Chapter Summaries

Dole’s avatar stole the Gold Corpse and fled an overwhelming insect swarm controlled by the Ancient Wizard. He escaped underground toward the main entrance, where he found Old Poisoner and urged him to leave.

• Dole discovered that the Ancient Wizard had surrounded the cave with a vast insect swarm and learned that Old Poisoner’s presence had disappeared.
• The Ancient Wizard recognized Dole’s avatar and attacked, seeking to claim the avatar and its Mystic Corpse Worm.
• Dole used poisons and a seven-disc formation to hold off the swarm, then escaped underground when the protective barrier began to fail.
• Dole’s Gold Corpse outran much of the swarm and crossed a formation that blocked many of the insects as he headed toward the entrance.
• Dole reached the entrance, found Old Poisoner there, and told him to leave quickly.

Dole escaped the rear courtyard by using the level-seven Golden Corpse to destroy the guard, while the insect swarm failed to catch him. Old Poisoner then confronted Litem, and their sorcery battle began as Litem called for an attack.

• Old Poisoner urged Dole to flee as the insect swarm and a recovering guard threatened them, but Dole charged toward the entrance with the Golden Corpse.
• Dole’s Golden Corpse withstood the guard’s energy beams, shattered its spear, and destroyed its body with a punch.
• Old Poisoner sped ahead while Dole realized the Golden Corpse wielded immense earth-based power, then Dole escaped underground as the swarm dispersed.
• Old Poisoner pursued Litem through the fog and accused him of forcing a fight after repeated attempts to target him.
• Litem countered Old Poisoner’s falling light spheres with silver-white beams, while Old Poisoner formed a powerful spindle-shaped spell and hurled it at him.
• Litem sent silver spears toward Old Poisoner and shouted for an attack.

Steri's Arrow of Lost Souls and Litem's spiritual witchcraft weakened Old Poisoner as Old Vulture's vultures pursued him. Dole arrived and killed Steri and Old Vulture with single punches, then confronted Litem and asked why he had not killed him.

• Steri struck Old Poisoner with the Arrow of Lost Souls, while Litem's spiritual witchcraft further attacked his mind.
• Old Vulture summoned a flock of vultures to chase the wounded Old Poisoner as Litem remained locked in a spiritual battle with him.
• Dole appeared beside Steri and killed her physical body with one punch, leaving her spiritual body to flee.
• Dole crossed to Old Vulture and destroyed his body with another punch, while his spiritual body escaped.
• Dole confronted Litem and asked why he was not killing him, and Litem pleaded that he did not know.

Dole ended the confrontation between Litem and Old Poisoner, then entered the Wizard camp disguised as a traveler to inspect its goods. He found a young apprentice running the camp’s only potion shop and went inside, where someone else was in the back.

• Dole told Litem to pursue revenge on Tom himself and warned him not to involve anyone else, then let him go.
• Dole weakened Litem’s spiritual sorcery and the poison affecting Old Poisoner, allowing Old Poisoner to escape.
• Dole reached the Wizard camp and waited for its managers to return with a merchant caravan and open the gates.
• Disguised as a weary traveler, Dole paid the entrance fee and asked a gatekeeper about the camp’s specialties.
• Dole toured the camp, found its potion shop stocked only with low-grade remedies, and entered after noticing the young apprentice’s intelligence.

Dole tested a clever young apothecary by giving him a difficult potion formula, then met Old Poisoner to discuss their gains from the ruins. They prepared to exchange materials and cultivation methods, while Dole considered building another Wizard Tower and eventually forming a tower array.

• Dole recognized that the camp's poisons were all metal-based, and the little boy identified Bone-Corroding Grass as an ingredient for an antidote potion.
• Dole gave the little boy a level-two potion formula to brew within two days and promised him a reward if he succeeded.
• Dole met the weary Old Poisoner, who thanked him for helping thwart Litem and admitted he needed to improve his strength.
• Old Poisoner proposed dividing the spoils he had gathered from other cave entrances, and Dole offered to share cultivation methods from the library tower in exchange for materials.
• Dole reflected on what the ruins had taught him about cultivating insects and viruses, then considered building another Wizard Tower and forming a tower array.

After striking it rich in the ruins, Dole and Old Poisoner planned their next steps, including new wizard towers and a change of meditation method. Dole later returned to the pharmacy and chose to do business with the young attendant rather than the arrogant owner.

