Chapter Summaries

Lin Qi extracted Chen Ya’s half-finished Star Energy Construct Secret Technique, learned of Star Tower City’s plans to seize the City of Light Chasing, and began cultivating in preparation for war. Meanwhile, players’ use of quantum supercomputers and rapid cultivation drew attention, while Fang Zhen’s group found a woman pursued by armed guards in the Mountain of the Dead.

• Lin Qi successfully extracted Chen Ya’s half-finished Star Energy Construct Secret Technique and learned why it could only produce an unstable Transcendent Lifeform state.
• Lin Qi used ten Advanced Martial Arts Dojo roulette draws, receiving only Great Sausages and Memory Bananas.
• Dona told Lin Qi she had cracked Fred’s Smart Watch before it self-destructed and sent him its recent messages.
• Lin Qi learned that Star Tower City planned to take the City of Light Chasing during the Monster Tide and began cultivating the secret technique.
• Wealthy players bought and rented Quantum Supercomputers, while more Obsidian Martial Arts Hall disciples began transforming into Transcendent Lifeforms.
• Fang Zhen, Chen Ya, and Li Ranxing followed Dark Judgment to a transport convoy, where they saw guards pursuing a golden-haired, horned woman.

Presia escaped Hao Wan and Smiling Skull's encirclement, but Fang Zhen's group and One Leaf Floating Cloud's team converged on the pursuit. The two groups confronted Smiling Skull and argued over who had found the NPCs first, leaving Presia stunned by the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall disciples' boldness.

• Presia used Illusion Step to escape Hao Wan and five Smiling Skull members after revealing that she had uncovered their dealings between domains.
• Fang Zhen's group spotted the chase and hurried toward Presia, while One Leaf Floating Cloud's team approached from the opposite direction.
• Hao Wan learned that unfamiliar life signatures were closing in but continued pursuing Presia, who feared the newcomers might be another Smiling Skull squad.
• Fang Zhen's group passed Presia and confronted Hao Wan's squad, identifying themselves as prospective core disciples of Obsidian Martial Arts Hall.
• One Leaf Floating Cloud's team arrived and argued with Fang Zhen over who had spotted Smiling Skull first, while Presia watched in disbelief.

Fang Zhen and his companions activated the Star Energy Construct Secret Technique and revealed overwhelming strength, killing the five Smiling Skull members who had targeted them. They then struck down Hao Wan with Ye Qinglu’s Great Sword Array, leaving him barely alive as Presia watched in shock.

• Hao Wan used Storm Step to reach Presia, and the two fought fiercely across the valley while Fang Zhen’s group watched and recorded the battle.
• The five Smiling Skull members moved to attack Fang Zhen’s group, but the seven companions activated the Star Energy Construct Secret Technique and unleashed immense life auras.
• Fang Zhen sent the Beastkin man flying with a punch, and One Leaf Floating Cloud killed him with a powerful Reverse Star Hand strike.
• Ye Qinglu and the others killed the remaining Smiling Skull members, astonishing Hao Wan and Presia with their sudden increase in combat power.
• Hao Wan attacked the approaching group with Earth Roar, but Ye Qinglu summoned the Great Sword Array and struck him down, leaving him gravely wounded.

Ye Qinglu and the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall group defeated Hao Wan, but his death-triggered alarm summoned Smiling Skull reinforcements. Presia escaped and later learned that the group had wiped out the outpost, while Smiling Skull now called them the Gray-Clothed People.

• Ye Qinglu grievously injured Hao Wan, though a deflected arrow pierced her armor; her energy defense and rapid recovery kept her alive.
• Hao Wan activated Smiling Skull's invasion alert before dying, and Presia warned that reinforcements would soon converge on them.
• One Leaf Floating Cloud and the others chose to stay and fight for the loot, while Presia gave them a map that Dark Judgment identified as a transportation route map.
• Presia fled as more than forty Smiling Skull members arrived, believing Ye Qinglu's group would be overwhelmed.
• A day later, Presia learned from a Half-Scale Race man that the temporary outpost had been wiped out and that Smiling Skull called its attackers the Gray-Clothed People.

Presia and her senior brother investigated the grey-robed faction’s actions in the Mountain of the Dead and prepared to intervene in the conflict between the City of Light Chasing and Star Tower City. Meanwhile, Lin Qi learned that a Tianhe Region merchant caravan wanted to meet him, as his players’ raids had made the grey-robed faction notorious among traders.

