Chapter Summaries

Bai Xiaowen wore down Li Weichen’s defenses and used a risky position swap to strike his Elixir Field, allowing his allies to capture the Great Tang Domain’s lord alive. With Li Weichen bound and weakened, Bai Xiaowen tried to control him so he could annex the domain without further fighting.

• Bai Xiaowen and his summoned creatures pressured Li Weichen until his Astral Qi waned, but the Heart-Confounding Talisman failed to affect him.
• Li Weichen unleashed Hydra’s Wrath, and Bai Xiaowen used Butcher and the Position-Swap Taoist Art to reach him and pierce his Elixir Field with Formless Blade.
• Han Xu and the Five Elements Banners warriors pinned and bound Li Weichen while Bai Xiaowen sealed his Spirit Force and dislocated his jaw.
• Bai Xiaowen promised rewards for the warriors who fought and decided to compensate the families of those who died.
• Bai Xiaowen fired another Heart-Confounding Talisman at Li Weichen, hoping to control him and annex the Great Tang Domain without further fighting.

After failing to control Li Weichen, Bai Xiaowen had Li Shuyi reduce him to an unconscious near-death state and prepared to counterattack Great Tang Domain. Bai Xiaowen led his army through the Realm Gate, while Candice refused to join the lords plotting against White Phoenix Fief.

• Bai Xiaowen failed to invade Li Weichen's Sea of Consciousness and ordered Li Shuyi to beat him into a near-death state.
• Li Shuyi used sword energy to reduce Li Weichen's health below one percent and knock him unconscious, and Han Xu carried him.
• Bai Xiaowen left Qiao Rui, Li Shuyi, and Zhen Mi to defend White Phoenix Fief, gave Qiao Rui control of the Territory Formation, and led the Five Elements Banners warriors toward the Realm Gate.
• Bai Xiaowen used team teleportation to take his army to the Realm Gate, where the lords recognized his victory and realized he was counterattacking Great Tang Domain.
• Candice told the lords that Rivendell's Elves loved peace after receiving messages urging her to attack White Phoenix Fief or share its coordinates.

Candice refused to help other lords attack White Phoenix Fief, while Fu Jing tried to seize control of Great Tang Domain as Lu Wang approached. The chapter ended with Fu Jing seeking the imperial secret treasury to find Spirit Crystals to defend the territory.

• Candice explained to Akwin and Mise why Rivendell Territory would not attack White Phoenix Fief or reveal its coordinates, hoping to preserve neutrality and earn Lu Wang’s goodwill.
• Meng Chuan cursed Candice and discussed with an old white-haired man whether they could enter Great Tang Domain through Li Weichen.
• Fu Jing tried to control the Boundary Stele but was shocked, then declared to the empress that the territory would have no emperor or empress.
• Fu Jing detected Lu Wang and his army approaching Great Tang Domain through the Realm Gate and raised the Territory Shield.
• Fu Jing considered using Spirit Crystals to hold the territory, then ordered the empress and palace eunuchs to take him to the imperial secret treasury.

Fu Jing discovered that Changsun Clan had sent Li Jin'en away with the Great Tang Domain’s treasury, then fled with his family as the domain’s elites abandoned it. Bai Xiaowen entered the weakened domain and had Han Xu kill Li Weichen, leaving the Boundary Stele ownerless.

• Fu Jing tried to persuade Changsun Clan to open the secret treasury and use its Spirit Crystals to keep Lu Wang out, but realized she was stalling.
• Changsun Clan revealed that Li Jin'en had taken the treasury key and fled with its valuables, and Fu Jing found the treasury empty.
• Fu Jing failed to claim the Boundary Stele, then escaped with his family to the Heavenly Prefecture Territory after Lord Meng Chuan granted him entry.
• Empress Changsun Clan and Li Weichen’s consorts fled, and nobles and dignitaries followed as news of the Great Tang Domain’s collapse spread.
• Bai Xiaowen entered the Great Tang Domain and reached the confinement chamber, where Han Xu killed the unconscious Li Weichen and made the Boundary Stele ownerless.

