Chapter Summaries

Lu Xiu overwhelmed the players in Hendon Myre, defeating hundreds with lightning, sword formations, and a relentless chase. When Ulysses and the fleeing players were cornered by the Sixth Apostle, Dirge, G.S.D., Kiri, and Feng Zhen arrived to confront her.

• Ulysses rallied the players to attack Lu Xiu, but she paralyzed them with lightning and eliminated one player with a lightning spear.
• Lu Xiu trapped nearly a hundred players in her Ultimate Ghost Sword Technique (Storm Style), then destroyed the formation and eliminated many more with its blades and Light Flames.
• The surviving players fled, and Lu Xiu pursued them across Hendon Myre with her Jump Kit, cutting down players and monsters along the way.
• Ulysses and other players ran into a dead end where the Sixth Apostle, Dirge, blocked their path, while Lu Xiu arrived behind them.
• Ulysses called for G.S.D., who attacked Lu Xiu but had his strike deflected; Kiri and Feng Zhen then appeared, surrounding Lu Xiu.

Lu Xiu faced a combined assault by the three dungeon instructors and the Sixth Apostle Dirge, but her superior combat skills and strength overwhelmed them. The players watched in disbelief as she defeated the instructors and left G.S.D down, while the battle continued with Dirge still present.

• Dirge ignored the players and joined Feng Zhen, G.S.D, and Kiri in attacking Lu Xiu.
• Lu Xiu dodged their coordinated assault, then parried Kiri’s Knee Cannon and sent her flying into Dirge with a counterattack.
• Lu Xiu met Feng Zhen’s punch head-on and shattered his mind energy, while her Perfect Deflect broke G.S.D’s balance and began a rapid sword fight.
• Lu Xiu overpowered G.S.D’s Asura Evil Light Slash with Draw Sword and sent him crashing into a wall.
• Ulysses and the other players watched the instructors fall and complained that the supposed balancing measure had not stopped Lu Xiu.

Lu Xiu killed the Sixth Apostle Dirge and defeated the three dungeon mentors in a brutal fight, eliminating many players caught in her final attack. The surviving players fled or left the instance while Lu Xiu focused on her own mistakes.

• Dirge ambushed Lu Xiu, but she dodged and killed him with Sunlight Spear before extracting the Plague Origin from his corpse.
• Kiri, G.S.D, and Feng Zhen joined forces against Lu Xiu, combining their attacks to trap her.
• Lu Xiu used a time-slowing skill to evade the trap, then killed Feng Zhen with Dragon Flash and severed Kiri's arm.
• Lu Xiu overwhelmed G.S.D with two blades, killed him with an unseen strike, and shot Kiri after using Truth.
• The surviving players fled or voluntarily left the instance, while Lu Xiu blamed herself for misjudging the range of Kiri's Awakening Skill.

Lu Xiu reflected on her mistake against familiar enemies, spoke with Rosalind, and accepted Ulysses's challenge before he left the instance. As the story shifted to the two-thousand-player match in Hendon Myre, Zhao Qingdai confronted Xiao Chi until Kiri intervened.

• Lu Xiu worried that her misjudgment against familiar enemies left her unprepared for stronger players from other regions, then asked Rosalind whether players in Franca could use skills on their own.
• Rosalind warned Lu Xiu that the other players had fled, and Lu Xiu chose not to pursue them as the Dimensional Storm approached.
• Ulysses praised Lu Xiu, said Red Tide would no longer scheme against the Nine Provinces, and promised to challenge her again before killing himself to leave the instance.
• In the two-thousand-player match, Hendon Myre descended into chaos as the Dimensional Storm, monsters, players, and NPCs clashed.
• Zhao Qingdai attacked Xiao Chi with her Domain Skill, but Kiri arrived and fired at her, prompting Zhao Qingdai to turn toward the Gunner instructor.

Kiri overwhelmed Zhao Qingdai while Lu Jing, G.S.D, and Qinghan challenged Xiao Chi, turning Hendon Myre into a battlefield as the Dimensional Storm closed in. Shen Nian won her match and received a Sword Attendant Profession Certificate, while Lu Xiu remained alone in the Ten-Thousand-Player Arena awaiting her results.

