Chapter Summaries

Lu Xiu kept Ellen and Viola from fighting long enough to clear the dungeon’s condition, while learning that the passage between their worlds was expanding. The system granted her control over the dungeon and its reality-overwrite area, naming her Lord of the Realm.

• Ellen accused Viola of being ungrateful, and Lu Xiu stopped their argument by reminding Ellen that her suffering did not excuse her atrocities.
• Lu Xiu told Ellen that she did not hate her, calming Ellen’s magic, then held Ellen’s and Viola’s hands to prevent another fight.
• Lu Xiu reassured Viola that she had entered the forest to save her, and told Ellen she had returned to the Witch’s House to accompany her and show her she could be loved.
• Lu Xiu kept both women talking as she counted down the minutes, asking about their lives and learning that the passage between worlds was opening but still lacked sufficient assimilation for them to cross.
• The system confirmed that Ellen and Viola had remained peaceful for thirty minutes, cleared Lu Xiu’s mission, and awarded her control of the dungeon and its reality-overwrite area as Lord of the Realm.

After clearing the Witch instance, Lu Xiu returned to reality and discovered that her authority had transformed the abandoned residential district into a forest she could control. The officer then asked how far her placed dungeon could expand, prompting Lu Xiu to suspect that he wanted her to deploy it at the front lines.

• Lu Xiu escaped the Witch instance after promising Viola and Ellen she would show them her world, then reunited with Shen Nian and Jian Li and embarrassed herself by instinctively taking their hands.
• Lu Xiu saw that the abandoned residential district had become a dense forest, then used her authority to make its trees grow larger and summon monsters and NPCs from the Witch instance.
• Lu Xiu told Shen Nian, Jian Li, and the soldiers that she controlled the area and its ordinary monsters, but could not reveal their obsessions or control core characters like Viola and Ellen.
• The officer asked how far Lu Xiu could expand her placed dungeon, and Lu Xiu realized he might want her to deploy it at the front lines.

After Lu Xiu explained how the Witch dungeon’s core characters had caused the forest to spread into reality, Li Shengkai and Wang Huai considered using placed dungeons to support the front lines. The chapter ended with Lu Xiu proposing Monster Hunter as a possible fit, especially with its multiplayer dungeon version about to arrive.

• Wang Huai and Li Shengkai arrived at the mutated forest, and Li Shengkai asked Lu Xiu why placing her dungeon had transformed the area.
• Lu Xiu explained that the dungeon’s core characters’ desire to enter reality drove the expansion, while ordinary monsters followed their influence.
• Lu Xiu told Li Shengkai that she controlled the mutated area and its monsters but could not control the core characters, who might cause further changes if they appeared.
• Wang Huai asked whether Lu Xiu could place a dungeon on the front lines, and Lu Xiu warned that aggressive, uncontrollable characters could endanger soldiers.
• Li Shengkai and Wang Huai described the kind of combat-focused, less hostile dungeon that could support the military, and Lu Xiu suggested Monster Hunter.

Lu Xiu demonstrated her power to reshape the forest, built a house for herself and her companions, and wondered whether the gamified world was itself an instance. Reassured by Jian Li, she set aside the theory for now and asked Jian Li to help test whether a monster created in the altered area could harm someone in reality.

• Lu Xiu proposed Monster Hunter as a possible instance but said she would wait for the new expansion before deciding on its details.
• After Wang Huai and Li Shengkai left to assess the situation, Lu Xiu stayed in the forest with Jian Li and Shen Nian and reshaped matter into a greatsword, then into tulips.
• Lu Xiu built a furnished, two-story wooden house and considered whether the Nine Provinces and its monsters operated by the same rules as an instance.
• Jian Li offered to stand by Lu Xiu despite the world's frightening unknowns, and Lu Xiu changed Jian Li's tulip into a white lily and tucked it into her hair.
• Lu Xiu asked Jian Li to fight a monster she planned to construct so she could test whether a monster in the altered Witch's House area could hurt someone in the real world.