Bai Xiaowen annexed the Great Tang Domain into the White Phoenix Fief, then triggered a message left in the Eye of Evolution by Bai Yuantang. Bai Yuantang told him he needed to retrieve something connected to Xiao Hua.

• Bai Xiaowen chose to annex the Great Tang Domain after learning how annexation worked and that it would add the territory's land, residents, and facilities to the White Phoenix Fief.
• The Great Tang Domain crossed space and merged with the White Phoenix Fief, whose defense formation spread across the enlarged territory; Bai Xiaowen recovered the Dark Gold materials from the old formation.
• Cecilia celebrated the annexation, while Han Xu urged Bai Xiaowen to calm the Great Tang Domain's residents; Bai Xiaowen suddenly felt pain in his left eye and asked Han Xu to protect him as Cecilia went to keep order.
• Bai Xiaowen entered his Sea of Consciousness and spoke with a thought left by Bai Yuantang in the Eye of Evolution during Bai Xiaowen's class trial.
• Bai Yuantang explained that annexing a territory had triggered his first thought, then told Bai Xiaowen to retrieve something connected to Xiao Hua.

Bai Xiaowen learned that his sister Bai Xiaohua had secretly ruled Snow Li Fief and that someone had stolen it, making its recovery his next major objective. Bai Yuantang also told him to search Great Tang Domain for the Death God's Hand Bone, which could help him find a way to revive his sister.

• Bai Yuantang revealed that Bai Xiaohua had ruled Snow Li Fief under the alias Hua Xueli and told Bai Xiaowen to reclaim it once he was strong enough.
• Bai Yuantang refused to reveal his other remnant thoughts, explaining that foreknowledge could shift the Thread of Fate and that he would not repeat his mistake with Xiao Hua.
• Bai Xiaowen told Bai Yuantang that he had annexed Great Tang Domain, formerly ruled by Li Weichen.
• Bai Yuantang said Great Tang Domain might still hold the Death God's Hand Bone, which contained part of the Death God's Godhead Fragments and could aid Bai Xiaowen in reviving his sister.
• Bai Xiaowen left the remnant thought and told Han Xu they needed to reassure the people of Great Tang Domain.

After annexing the Great Tang Domain, Bai Xiaowen announced that its residents were now citizens of the White Phoenix Fief and that its slaves would be freed and given land. He then went to the imperial palace to search for the Death God's Hand Bone.

• Cecilia and the Five Elements Banners warriors gathered Chang'an's residents before the imperial palace.
• Bai Xiaowen told the crowd that the Great Tang Domain had become part of the White Phoenix Fief and named Lu Wang as their new Lord.
• Bai Xiaowen promised to leave citizens' property untouched unless they broke the law.
• Bai Xiaowen announced that the White Phoenix Fief had no slaves and that freed slaves would receive enough land to support themselves.
• Bai Xiaowen said the fief's class system and laws would be posted on Chang'an's gates, then returned to the imperial palace to search for the Death God's Hand Bone.

Bai Xiaowen discovered a hidden Underground Palace beneath Chang'an City, where a Bone Hill Formation used the Death God's Hand Bone to produce Netherdemon Army soldiers. He found that the formation had stalled and began testing what kind of energy it needed to resume production.

• Bai Xiaowen learned from palace eunuchs about the secret Underground Palace and sent the Five Elements Banners warriors to search for its entrance.
• Bai Xiaowen replaced officials in Chang'an City and organized former slaves into agricultural garrison camps while granting them a path to citizenship.
• The Five Elements Banners warriors found the Underground Palace entrance in the imperial palace's inner gardens, and Bai Xiaowen entered with Li Shuyi, Qiao Rui, and Cecilia.
• The group found the Death God's Hand Bone atop a bone hill, alongside three Netherdemon Army soldiers and a formation that gathered Spirit Force.
• Bai Xiaowen concluded the Bone Hill Formation needed raw material to make Netherdemon Army soldiers, then tested Soul Essence, which the formation did not consume.