• Presia suspected the grey-robed faction was the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall, but she and her senior brother concluded that their teachers would handle the Tianhe Region evidence while they addressed the Monster Tide.
• Presia’s senior brother said they would visit the City of Light Chasing and Star Tower City to forbid their Blood Condensation Realm experts from fighting each other.
• Lin Qi reviewed the players’ rapid training progress and learned from Meng Wei that a merchant caravan from the Tianhe Region wanted to see him.
• Lin Qi agreed to meet the caravan, hoping to establish cross-region trade, and received its coordinates from Meng Wei.
• A caravan of more than a hundred Bone Forging Realm experts faced the grey-robed group in a valley, and its Two-Headed Lizardman leader hurried out to speak with the woman leading them.

Lin Qi negotiated a deal with Dyson of the Lionheart Merchant Guild, gaining twenty Long-Eared Race Bone Forging Realm experts and plans for potion-making equipment in exchange for training them. After returning to City of Light Chasing, Lin Qi learned that the city lord had summoned the deputy city lords and powerful race chiefs to discuss Star Tower City.

• Luo Wu Shang and Zhang Qingwei discussed the declining profits from raiding caravans and speculated that the main storyline could bring new martial arts hall products.
• Dyson cautiously approached Lin Qi and offered Energy Crystals and discounted Medium Portable Life Detectors, but Lin Qi said the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall lacked enough money to buy them.
• Lin Qi proposed trading a month of training for twenty Bone Forging Realm experts in exchange for the detectors, and Dyson assigned Wuka and nineteen others to the martial arts hall.
• Dyson left with his caravan after agreeing to bring equipment for producing Type III Energy Potions, while Lin Qi took Wuka and the other experts back to City of Light Chasing.
• Lin Qi instructed Qin Mu to manage the trainees, then learned that the city lord had called a meeting about Star Tower City and agreed to attend.

Lin Qi arrived at the Martial Artist Association as Star Tower City pressured City of Light Chasing to surrender, backed by the Holy Blood Mercenary Group. After a Flame Horn Tribe fighter killed City of Light Chasing’s veteran Deputy City Lord with a transformation ability, Hu Lei threatened further attacks and revealed that two more transformed fighters were waiting.

• Wu Zhuo Qun told Lin Qi that Star Tower City had demanded City of Light Chasing surrender territory and resources, while the Holy Blood Mercenary Group had frightened away the City Lord’s potential allies.
• Lin Qi entered the Association hall, where Hu Lei praised his potential and Elder Xiang and others reacted to his rise as Deputy City Lord.
• A transformed Flame Horn Tribe youth defeated and killed City of Light Chasing’s veteran Deputy City Lord in the arena.
• Hu Lei demanded that City of Light Chasing send another fighter or surrender, then said he had two more transformations in reserve.

Hu Lei used the Holy Blood Mercenary Group’s strength to pressure City of Light Chasing’s races into surrendering resources, while Di Luoya offered Energy Crystals to recruit fighters and revealed he had secured help from a Four Regions Youth Competition top-twenty contestant. After Tu An instantly killed his next opponent, Lin Qi asked Di Luoya what reward he would offer for winning a match.

• Hu Lei demanded that the city’s races surrender half their resources and territory or face a blockade by Star Tower City.
• Di Luoya offered five thousand Energy Crystals to every person who entered a life-and-death match, prompting experts from several races to register.
• Di Luoya told Hu Lei that he had invested in geniuses who entered domain cities and had secured help from a former top-twenty contestant in the Four Regions Youth Competition.
• Hu Lei ordered Tu An to stop holding back, and Tu An killed a mid-stage Bone Forging Realm Crystal Race elder with a single spear thrust.
• Lin Qi asked Di Luoya what price he would offer if someone won a match.

Lin Qi entered the arena to claim Di Luoya’s reward and faced Tu An, whose successive transformations greatly increased his strength. After revealing his own extraordinary form, Lin Qi struck Tu An with his Great Club and left him mortally wounded.

• Lin Qi volunteered to fight Tu An after Di Luoya raised the reward to one hundred thousand Energy Crystals.
• Tu An underwent his second transformation, but Lin Qi blocked his attacks without difficulty.
• Tu An transformed a third time, prompting Lin Qi to activate the Star Energy Construct Secret Technique and enter his extraordinary form.
• Lin Qi used a Startling Swan to close the distance and struck Tu An with his Great Club, smashing his armor and leaving him near death.