• Kiri shattered Zhao Qingdai's domain spears and comboed her with kicks, gunfire, and aerial attacks until she could not fight back.
• G.S.D, Lu Jing, and Ophelia confronted Xiao Chi, while Qinghan and Kiri continued attacking Zhao Qingdai; Xiao Chi summoned Seria for help.
• Players across the Versus Instances called NPC allies into battle as the Dimensional Storm swallowed more of the cities.
• Shen Nian emerged as the winner of her match and received a first-advancement Sword Attendant Profession Certificate, whose Peak Maxim warned of the class's bonds and master-serving requirements.
• Lu Xiu stood alone in the shrinking safe zone of the Ten-Thousand-Player Arena and wondered what Profession Certificate the system would award her.

Zhao Qingdai and Xiao Chi returned from the Versus Instance defeated, and their reactions revealed how Lu Xiu’s new systems were unsettling top players and changing guild loyalties. Still inside the ten-thousand-player match, Lu Xiu finally received her reward: an Apostle’s Proof that made her an Apostle Candidate.

• Zhao Qingdai returned to Red Owl Guild headquarters furious after Qinghan and Kiri had kept her airborne until she was eliminated, then she smashed her office and threatened Qinghan and Lu Xiu.
• Red Owl Guild members overheard Zhao Qingdai calling ordinary players stepping stones, and several began considering keeping their Profession Certificates instead of handing them over.
• Xiao Chi returned to Whistling Arrow Guild headquarters after being eliminated, ordered safe-zone members to keep a low profile, and reconsidered his guild’s future as the world changed.
• Xiao Chi read forum posts claiming Lu Xiu had defeated three instructors and a boss after fighting ten thousand players, then decided he would be the most loyal dog in all the Nine Provinces.
• Lu Xiu waited alone in Hendon Myre until the system declared her the winner and awarded her an Apostle’s Proof, which granted her the Apostle Candidate class Title.
• The system announced across all realms that Lu Xiu had obtained an Apostle’s Proof, startling players throughout the Nine Provinces.

Lu Xiu returned from the Versus Instance with the Apostle's Proof, a flexible but unfinished class that required her to develop its skills herself. After Jian Li and Shen Nian showed their Profession Certificates, Lu Xiu tested her new class and summoned a sword array, but she was unsure how to continue the skill.

• Yan Fushou worried that Lu Xiu would face official Apostles alone, while the system announcement about her Apostle's Proof stunned players across Vast Firmament.
• In a Dungeon Fighter Online match, a burly player dismissed Lu Xiu as a newcomer until the Apostle Chang Qiu appeared behind him.
• Lu Xiu returned home, examined the Apostle's Proof, and explained to Shen Nian that its two skill slots had to be filled with abilities she could cast independently.
• Jian Li arrived after winning her instance and revealed a Spirit Seer Profession Certificate, while Shen Nian complained about her Sword Attendant class and its master requirement.
• Lu Xiu advanced into Apostle Candidate and tested Azure Blade Myriad Forms, summoning twenty-four weapons before wondering what the skill did next.

Lu Xiu recreated Storm Style as Myriad Blades Without a Trace and learned how Apostle skill slots combined abilities. In the Construction Space, she performed Bloody Rave and completed a new class system, but the prompt left her to name it and warned that doing so would announce her achievement across all worlds.

• Lu Xiu compressed air into Energy Blades and used invisible Azure Blades to create and register Myriad Blades Without a Trace as a Mythic Apostle skill.
• Lu Xiu discovered that Apostle skill slots could combine abilities and activate them with a single command, though the combined skills consumed their costs at once.
• Lu Xiu entered the Construction Space and attacked Kiri while gathering blood energy into the demonic sword for Bloody Rave.
• Lu Xiu hurled the blood-filled sword at Kiri, and the system announced that her new class was usable and asked her to name it.