• Dole planned to build a wizard tower cluster and considered asking Morris and the others to help fund and support it.
• Old Poisoner chose a new meditation method and planned to spend a hundred years rebuilding his strength, while Dole offered him refuge in his future territory.
• Dole forged oversized storage rings for himself and Old Poisoner as they sorted the riches they had obtained.
• Old Poisoner left, and Dole remained nearby before returning to the shabby pharmacy on the morning of the third day.
• Dole found the young attendant with the potion formula he had left and learned that the boy had successfully brewed it.
• When the pharmacy owner asked whether the potion was Dole's, Dole confirmed it and said he would do business with the owner's apprentice instead.

Dole left a potion-making book with a young boy and returned to Wasen Fort, where he planned to discuss his territory with Aixi’s uncle. He and Aixi set out to meet him, drawing attention from the wizards around them.

• Dole intimidated the middle-aged potion-maker, then left without taking the medicine.
• That night, Dole gave the boy a book on potion-making and told him to seek Dole at Babel Tower in Storm Territory if he mastered its recipes and wanted higher-level books.
• Dole headed northwest, deciding the Golden Corpse made it possible to begin preparing his territory before reaching level six.
• Back in Wasen Fort, Dole told Aixi he wanted to see her uncle, and she agreed to go with him.
• Dole promised Aixi a meal at Gourmet House, and the pair left together as nearby wizards watched and speculated about their relationship.

Dole and Aixi visited Dailulaide to ask about the imperial succession struggle and the territory George had promised Dole. Dole revealed that he had gained the strength needed to claim territory, while Aixi worried that his powerful enemies could threaten it.

• Dole and Aixi arrived at the City Lord's Manor, where Ram led them to Dailulaide.
• Dole asked Dailulaide about the succession struggle because George had promised him a valuable territory.
• Dailulaide explained that five heirs had competed for the throne, two had withdrawn, and the Third Prince remained in a difficult position despite Wasen Fort's support.
• Dole decided he might need to wait until the struggle ended before claiming the Third Prince's territory.
• Dole told Aixi that he had gained enough power to claim territory and hoped to advance to level six or seven.
• Aixi worried that the Marcia Family, the Lant Family, and Dole's other enemies could threaten his territory.

Dole told Dailulaide and Ram that he planned to claim a territory and had the power to protect it with a formation built around eight Level Six wizard towers. He left with Aixi, explaining that he wanted the territory to support his meditation method, while Dailulaide and Ram wondered what he had gained in the ruins.

• Dailulaide offered Westerlin’s help guarding Dole’s territory if it was in the northwest, and Dole reassured him that he had a way to handle any danger.
• Dole revealed that he had materials for a formation of eight Level Six wizard towers and asked Dailulaide, Ram, and Aixi to keep his plan secret.
• Dole told Aixi that he wanted an open territory to create the conditions required by his meditation method, and that he would attract professionals by cultivating Morris and the other pharmacists.
• Aixi worried that she might hold Dole back and asked what she could do; Dole told her to reach Level Six, then rejected her suggestion that he find another woman.
• Dailulaide and Ram discussed Dole’s confidence and the wizard towers, speculating about what he and Tom had obtained in the ruins.

Dole monitored threats against him while the Sand Scorpion Adventurer Group and an assassin organization plotted to kill him. The assassins identified his future trip to the Apothecary Guild as their best chance to strike.

• Dailulaide and Ram discussed Dole’s growing power and the Marcia and Lant Families’ opposition to him.
• Dark tried to recruit two young nobles to buy potions from the Marcia Family, but they said they would report the offer to their families.
• A Sand Scorpion Adventurer Group member watched Dole and decided the group should kill him, unaware that a Mystic Corpse Worm was following him.
• Dole sent Aixi back to the wizard tower, then monitored possible threats while visiting Chris Wizard Tower and checking on its residents and accounts.
• Assassin Seven met with the tavern proprietor, learned Dole would likely visit the Apothecary Guild to seek Level Seven certification, and planned to kill him there.

Dole used the Wizard Tower’s power to kill an assassin who attacked him in a tavern. Afterward, he told the patrol captain that the dead assassin belonged to the Sand Scorpion Adventurer Group, leaving the captain to face the fallout from the attack and the tavern owner’s death.