Bai Xiaowen stripped Li Weichen’s corpse of its Dark Gold equipment, then fed the body into the Bone Hill Formation, which produced three Netherdemon Army soldiers. After three days of experiments, the White Phoenix Team determined what the formation required and concluded that it was an inefficient way to create soldiers.

• Bai Xiaowen had Han Xu retrieve Li Weichen’s corpse from Chang’an’s city gate and worked with him to remove its equipment.
• Bai Xiaowen let his companions divide Li Weichen’s twelve Dark Gold items, prioritizing the melee fighters.
• Bai Xiaowen put Li Weichen’s corpse into the Bone Hill Formation, which consumed it and created three Netherdemon Army soldiers.
• Bai Xiaowen and the White Phoenix Team experimented with other corpses for three days and found that the formation needed strong, recently deceased Evolvers with Grievance Power.
• Li Shuyi concluded that the Great Tang Domain had massacred Evolvers for raw materials, while Bai Xiaowen judged the formation’s production too inefficient to matter much.

Bai Xiaowen tested an unfinished Grievance Spirit Banner against the Bone Hill Formation, then retrieved the Death God's Hand Bone and let Death God's Visage devour it. A surge of information formed a third book in his Sea of Consciousness, leaving him to discover what the Black Book contained.

• Bai Xiaowen reasoned that the Bone Hill Formation’s Netherdemon Army had little potential for growth and decided to test his unfinished Grievance Spirit Banner before destroying the formation.
• Bai Xiaowen tried to place the banner in the formation, but the Death God's Hand Bone repelled it, leading him to conclude that the two artifacts conflicted.
• Bai Xiaowen sent Kitz to remove the Death God's Hand Bone, and Li Shuyi took it from Kitz and passed it to Bai Xiaowen.
• Bai Xiaowen ignored a Spirit Realm Rules offer to submit the hand bone and used Death God's Visage to devour it.
• A flood of information entered Bai Xiaowen's Sea of Consciousness and condensed into a third book, the Black Book.

After the Death God's Hand Bone triggered a mysterious Black Book in Bai Xiaowen's Sea of Consciousness, he discovered it had generated an unusable energy called Death God's Power. He replaced the Bone Hill Formation's core with the Unfinished Grievance Spirit Banner, weakening the formation but producing many weaker Soulkin creatures that he thought might be useful.

• Bai Xiaowen found that True Essence Force fed into the Black Book produced a black sphere and added a Death God's Power value of 10/10 to his status panel.
• Bai Xiaowen realized he could not control the Death God's Power and kept the Black Book's appearance secret from his companions.
• Bai Xiaowen planted the Unfinished Grievance Spirit Banner in the altar, restoring the Bone Hill Formation without the Death God's Hand Bone.
• The Bone Hill Formation weakened, but devouring the remaining corpses produced more than a dozen Soulkin creatures roughly as strong as level-three Awakened.
• Bai Xiaowen realized the weaker Soulkin creatures might be useful.

After annexing Great Tang Domain, Bai Xiaowen planned to use the Bone Hill Formation to produce Ghost Spirit Workers for mining and potentially sell them to other territories. He reviewed White Phoenix Fief’s expanded territory data and then rejoined the Blue Star Lords’ Group, where he confirmed the annexation.

• Bai Xiaowen explained that Ghost Spirit Workers would provide a more useful source of labor than Netherdemon Army Warriors and could support mining across White Phoenix Fief.
• Bai Xiaowen left Great Tang Domain’s imperial palace with the newly made Ghost Spirit Workers and Netherdemon Army soldiers after White Phoenix Fief’s Boundary Stele devoured Great Tang Domain’s Boundary Stele.
• Bai Xiaowen reviewed White Phoenix Fief’s new area of twenty-seven million hectares, its population capacity, and its unchanged level-3 spiritual energy concentration.
• Bai Xiaowen unmuted the Blue Star Lords’ Group and privately contacted Queen Bee, who confirmed his annexation of Great Tang Domain and expressed her surprise.
• Bai Xiaowen posted in the public chat, and the Lords pressed him to confirm the outcome of the war.