Gallagher and the Prison Rock delegation toured Nine Provinces and discovered how securely its people lived, leaving them worried about the negotiations and asking to meet Lu Xiu. Lu Xiu agreed after Gallagher offered cooldown items, and the delegation was stunned to find her beside a sapphire-blue dragon, Xeno'jiiva.

• Cheng Xiu showed Gallagher, Helag, and the Prison Rock delegation Nine Provinces, where they saw ordinary elderly people living safely and learned that Nine Provinces stopped monsters at the front lines.
• Gallagher concluded that Prison Rock had little leverage in the negotiations and asked Cheng Xiu to arrange a meeting with Lu Xiu.
• Gallagher offered Prison Rock's cooldown items as a gift, and Lu Xiu sent word that the delegation could come to her.
• Cheng Xiu brought the delegation to a primeval forest near Chen Capital, where they found Lu Xiu standing beside Xeno'jiiva.
• Gallagher handed Lu Xiu the cooldown items, and Xeno'jiiva caught the box and returned it to her.
• When Helag demanded to know what Xeno'jiiva was, Lu Xiu smiled and refused to tell him.

Lu Xiu accepted Gallagher’s gift and learned that Alicia’s Crystal could reset a skill’s cooldown by borrowing against future use. Gallagher revealed that the crystals were among 131 items plundered from a region whose fallen Apostle was an Architect named Alicia, leaving Lu Xiu contemplating the powers of an Apostle and offering Prison Rock a chance to avoid being forcibly plundered.

• Lu Xiu inspected Alicia’s Crystal, stored the two crystals, and told Gallagher she would not interfere in the negotiations, advising Prison Rock to accept Nine Provinces’ conditions.
• Gallagher asked how Lu Xiu created her highly rated dungeons, and she explained that each dungeon’s theme and progression needed to be developed to an extreme.
• Gallagher revealed that Prison Rock had fought another region whose Apostle, chief Architect Alicia, died after its rating collapsed.
• Gallagher said Prison Rock had plundered 131 items left behind by Alicia, which may have been created or mass-produced using an Apostle’s authority.
• Lu Xiu recognized the possibility that an Apostle could create powerful items and told Gallagher that Nine Provinces would not forcibly plunder Prison Rock if it showed sufficient sincerity in the negotiations.

Lu Xiu’s experiments continued while Nine Provinces negotiated a sweeping victory over Prison Rock, earning major compensation but learning that the rest of the world had lost and its rating had fallen to VII. The chapter ended with the defeated Franca players pleading to meet Nine Provinces players and learn how to win.

• Shen Nian praised Lu Xiu for intimidating Prison Rock’s negotiators, then Lu Xiu resumed testing Xeno'jiiva’s combat behavior with Jian Li.
• Lu Xiu spent two days generating monsters for Jian Li and Shen Nian to fight, while they realized she was investigating how to exploit the system’s kill mechanics.
• Lu Xiu approved and signed the final agreement, and the system announced that Prison Rock would surrender half its players’ Survival Points and grant every Nine Provinces player a random A-rank skill.
• The system named Lu Xiu first in Battle Merit and announced Nine Provinces’ victory, while lowering the world rating from V to VII because every other region had lost.
• Franca’s leaders reacted in disbelief to Nine Provinces’ victory, and a dog-eared girl burst into tears as the defeated players begged for advice and a chance to meet Nine Provinces players.

Lu Xiu tested her new Root Skill, Deconstruction, by fusing an Ancient Lord Soul Shard with a broken Mortal Blade fragment. The fusion created Judgment, a growable Miracle Armament with a deadly thirty-kilometer attack, leaving Shen Nian and Jian Li stunned by its power.

• Lu Xiu received the Root Skill Deconstruction as a reward for ranking first in Iron and Blood's preview battle contribution rankings.
• Lu Xiu used the Ancient Lord Soul Shard and a broken Mortal Blade fragment as compatible materials for her first creation.
• Lu Xiu chose to reshape the materials into a weapon, and they fused into the Miracle Armament Judgment.
• Lu Xiu inspected Judgment's attributes and learned that its active attack could target enemies within thirty kilometers at a cost of most of her health.
• Lu Xiu showed Judgment's stats to Shen Nian and Jian Li, and Shen Nian reacted with disbelief at the weapon's range and growth potential.