• Assassin Seven detected Dole’s insect swarm, burst out of the wine cellar, and attacked him with two crescent-shaped Sword Qi strikes.
• Dole’s defenses, strengthened by the Wizard Tower, stopped Assassin Seven’s attacks, and the assassin retreated when he realized he could not overcome them.
• Dole unleashed the Wizard Tower’s power, flattening the tavern’s rear and killing Assassin Seven and the tavern owner.
• Dole sent Allen a spiritual account of the incident, and Allen told him to explain it to the Public Security Office.
• Dole told the patrol captain that the assassin had tried to kill him and pointed out the Sand Scorpion Adventurer Group insignia on the assassin’s cuff.

After dealing with the bar incident, Dole gave his statement at the Public Security Office and was quickly released. A mysterious master sent a servant with a phoenix tree branch to invite him to a meeting, and Dole agreed to send an avatar while remaining cautious.

• Dole told the patrol captain to release the bartender if possible and accompanied the officers to the Public Security Office.
• Dole recounted how he had followed a suspected Sand Scorpion Adventurer Group underling and used the Wizard Tower's power to destroy the location.
• Fio recorded Dole's account, and Dole signed the statement and left the Public Security Office.
• A servant offered Dole a box containing a phoenix tree branch and invited him to meet his master, but Dole initially refused.
• The servant said his master was injured and hunted by enemies, so Dole agreed to send an avatar and placed a Mystic Corpse Worm on the servant.
• The servant traveled to a luxurious courtyard in the East District, while the Mystic Corpse Worm told him, "Go."

Dole met a beautiful level-seven member of the Fire Parasol Tree Organization who was hiding from pursuit and suffering from a black wizard’s Dark Devouring Arrow. He agreed to return in three days with a way to help her, while she remained confined to the abandoned courtyard.

• A slave led Dole’s Mystic Corpse Worm through an abandoned courtyard to meet his master, a hidden woman.
• The woman revealed that a level-seven black wizard’s Dark Devouring Arrow was corroding her body and asked Dole for five bottles of Super Vitality Potion.
• Dole recognized her as a member of the Fire Parasol Tree Organization and explained that the potion could not cure the rule-based witchcraft afflicting her.
• Dole said he could help in three days, and the woman insisted that nobody else, including pets, be present.
• The woman said she could not leave the courtyard without being found, and asked Dole whether he wanted to look at her a little longer.

Dole treated with Akso and left with her red box, while Akso told Allen she suspected a traitor in the Fire Parasol Tree Organization. Dole refined her parasol tree branches into fifteen recovery potions as tensions and rumors stirred beneath Wasen Fort’s calm surface.

• Akso gave Dole a red box, which his Mystic Corpse Worm shrank and swallowed, and Dole left to prepare her treatment in three days.
• Akso changed clothes and admitted Allen, who offered to help her with her injury.
• Akso told Allen she had suffered witchcraft and suspected a traitor in the Fire Parasol Tree Organization, then sent him away.
• Dole refined Akso’s parasol tree branches into fifteen bottles of potion and collected a small amount of Li Fire.
• News of Dole’s use of the Wizard Tower spread through Wasen Fort as factions and individuals began making moves.

Dole went to Tower One to answer the Glory Wizard Alliance’s questions about using the wizard tower against Sand Scorpion, where an Enforcement Department wizard challenged his actions. Dole confronted him over the Alliance’s failure to catch Sand Scorpion, then entered a room for the hearing as the gathered wizards followed.

• The Glory Wizard Alliance debated Dole’s use of the wizard tower and Sand Scorpion’s infiltration of Wasen Fort.
• Dole received a request from the Alliance for details and went to Tower One while his clone was still away.
• Awa told Dole that heads of the Alliance’s departments had gathered and that Allen was inside.
• An Enforcement Department wizard accused Dole of using the tower without reporting the assassin to the authorities.
• Dole asked how many Sand Scorpion members the Enforcement Department had caught since he reported the group nearly four years earlier, leaving the man unable to answer.
• Awa led Dole into a large semicircular room, and the gathered wizards followed them inside.

Dole attended a Glory Wizard Alliance meeting called to discuss his ambush and use of a wizard tower, but Allen redirected the meeting toward failures within the Alliance. The confrontation left Dole suspecting that his case had only been a pretext for an internal power struggle.

