnina to find Kapuda.

• Liu Zhi observed auctions for enlarged ants and other creatures, learning how buyers valued goods and bid in Universal Currency.
• The seller presented the Swan People and offered packs of white, black, and wild swans, each with troops and eggs.
• Liu Zhi bid on black and wild swans but ultimately bought one pack of black swan troops for 1,400 Universal Currency.
• Liu Zhi bought more creatures, corpses, books, and magical materials until he had spent nearly 10,000 Universal Currency.
• Liu Zhi arranged for his purchases to be delivered to a designated location and left with Videnina to find Kapuda.