Lin Qi defeated Tu An and killed the Holy Blood Mercenary Group members who tried to avenge him, forcing Di Luoya to declare all-out war against Star Tower City and the group. As the City of Light Chasing plunged into chaos, players in the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall celebrated the newly announced major campaign, Defense of the City of Light Chasing.

• Lin Qi transformed briefly and defeated Tu An with one blow, while the crowd wondered whether humans could transform too.
• After Tu An died, Holy Blood Mercenary Group fighters surrounded Lin Qi, and Di Luoya restrained them as Hu Lei refused to intervene.
• Lin Qi stripped Tu An of his spoils and asked Di Luoya for his reward, then killed the restrained Holy Blood Mercenary Group fighters with his Great Club.
• Di Luoya and Lin Qi accepted that war with Star Tower City and the Holy Blood Mercenary Group was unavoidable, and Di Luoya announced an all-out war.
• The City of Light Chasing fell into chaos, while players in the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall cheered at the Defense of the City of Light Chasing campaign.

Lin Qi’s campaign announcement introduced a merit system that excited players and prompted wealthy players and teams to prepare for the war. Fang Zhen and Chen Ya set out to raid a Smiling Skull stronghold while testing reverse-engineered NPC martial skills, and Luo Wu Shang emerged with her second cultivation-method level perfected.

• Players discussed the campaign’s merit ranks and the discounts, cultivation rooms, and guild permissions they could earn.
• A young CEO ordered his company to recruit five thousand gaming workers for a new High Martial Strategy Department so he could build an advantage before the war.
• Fang Zhen’s team decided to raid a Smiling Skull stronghold for loot before returning to the campaign, while Chen Ya planned to test a martial skill reverse-engineered from Presia’s battle footage.
• Fang Zhen and Chen Ya drew the stronghold’s attention as Li Ranxing and the others infiltrated it to steal loot.
• Luo Wu Shang emerged from a cave after her second cultivation-method level reached Perfection Realm, and Twilight of the Gods sent her the martial arts hall’s latest announcement.

Luo Wu Shang and Heavenly Might prepared for the total war between City of Light Chasing and Star Tower City, while the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall faced the added threat of the Holy Blood Mercenary Group. As the city’s army prepared to depart, Qin Mu asked Lin Qi whether the garrison regiment could join the battle.

• Luo Wu Shang explained that reaching the Second Perfection Realm had greatly increased her physical strength and speed, and Zhang Qingwei and Zhao Hu decided to perfect their Training Method before attempting the Bone Forging Realm.
• Heavenly Might returned to the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall to await the war, where disciples worried that Star Tower City and the Holy Blood Mercenary Group would target them.
• Estina and Xia Ling discussed their choices to join the martial arts hall, then sparred using Startling Swan while Qin Mu instructed them in Microscopic Control.
• Qin Mu reported that fifteen of the garrison regiment’s five hundred martial artists had reached Microscopic Control and seventy-six had mastered the Energy Secret Technique.
• Qin Mu asked Lin Qi whether the garrison regiment could join the army departing the next day, eager to gain experience in the war.

Lin Qi agreed to take Qin Mu and the martial arts school guard corps into the city war, and he decided the Lionheart Merchant Guild trainees would join them. Meanwhile, Heavenly Might players discussed the growing difficulty of recruiting players before Elder Yu Tian revealed how he had beaten the game’s entry test and entered High Martial Descent.

• Qin Mu argued that the martial arts school guard corps needed real combat experience, and Lin Qi agreed to bring him into battle the next day.
• Lin Qi told Qin Mu to bring the Lionheart Merchant Guild trainees along, reasoning that the city war offered valuable practical combat training.
• One Leaf Floating Cloud, Fang Zhen, Luo Wu Shang, Lu Fanchen, and Zhang Qingwei discussed the influx of inexperienced newcomers and the need for Heavenly Might to secure more game slots and funding.
• Zhao Hu suggested that Heavenly Might’s elders pool their money, and Zhang Qingwei proposed persuading Elder Yu Tian to invest.
• Elder Yu Tian appeared among the newcomers and explained that he had practiced the Star Explosion Meditation Technique, a breathing method, and Pilgrimage’s Nine Transformations of Heavenly Gang until he formed his force and survived the entry test for twenty seconds.