• Dole noticed that the meeting included people opposed to him and worried that the proceedings would not be settled easily.
• Vice President Akron introduced two discussion points: Dole’s ambush by the Sand Scorpion Adventurer Group and his use of the wizard tower.
• Allen declared that Dole was not there to be interrogated and blamed the Imperial Public Security Bureau and the Alliance’s Law Enforcement and Intelligence Departments for failing to prevent the attack.
• Allen proposed replacing the leaders of the Law Enforcement and Intelligence Departments, and the Law Enforcement head admitted that the department had only maintained a surface-level balance in Wasen Fort.
• Allen rebuked Akron and the Law Enforcement head, declared that they would no longer handle the departments’ future affairs, and left Dole to realize that his case had served as a pretext for an internal conflict.

Dole defended his use of his level-seven wizard tower before the Glory Wizard Alliance and announced that he would soon leave Wasen Fort. The Alliance fined him one hundred thousand gold coins and restricted his use of wizard tower power, while Selins ordered an investigation into Dole’s plans.

• Allen asked Dole to explain his use of wizard tower power, and Dole said he had killed a level-six assassin who attacked him in a tavern.
• Dole refused to share how he had identified the assassin as a member of the Sand Scorpion Adventurer Group, criticizing the Enforcement Department and Intelligence Department for their incompetence.
• Dole announced that he would soon leave Wasen Fort, stunning the Alliance members and raising concerns about the future of Chris Wizard Tower’s potion business.
• Allen concluded the matter with a fine of one hundred thousand gold coins and restrictions on Dole’s use of wizard tower power.
• Selins questioned whether Dole’s departure announcement was genuine and ordered his connections and resources used to investigate where and when he would leave.

After hearing that Dole planned to leave Wasen Fort, his followers gathered at Chris Wizard Tower to discuss their future. Dole confirmed they had at least mid-stage seventh-tier power, but said they needed time to settle the territory’s location and boundaries and asked everyone to strengthen their forces.

• Dole asked Dino and Libesha to summon his people to a meeting at Chris Wizard Tower.
• Dole sealed the conference room with wizard formations and confirmed he intended to leave Wasen Fort.
• Morris asked whether their forces could hold a territory, and Dole said they had at least mid-stage seventh-tier power and could withstand anyone below eighth tier.
• Bernard, Yun Long, Wodekai, and others eagerly discussed claiming territory and escaping the restrictions they faced in Wasen Fort.
• Dole told everyone to wait while he discussed the territory’s location with Commander Westerlin and urged titled members to recruit guardians and retainers.
• Morris and Bernard discussed using their savings to build wizard towers and recruit people for the territory.

Dole gathered his allies to plan the construction and settlement of his territory, promising to build their Wizard Towers and asking them to help recruit people. A level-seven Golden Corpse arrived in the city, and Dole took it in disguise to a house in the East District, where Akso sensed a force nearly equal to her own.

• Morris, Sano, and the others discussed building Wizard Towers, and Dole offered to construct them without charge.
• Dole asked his allies to use their connections to help develop his territory and said he would demonstrate its security.
• A level-seven Golden Corpse entered the city with Dole's token, drawing attention from guards and wizards.
• The Golden Corpse changed its appearance at Babel Tower and accompanied Dole to a house in the East District.
• Dole entered the house, and Akso sensed a force nearly equal to her own approaching.

Dole revealed his Level Seven Golden Corpse and prepared to treat Akso’s injuries with an array plate and Super Vitality Potions. As Akso began treatment, Dole’s Golden Corpse and Bone Demon God clone attacked the evil power within her, and the chapter left the struggle underway.

• Dole entered Akso’s room with his Golden Corpse and showed her the powerful body and his Mystic Corpse Worm clone.
• Akso teased Dole about her appearance and age before agreeing to sit on his array plate for treatment.
• Dole explained that Akso should drink the potions and focus on maintaining her power while his Golden Corpse suppressed the evil force and his clone absorbed it.
• Akso drank a Super Vitality Potion, and its restorative power surged through her body as the evil power tried to consume it.
• Akso and Dole’s Golden Corpse and Bone Demon God clone joined the fight against the evil power, allowing Dole’s clone to seize a portion of it.