Lu Xiu discovered that her blood-energy skills could form a new Berserker class and pushed its completeness to 99.7% before suspecting it needed a blood-absorbing passive. Meanwhile, Rosalind asked Yan Fushou about the Apostle's Proof and learned that Lu Xiu might create more Versus Instances.

• Lu Xiu realized the system recognized her Berserker framework as a new class, but its completion stopped at 99%, and her attempt to add a precise blood-thread technique failed.
• Lu Xiu created and tested the Berserker Awakening Skills Blood Demon: Slay the Heavens and Blood Demon Ultimate Path, raising the class's completeness to 99.7%.
• Lu Xiu deduced that the missing piece was a passive that absorbed blood to restore vitality, left the Construction Space, and asked Jian Li and Shen Nian to give her some blood.
• Jian Li and Shen Nian filled the bottles Lu Xiu gave them, while their teasing and Lu Xiu's embarrassment made the moment awkward.
• At the Foreign Affairs Department, Rosalind asked Yan Fushou about the Apostle's Proof, but he said he did not know what it was.
• Yan Fushou told Rosalind that Lu Xiu would probably keep making Versus Instances, and Rosalind said she no longer expected anything to surprise her.

Lu Xiu completed her blood-siphoning skill and created Berserker, the first fifteen-turn class, becoming its progenitor. Her announcement stunned officials and players across the realms, while Stan vowed to kill her to remove the class’s restrictions.

• Lu Xiu used Jian Li and Shen Nian’s blood to develop Blood Siphoning, purifying it into life energy that restored her health and completed her system.
• Lu Xiu named the new class Berserker, established its fifteen stages, and learned it became a higher-tier class for Hundred-Battle Soldier, Blood Soldier, and Blood-Weeping Swordsman.
• The system announced Lu Xiu’s creation of Berserker and named her Mother of Berserkers, prompting Ulysses, Gong Yu, and Rosalind to press Yan Fushou for details about the Class Contest Instance.
• Jian Li and Shen Nian realized Lu Xiu had used their blood to create a class.
• Stan and a gaunt man heard the announcement during the ongoing Versus Instance, and Stan declared that he would kill Lu Xiu to remove the class restrictions.

Lu Xiu reviewed the privileges and Authority of Blood she gained as the Berserker class founder, then designed Bloodborne as a Berserker Class Contest Instance focused on blood control and self-restraint. After returning to the Witch Forest and seeing players tease her about her title, she decided to raise the Versus Instance’s difficulty.

• Lu Xiu examined her founder privileges, including suppressing Berserker skills, vetoing some class changes, receiving a share of Berserker experience, and freely using Berserker skills.
• Lu Xiu tested Authority of Blood and discovered it let her control blood and interfere with blood-related skills.
• Lu Xiu chose Bloodborne for the Berserker Class Contest Instance and outlined mechanics that taught players to control blood, suppress beast transformations, and recover health through aggression.
• Lu Xiu planned to appear as an instructor at the end of the instance, then saved her proposal and returned to the Wooden Cabin in the Witch Forest.
• Lu Xiu blocked Wei Yidong after reading his messages, while Shen Nian and Jian Li congratulated her on creating the Berserker class.
• Lu Xiu read the forums’ jokes about her Mother of Berserkers title and threatened to raise the Versus Instance’s difficulty.

Lu Xiu reassured Jian Li after her memories of Jian Ning triggered a spell of self-doubt, and helped her feel accepted as a friend. After lunch, Lu Xiu returned to the Construction Space and decided to prepare a cryptic trailer to promote the upcoming Class Contest Instance.

• Shen Nian panicked when Lu Xiu joked about crediting her and Jian Li for increasing the Class Contest Instance's difficulty, and Jian Li pulled Shen Nian away from Lu Xiu.
• Jian Li was overwhelmed by memories of Jian Ning insulting her, but Lu Xiu brought her back to the present and explained the Berserker class to her and Shen Nian.
• Jian Li asked to test the Berserker class before choosing it, while Shen Nian said it might not suit her; Lu Xiu told them they could decide after trying it in the Class Contest Instance.
• Jian Li went outside to study her skills and admitted to Lu Xiu that she wanted to become stronger because she feared losing her place beside Lu Xiu.
• Lu Xiu reassured Jian Li that she liked her personality and would not abandon her for being quiet or less powerful, then rested on Jian Li's lap until Jian Li felt better.
• After lunch, Lu Xiu returned to the Construction Space, read Yan Fushou's messages, and considered making a cryptic trailer before announcing the Class Contest Instance's release date.