Lin Qi learned that players could cultivate in the testing spaces and prepared them for the city war, which brought massive forces from City of Light Chasing and Star Tower City to Maple Forest Town. When Ino requested help defending a transport convoy, Lin Qi assigned the players a support mission and gave them a free respawn point.

• Elder Yu Tian explained that players could study the Star Explosion Meditation Technique and Breathing Technique in the hole-digging testing space, prompting Lin Qi to consider opening a cultivation assessment.
• Lin Qi addressed the newcomers and told disciples who wanted to join the city war to gather the next morning, while players discussed the upcoming battle through the night.
• Lin Qi, Elder Yu Tian, and the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall players boarded a Sky Battleship and traveled with a large fleet to Maple Forest Town.
• Lin Qi learned that City of Light Chasing and Star Tower City had each assembled over a million troops, and City Lord Di Luoya ordered him to keep Maple Forest Town secure.
• Ino asked Lin Qi to help the Seventeenth Regiment protect a transport convoy from three enemy groups, and Lin Qi accepted and requested the attack coordinates.
• Lin Qi assigned players the Transport Convoy Support Mission for ten merit points and set up a free respawn point, sending the players rushing to work.

Ino’s Seventeenth Regiment faced an ambush by Blood Rider’s forces, including the mercenaries Stone Axe and Iron Claw, who charged to kill her. Fang Zhen and Li Ranxing arrived in a Flying Transport Vehicle, and the two mercenary leaders immediately fled after recognizing the grey-robed newcomers, leaving Blood Rider confused.

• Ino detected more than forty Bone Forging Realm experts approaching and ordered her Seventeenth Regiment to prepare for battle.
• Blood Rider decided to attack Ino’s regiment with Stone Axe and Iron Claw, whose speed revealed them as top-tier Bone Forging Realm experts.
• Ino recognized that the two attackers were likely targeting her and told her soldiers to retreat as Stone Axe and Iron Claw closed in.
• Fang Zhen and Li Ranxing arrived aboard a Flying Transport Vehicle and jumped down to confront the attackers.
• Stone Axe and Iron Claw turned and fled after seeing Fang Zhen and Li Ranxing, while Blood Rider demanded an explanation.
• Iron Claw told Blood Rider that the grey-robed people were known as North Grey Robes near the Mountain of the Dead and that the mercenaries would not honor the contract.

Fang Zhen and Li Ranxing used a reconstructed Golden Roar to repel Blood Rider, revealing that they could transform into calamity-like forms. As their teams pursued the fleeing mercenaries toward Angry Wind Town, the town’s deputy city lord left the confrontation to the Holy Blood Mercenary Group’s vice-captains.

• After Stone Axe and Iron Claw fled, Blood Rider attacked Fang Zhen and Li Ranxing with his Super Tier Martial Skill, Blood Destruction.
• Fang Zhen and Li Ranxing transformed, and Fang Zhen’s illusory golden lion shattered Blood Rider’s attack; Stone Axe and Iron Claw recognized it as Golden Roar.
• Fang Zhen explained that he had reconstructed about sixty percent of the sequence martial skill, while Li Ranxing considered how to shape force and blood and vitality into a controllable mech.
• Blood Rider fled, and Chen Ya told Fang Zhen and Li Ranxing to pursue the enemies; Li Ranxing called other teams to help hunt down the fugitives.
• Luo Wu Shang sent Twilight of the Gods after Stone Axe and Iron Claw as they ran toward Angry Wind Town, believing the gray-robed pursuers would turn back at the stronghold.
• Angry Wind Town detected the mercenary captains and the pursuing Flying Transport Vehicle, and its deputy city lord left the response to the Holy Blood Mercenary Group’s vice-captains.

Luo Wu Shang led the Grey Robes to Angry Wind Town, where she learned it was defended by over a hundred thousand Martial Artists and a Blood Condensation Realm commander. The Grey Robes charged anyway and were wiped out, but after reviving in Maple Forest Town, Luo Wu Shang planned to recruit more allies for another attempt.