Lu Xiu discovered that her second leaderboard reward was the Mythical skill Power Accumulation, which could charge skills and attacks indefinitely, and discussed using her weapon-making skill to support the front lines. After multiplayer dungeons reopened, Lu Xiu and Jian Li prepared to investigate them while Franca desperately tried to match with someone from Nine Provinces.

• Lu Xiu told Shen Nian and Jian Li that she had used her root skill to create Judgment, and promised to look for materials to make Shen Nian a backup weapon.
• Jian Li warned Lu Xiu that Judgment's ultimate attack consumed 90% of her current health, then suggested the Coordination Bureau supply weapons and items for Lu Xiu to transform.
• Shen Nian reminded Lu Xiu that she had also placed first as an Architect, and Lu Xiu found her second reward: the Mythical skill Power Accumulation, which could charge skills and attacks without limit.
• Lu Xiu denied Shen Nian's guess that she was a goddess, and Shen Nian asked if she could cling to Lu Xiu before the server announced that dungeons, Architect functions, and multiplayer matchmaking had reopened.
• Lu Xiu and Jian Li decided to explore multiplayer dungeons and share information, while Franca frantically tried to match with a player from Nine Provinces.

Shen Nian and Jian Li entered the Fallen Ancient Dragon multiplayer instance with Liana from Franca, who questioned how Nine Provinces had won the arena battle. The instance pitted them against Lu Xiu’s Afterimage, and after seeing its overwhelming strength, Liana rushed to tell her princess what she had witnessed.

• Shen Nian and Jian Li matched into the Fallen Ancient Dragon instance with Liana from Franca and explained that Nine Provinces had won through Lu Xiu’s powerful Architect-made instances.
• The three entered a Firelink Shrine-like setting and found a single path leading into an underground cavern where a ghostly Ancient Dragon and Lu Xiu’s Afterimage awaited them.
• The mission instructed them to kill the dragon while ignoring the Afterimage, but the Afterimage instantly killed Shen Nian with a Sunlight Spear.
• Jian Li fought the Afterimage but was put under pressure as Liana watched, and the Afterimage then killed Liana with a halberd.
• After leaving the instance, Liana realized the Architect’s strength was real and ran off shouting for her princess.

After Liana reported that Nine Provinces’ Architects and instances had driven their victory, Princess Rosalind learned that multiplayer instances were matching players against regional top-ranked fighters and that the border barrier could be crossed. Meanwhile, Lu Xiu finished reviewing the new construction features and prepared to create an instance starring the Fifth Fleet’s strongest Hunter, the Sapphire Star that Guides the Way.

• Liana rushed to Princess Rosalind and explained that Nine Provinces had won through powerful Architects, unofficial instances, and strong players such as Lu Xiu.
• Rosalind considered Franca’s shortage of Architects, while Liana urged her to charm Lu Xiu into teaching her.
• A guard reported that multiplayer instances featured group-battle scenarios against regional first-ranked players, with Nine Provinces and Red Tide undefeated.
• The guard told Rosalind that people might now be able to squeeze through the national boundary barrier, alarming her.
• Lu Xiu reviewed the new multiplayer and construction options, then announced she would create an instance featuring the Fifth Fleet’s strongest Hunter, the Sapphire Star that Guides the Way.

Lu Xiu chose Monster Hunter: World as the template for her first multiplayer instance and began building its camp. When she tested her root skill by combining finished weapons with existing items, the results were junk, leading her to realize that Monster Hunter materials and crafting systems might be the key to successful fusion.

• Lu Xiu chose Monster Hunter: World for its deliberate, interactive combat and decided its instance would support both solo and multiplayer challenges.
• Lu Xiu built a harbor camp in the Construction Space as the starting point for the Monster Hunter setting.
• Shen Nian told Lu Xiu about the multiplayer instances and the nickname “mysterious one-shot girl,” while Yan Fushou asked whether her root skill could mass-produce weapons.
• Lu Xiu fused weapons with various items, but the low-compatibility combinations degraded the weapons or produced unusable junk.
• Lu Xiu realized that finished weapons were poor fusion materials and that Monster Hunter’s crafting system could provide a better approach, so she decided to wait for materials from the new instance.