Bai Xiaowen defended White Phoenix Fief’s annexation of Great Tang Domain in the Blue Star Lords' Group and won support from other lords. After the debate, Meng Chuan admitted that public opinion made it difficult to intervene, while Fu Jing and Li Weichen urged him to support their claim as Taizong’s heirs.

• Meng Chuan criticized White Phoenix Fief’s victory and annexation of Great Tang Domain, and several lords echoed his objections.
• Bai Xiaowen argued that White Phoenix Fief had acted in self-defense after Great Tang Domain invaded, while Call Me Queen and Candice supported him.
• Meng Chuan compared the war to a knife attack and accused Bai Xiaowen of exceeding reasonable self-defense, but his argument drew further criticism.
• Bai Xiaowen thanked the group and announced that White Phoenix Fief would gradually open its territory and cooperate with others.
• After closing the group chat, Meng Chuan told Fu Jing and Li Weichen that Bai Xiaowen had defused the criticism and left him without a reasonable excuse to intervene.
• Fu Jing argued that Li Weichen’s status as Taizong’s direct heir should be enough reason for Meng Chuan to help.

Li Jin'en accepted Meng Chuan as his adoptive father to gain entry to the Pan-Asia Training Camp and a chance to become an Evolver, though Meng Chuan refused to secure him a higher position. Bai Xiaowen learned that his sister Bai Xiaohua, known as Hua Xueli, had been killed by Xia Feng, while Candice hinted at a possible alliance.

• Meng Chuan told Fu Jing that Li Jin'en needed to become an Evolver quickly if he was to have a claim to the Great Tang Domain.
• Fu Jing proposed that Li Jin'en acknowledge Meng Chuan as his adoptive father so he could enter the Pan-Asia Training Camp, and Li Jin'en formally agreed.
• Li Jin'en asked Meng Chuan to secure him a higher camp position, but Meng Chuan refused and told him to focus on becoming an Evolver.
• Candice told Bai Xiaowen that Hua Xueli had once rivaled Xia Feng, but Xia Feng defeated her in a territorial war and made the Snow Li Fief a vassal territory.
• Candice suggested that Xia Feng was isolated and facing suppression, hinting that he and Bai Xiaowen might have been better off helping each other.

Bai Xiaowen and Candice discussed White Phoenix Fief’s secret coordinates and the safeguards of a Basic Mutual Trust Protocol. Bai Xiaowen agreed to sign the protocol directly with Rivendell Territory, without publicizing it in the Blue Star Lords’ Group.

• Bai Xiaowen reassured Candice that White Phoenix Fief sought peace and would not start a war.
• Candice told Bai Xiaowen that she knew White Phoenix Fief’s Territory Coordinates but had not shared them with anyone.
• Bai Xiaowen offered to pay Candice to keep the coordinates confidential, but Candice instead proposed a Mutual Trust Protocol between their territories.
• Candice explained that a Basic Mutual Trust Protocol allowed limited visa-free exchanges through Territory Portals, with strict limits on materials, Spirit Crystals, and personnel.
• Candice offered to announce the agreement publicly, but Bai Xiaowen declined and agreed to sign it directly.

Bai Xiaowen signed a preliminary mutual trust agreement with Candice and learned how the Star Alliance ranked territories by strength. He also discovered that the Alliance extended beyond Earth, where extraterrestrial civilizations reportedly maintained observation posts.

• Bai Xiaowen added a rule requiring lord approval for personnel to enter either territory, and he and Candice signed a preliminary mutual trust agreement.
• Candice shared a seven-tier classification of Star Alliance territories, from puppet colonies and vassals to powerful independent territories.
• Bai Xiaowen estimated White Phoenix Fief's strength and learned Candice considered it fourth tier because it had defeated Great Tang Domain.
• Candice explained that Earth's Star Alliance was only part of a wider interstellar community, and that extraterrestrial civilizations had established observation posts to experience other civilizations' histories.