• Wild Wolf prepared to lead the Holy Blood Mercenary Group toward Maple Forest Town, then blocked Stone Axe and Iron Claw as they fled toward Angry Wind Town with the Grey Robes pursuing them.
• Luo Wu Shang stepped out of the Flying Transport Vehicle and ignored Wild Wolf's warnings that Angry Wind Town was heavily defended.
• Luo Wu Shang ordered the Grey Robes to attack, and Zhang Qingwei led more than a hundred members of Heavenly Might toward the town.
• The town's garrison opened fire, and Luo Wu Shang's Absolute Heaven slash destroyed part of the alloy wall before Wild Wolf, Star Tower City's commanders, and vice city lords killed her and the other Grey Robes.
• Stone Axe and Iron Claw fled Angry Wind Town, while Luo Wu Shang and the Grey Robes revived in Maple Forest Town less than an hour later.
• Luo Wu Shang asked her companions to contact Fang Zhen, One Leaf Floating Cloud, and others to invite them to join a merit-farming mission at Angry Wind Town.

Wild Wolf, Zhuo Gu, and Lie Shan prepared Angry Wind Town to face the grey-robed men, but the attackers proved far stronger than expected and devastated the town. After dawn, another force of more than a thousand grey-robed men appeared, leaving the defenders stunned.

• Wild Wolf told Zhuo Gu and Lie Shan that Stone Axe and Iron Claw had abandoned Angry Wind Town, while Lie Shan dismissed the grey-robed men's reputation and Zhuo Gu ordered Wild Wolf to remain until the threat was dealt with.
• A garrison scout reported nearly a thousand life signs approaching, and Wild Wolf led the defenders to meet the force as the grey-robed men charged the town.
• Fang Zhen deflected the defenders' arrow storm with a golden lion, and Lu Fanchen blasted open the town gate with Heaven Shaking Fist.
• Ye Qinglu fought Wild Wolf with the Heavenly Sword Array, while Chen Ya held off four vice city lords and other grey-robed fighters battled the defenders.
• The battle left half of Angry Wind Town in ruins, killed more than ten thousand martial artists, and cost Star Tower City two vice city lords and the Holy Blood Mercenary Group two vice captains.
• After dawn, a town alarm revealed more than a thousand grey-robed men approaching again, despite the defenders believing they had killed them all.

Star Tower City and the Holy Blood Mercenary Group tried to stop the gray-clad players from taking Angry Wind Town with repeated waves of Heavy Ion Bomb attacks, but the players kept returning and wore down the town’s defenders. After Star Tower City withdrew, Di Luoya learned that Angry Wind Town had been emptied and devastated by a massive battle.

• Wild Wolf and Alec consulted Zhuo Gu and Lie Shan, who ordered them to use Heavy Ion Bombs against the approaching gray-clad force.
• Fang Zhen and Luo Wu Shang prepared resurrection points as the players gathered outside Angry Wind Town to claim its spoils.
• The players countered the first bomb-carrying wave with force-energy attacks and self-destruction, killing the attackers while sacrificing many of their own.
• Star Tower City sent repeated bomb-carrying waves, but more gray-clad players appeared after each battle until the defenders exhausted their Heavy Ion Bombs and retreated.
• Luo Wu Shang and the players entered the abandoned Angry Wind Town as Star Tower City withdrew from the front line.
• Ino reported to Di Luoya that Angry Wind Town had no living residents and bore signs of a vast battle and heavy Heavy Ion activity.

Di Luoya learned that Star Tower City had withdrawn from Angry Wind Town after a mysterious force devastated it, then received Star Tower City's offer of Energy Crystals and a truce. The negotiations ended on a baffling note when Alec referred to men in gray helping City of Light Chasing, a force Di Luoya had never heard of.

• Ino reported that Angry Wind Town had been abandoned by Star Tower City after a catastrophic battle, with no enemy bodies or signs of an invading force found.
• Di Luoya and Fansen discussed the region's hidden powers and the unknown force that had driven Star Tower City from Angry Wind Town.
• Wu Zhuo Qun announced that Alec and Wild Wolf had arrived as Star Tower City's envoys to negotiate peace.
• Di Luoya welcomed Alec and Wild Wolf, then heard Alec offer one hundred thousand Energy Crystals for Angry Wind Town in exchange for a permanent truce, or a twenty-year pact as a final alternative.
• Alec warned that Star Tower City would fight even if the men in gray helped City of Light Chasing, leaving Di Luoya confused about who the men in gray were.