Lu Xiu began constructing a multiplayer dungeon while Yan Fushou and Li Shengkai discussed using her dungeons to guard the Nine Provinces’ borders. Players eagerly anticipated Lu Xiu’s multiplayer dungeon, convinced that teaming up would make her notoriously difficult challenges easy.

• Shen Nian and Yan Fushou mistook Lu Xiu’s concentration for disappointment, but Lu Xiu explained that she was working on a multiplayer dungeon to solve weapon fusion and might need everyone to farm materials.
• Lu Xiu briefly saw a purple-haired figure emerge from the mist, suspected the Witch dungeon was nearing a point where its protagonist could appear, then entered the Construction Space to work on Monster Hunter.
• Yan Fushou learned from Li Shengkai that foreign players had begun appearing near the border, and they discussed screening arrivals and placing suitable dungeons along the Frontier.
• Li Shengkai proposed placing dangerous dungeons near hostile borders if their core characters could not leave their dungeon ranges, and Yan Fushou agreed to discuss the plan with Lu Xiu after her multiplayer dungeon was finished.
• Players complained on the forums that the system’s multiplayer dungeons were dull and looked forward to Lu Xiu’s new dungeon, expecting that cooperation would make her challenges easy.

The new expansion introduced attribute resets, professions, resistance attributes, and stronger monsters on the front lines, prompting concern at the Coordination Bureau and among Lu Xiu and her companions. Lu Xiu, Jian Li, and Shen Nian discussed their possible builds and the coming danger, then shared a quiet moment together before the new challenges began.

• The system announced multiplayer dungeons, attribute resets, professions, new resistance attributes, equipment changes, and stronger main-stage monsters, sparking excitement among players and worry at the Coordination Bureau.
• Lu Xiu, Jian Li, and Shen Nian discussed the new systems, considered possible attribute resets and professions, and noted that Lu Xiu’s multiplayer dungeon might offer plentiful equipment.
• Lu Xiu teased Jian Li about her reaction to Lu Xiu wanting to become a warrior, and the three joked about becoming a warrior, support, maid, and guard.
• Shen Nian voiced a wish that their peace could last, while Lu Xiu reassured her and Jian Li that they would face future front-line threats together.

Lu Xiu finished testing all fourteen weapons for her new Monster Hunter dungeon after weeks of exhausting hunts. Seeing players beg for the dungeon and boast about farming it, she decided to clear it herself and make a promotional video to lure them in.

• Players spent weeks grinding system dungeons and front-line battles but found no stat-reset items, class items, or rare equipment.
• Lu Xiu tested the dungeon by fighting monsters with different weapons and grew exhausted from mastering all fourteen weapon styles.
• After defeating Nergigante with the Charge Blade, Lu Xiu complained that players had not yet reached G-Rank quests and threatened to add Dire Miralis.
• Players flooded the forum with pleas for Lu Xiu to release her new dungeon, hoping to obtain special items and escape the unrewarding system dungeons.
• Lu Xiu completed her final weapon test, saw the players' posts, and decided to clear the dungeon and make a promotional video to lure them in.

Lu Xiu created a promotional trailer that explained Monster Hunter’s world and announced its upcoming multiplayer dungeon while players across the nations watched. The trailer ended by revealing new completion rewards, leaving players—especially those outside the Nine Provinces—stunned and eager for the release.

• Lu Xiu finished and submitted the Monster Hunter trailer, then began sealing the instance to verify that it could be cleared.
• In Franca, Rosalind learned that her father had refused her request to visit the Nine Provinces, then saw the system announce Lu Xiu’s upcoming instance.
• Ulysses noticed the same announcement in Redscale City, while the projection drew the attention of leaders and players across the nations.
• The trailer introduced the Old World, Ancient Dragons, the Elder Crossing, and the Hunter's Guild’s expedition to the New World before showing Hunters fighting powerful monsters with different weapons.
• The trailer announced Monster Hunter’s upcoming release and new completion rewards, prompting a young woman in Canaan to exclaim that the Nine Provinces’ dungeons were unfairly impressive.