Lu Xiu designed a Bloodborne-themed Class Contest Instance and unveiled its trailer, which showed the cursed city of Yharnam instead of the battlefield players expected. The trailer ended by revealing a grotesque monster, leaving players shocked and wondering how the instance related to Berserkers.

• Lu Xiu selected Bloodborne bosses for the instance, donned the Hunter set, and began storyboarding a trailer for Bloodborne.
• Ulysses decided to invite Xia to Nine Provinces, while Gong Yu and Rosalind sought reinforcements from Canaan and Franca for the anticipated contest.
• Rosalind read forum posts predicting that the Class Contest Instance would be a massive PvP battle.
• A system window announced Lu Xiu's Bloodborne trailer to players across the world, and they gathered to watch it.
• The trailer depicted Yharnam's blood moon, its beast plague, and its Hunters before revealing a malformed monster that horrified the players.

Lu Xiu’s Bloodborne trailer stunned players and rival delegates with its nightmarish bosses and the reveal of Lu Xiu as the final opponent. After she insisted the instance’s mechanics fit Berserkers, a distant roar from the Northern Seventh Defense Line suggested the monsters there were growing stronger as the expansion countdown neared its end.

• The trailer revealed Ludwig, Lawrence, Maria, and other terrifying Bloodborne bosses before showing Lu Xiu’s figure splitting the Blood Moon and announcing the instance’s launch in five days.
• Players flooded the forums with disbelief, while Gong Yu, Ulysses, and Rosalind wondered how the trailer could be a Berserker contest and feared they would have to fight Lu Xiu.
• Yan Fushou forwarded the delegates’ complaints to Lu Xiu, who dismissed them as slander and said the instance’s core mechanics perfectly matched Berserkers.
• A roar from far beyond the Witch Forest made Lu Xiu suspect that monsters at the Northern Seventh Defense Line were growing stronger on the expansion’s twenty-eighth countdown day.

After a roar swept across the world, the front-line Assimilation Zones withdrew and exposed the ruined cities, while Lu Xiu received a fleeting warning about King-class monsters, intelligent monsters, Xenogenic gods, and a wager. Unable to reveal the warning because the system censored her, Lu Xiu went to Chen Capital and prepared to strengthen humanity’s equipment while asking to explore the changed front line.

• Gong Yu reread descriptions of Lu Xiu’s past instances, then heard a terrifying roar as Ulysses received a report of unusual activity on the Red Tide front.
• Across the fronts, monsters retreated and the membranes and fog of the Assimilation Zones withdrew, alarming veteran soldiers even as players celebrated.
• Lu Xiu received a system warning about the first King-class Monster, intelligent monsters, Xenogenic gods, a wager, and kindling, but the message vanished before she could examine it further.
• When Lu Xiu tried to tell Jian Li and Shen Nian about the warning, the system made her babble; she then received Yan Fushou’s request to come to Chen Capital.
• At the Coordination Bureau, Lu Xiu asked Yan Fushou to send her Monster Hunter materials so she could make more high-rated equipment, then requested permission to explore areas where assimilation had stopped.

Lu Xiu crafted Monster Hunter armor and gave master-rank Odogaron Sets to Shen Nian and Jian Li before leading a squad to Sea City’s Northern Seventh Defense Line. As Lu Xiu entered the formerly assimilated ruins, an enormous tentacled phantom rose in the southern district and spoke of building a nest.