Bai Xiaowen learned about alien observation posts and a nearby Cosmic Secret Realm, but declined Candice’s invitation and sought Queen Bee’s advice. He was left weighing the danger to his companions while trying to uncover the conflicting accounts of his sister’s death.

• Candice explained that alien observation posts might be hidden in minor territories and told Bai Xiaowen about a Cosmic Secret Realm discovered in the Blackfang Domain.
• Bai Xiaowen declined Candice’s invitation because his territory was still vulnerable and he distrusted the risks of joining her.
• Bai Xiaowen realized Candice’s account of his sister Hua Xueli being killed by Xia Feng contradicted his father’s claim that a curse had dissipated her soul.
• Bai Xiaowen contacted Queen Bee, who warned him to stay away from the Blackfang Domain and explained that a conquered territory’s Boundary Stele could recover within half a year.
• Bai Xiaowen asked whether his companions could enter the Cosmic Secret Realm, and Queen Bee warned that lower-level Evolvers would be at a severe disadvantage.

Bai Xiaowen learned how lords used Mediums to summon territory armies and what treasures might be found in Cosmic Secret Realms. Queen Bee gave him the Blackfang Domain Secret Realm coordinates, and he asked whether it was a low-tier realm.

• Queen Bee explained that lords projected territory buildings through a Medium to summon troops, while cross-realm transport into Spirit Realm Planes required a costly Resonance Formation.
• Queen Bee described how a Medium’s strength and attribute affected summoning, and Bai Xiaowen realized the Thousand-Soul Jade could not project his Fire Essence barracks.
• Bai Xiaowen offered to buy the Blackfang Domain Secret Realm coordinates, but Queen Bee sent them and let him pay later.
• Queen Bee explained that Cosmic Secret Realms could contain Sources of Spirit Force and Spirit Crystal Veins that lords could turn into Spirit Vein Seeds.
• Queen Bee described the level restrictions on low- and mid-tier secret realms, and Bai Xiaowen asked whether Blackfang Domain was low-tier.

Bai Xiaowen learned that the Crowfang Secret Realm would likely open at mid-tier strength before expanding to high-tier, and his companions agreed to explore it with him. As they prepared for the two-month wait, they discovered that several of them had hit a bottleneck between low- and mid-tier training.

• Queen Bee told Bai Xiaowen that the Crowfang Secret Realm would likely open at mid-tier strength in two months and expand to high-tier strength ten days to a month later.
• Bai Xiaowen explained the realm’s dangers and entry window to his companions, who all decided to go with him.
• Bai Xiaowen urged the team to train for two months and try to reach level 14 and become Mid-Tier Evolvers.
• Li Shuyi told Bai Xiaowen she could not access the middle volume of the Flower-Washing Collection, and Han Xu and Cecilia said they had encountered the same problem.
• Bai Xiaowen recognized the obstacle as a bottleneck between low-tier and mid-tier and reminded the team to develop their Combat Specializations as well as their class manuals.

During two months of training, Bai Xiaowen advanced his Meditation Specialization and quickly unlocked Fighting Specialization with Delifa’s help. Li Shuyi then announced that the middle volume of her Flower-Washing Collection had appeared, potentially offering a way through the team’s bottlenecks.

• Zhen Mi took charge of integrating and managing the White Phoenix Fief while Bai Xiaowen and his companions trained.
• Bai Xiaowen used his Spirit Force Mastery to advance Meditation Specialization from Novice Tier level 3 to Proficiency Tier level 1 in seven days.
• Bai Xiaowen focused on developing his Fighting Specialization and used Memory Sharing and Delifa’s Combat Specialization to train.
• After three days of sparring and study, Bai Xiaowen unlocked Fighting Specialization and reached Novice Tier level 2.
• Li Shuyi burst into the training ground and told Bai Xiaowen that the middle volume of her Flower-Washing Collection had appeared.