Lu Xiu finished validating her Monster Hunter dungeon by defeating Shara Ishvalda, while players and leaders across several regions prepared to enter it as soon as it opened. The system raised her Architect level to ten and unlocked dungeon pre-placement, leaving her to consider a holographic map of the Nine Provinces.

• Ulysses watched the trailer and ordered Redscale City's strongest players to clear Lu Xiu's dungeon on its first day.
• Rosalind decided to enter the dungeon at launch, and players across the Nine Provinces eagerly anticipated its rewards and multiplayer hunts.
• Wei Yidong declared that he would enter Lu Xiu's dungeon alone to erase his humiliation.
• Lu Xiu defeated Ruiner Nergigante and complained that the Monster Hunter NPCs' dialogue and behavior did not match their intended roles.
• Lu Xiu defeated Shara Ishvalda, completing the dungeon as the NPCs gathered to praise her.
• The system announced that Lu Xiu had reached Architect level ten and unlocked dungeon pre-placement, then displayed a map of the Nine Provinces.

Lu Xiu pre-placed the Monster Hunter dungeon at a pressured coastal frontline city, earned a Mythic rating, and gained the exclusive Authority skill Azure Blade Myriad Forms. After testing the skill and reviewing her rewards, she returned to the forest cabin and fell asleep in Jian Li’s arms.

• Lu Xiu chose a frontline coastal metropolis for Monster Hunter’s physical entrance, and the system opened its online and physical entrances simultaneously.
• The system rated Monster Hunter Mythic and awarded Lu Xiu Architect levels, Spirit points, and the exclusive evolvable skill Azure Blade Myriad Forms.
• Lu Xiu tested the skill by forging weapons and manifesting one at a distance, then stopped when the heavy mental drain made her dizzy.
• Lu Xiu reviewed her Mythic rewards, including Alatreon armor, a Cataclysm Hunter Medal that affected real-world monsters, and other items and attribute bonuses.
• Lu Xiu messaged Yan Fushou, returned to the cabin, and fell asleep against Jian Li after telling her she needed to rest.

The Mythic Grade Monster Hunter instance opened, and Rosalind entered alone, beginning an immersive journey to the New World. After declaring she would become its strongest Hunter, she froze when a tyrannosaur blocked her path to safety.

• A physical entrance to Lu Xiu's Monster Hunter instance appeared in Jade Capital, and the system announced that entering there raised its rating to Mythic Grade.
• Rosalind entered the instance alone because she had not completed the story introduction and could not join a party.
• Rosalind customized her Palico, met her handler, and witnessed Zorah Magdaros lift the ship before escaping with the handler on a wingdrake.
• Rosalind reached the Ancient Forest, marveled at the New World, and vowed to become the strongest Hunter on the continent.
• A tyrannosaur attacked a Great Jagras between Rosalind and the gate, leaving her terrified as the squad leader urged her to run past it.

Rosalind entered the Monster Hunter dungeon, explored Astera, and tested its fourteen distinct weapons before choosing the long sword. After an hour of training, she mastered its basic rhythm and left the Hunter's Cabin ready to face the dungeon's monsters.

• Rosalind dashed through the dungeon's opening gate and arrived safely in Astera, where she toured the base and found her Hunter's Cabin.
• Rosalind examined the equipment chest and tested all fourteen weapons in the training area, marveling at how distinct their mechanics were.
• Rosalind ruled out ranged weapons and complicated or unsuitable melee weapons, then chose the long sword for its reach and style.
• Rosalind struggled with the Iron Katana's weight and inertia, then realized that controlling the weapon depended on physical technique rather than system assistance.
• Rosalind trained for over an hour, improved her swings and Spirit Blade Combos, and left the cabin determined to hunt the monster and clear the dungeon.