• Lu Xiu crafted Odogaron and Nergigante armor at the Coordination Bureau, then gave the two available Master Odogaron Sets to Shen Nian and Jian Li.
• Yan Fushou agreed to let Lu Xiu go to the front lines with Coordination Bureau players, and Lu Xiu chose the Northern Seventh Defense Line in Sea City for the next day.
• Chen Yu and the other players watched Lu Xiu arrive at Sea City with an armored squad, stunning the gathered players and prompting guild members to share recordings of the group.
• After speaking with Sea City's commander, Lu Xiu led her squad across the defense line and into the silent ruins of the formerly assimilated area.
• In Sea City's southern district, an enormous tentacled phantom rose from the shadows and declared that it would build a nest.

Lu Xiu’s squad entered the lifeless ruins and was ambushed by a parasitic shadow creature called the King's Scion, which nearly mind-controlled them before Lu Xiu broke its hold. As the King's Scion restored the monster-filled assimilation zone and summoned three more of its kind, the squad fought back while their mental contamination rose, and Yan Fushou confronted Chen Fu for keeping the troops outside despite Lu Xiu being inside.

• Cheng Xiu and Wei Yidong explored the eerily barren city while Lu Xiu and Ah Yi walked ahead, and Ah Yi revealed that the squad’s equipment seemed to have grown eyes and extra hands.
• Lu Xiu spotted shadow threads parasitizing the squad, broke their hold with her psychic power, and hurled the hidden King's Scion into a building.
• The squad recovered as their distortions vanished, but they discovered that the King's Scion had inflicted mental contamination on them.
• Lu Xiu ordered Cheng Xiu to tell Chen Fu to withdraw the troops, then warned the squad not to look at the King's Scion as it restored the assimilation membranes and released mutants.
• Lu Xiu’s Lightning Spear barely damaged the King's Scion while the squad fought off the mutants, and the creature’s shriek caused their contamination to rise and summoned three more King's Scions.
• At the Seventh Defense Line command post, Yan Fushou seized Chen Fu and angrily demanded why he had kept the troops out while Lu Xiu remained inside.

Lu Xiu and the Strategy Group survived the four King's Scions when she shielded them with a Psychic Barrier and destroyed the Scions with charged lightning. After discovering that their eyes connected to a King-class monster on Sea City's coast, Lu Xiu sent the others back and planned to summon powerful opponents for it.

• At the command post, Chen Fu stopped Yan Fushou from sending soldiers into the Assimilation Zone and ordered the army to wait for news.
• Lu Xiu protected the squad from the four King's Scions' mental contamination with a Psychic Barrier, then blasted them with a charged lightning attack.
• Lu Xiu found a gray line inside a King's Scion's eye that led to a monstrous source on the coast, and she tore apart the Scions' eyes to destroy all four.
• Lu Xiu realized the King-class monster intended to build a nest in Sea City and told Cheng Xiu and the others to retreat because they could not face it.
• Lu Xiu said she would find the monster an opponent, naming Gravelord Nito, the Witch of Izalith, Manus, Father of the Abyss, and possibly Gwyndolin.

Lu Xiu placed the Dark Souls dungeon in central South City to counter the King's Scions and stop the mountain of flesh from advancing. She recruited Gravelord Nito, who emerged into the real world and began destroying the Scions, while the dungeon spread and a wyvern appeared above the ruins.

• Lu Xiu escorted Cheng Xiu, Jian Li, Shen Nian, and the others out of the Assimilation Zone, then returned alone to reach central South City.
• Lu Xiu fought past waves of King's Scions and placed the Dark Souls dungeon in a ruined plaza, where the scenery began expanding around a Bonfire.
• Lu Xiu entered the dungeon, received the Pilgrimage quest, fought through the Catacombs and Tomb of Giants, and met Gravelord Nito.
• Lu Xiu offered Gravelord Nito freedom from his restrictions in exchange for fighting the invading enemies, and he agreed.
• The dungeon expanded into the real world, and Nito emerged to destroy the King's Scions with death miasma, turning their remains into skeleton soldiers.
• At the Seventh Defense Line, Cheng Xiu and the others sensed the change and saw a Dark Souls wyvern take flight above the South City Ruins.

Lu Xiu fought through the Dark Souls instance, persuaded Quelaag and Gwyndolin to join her, and forced many other bosses into reality to help repel the King's Scions. Anor Londo descended over South City as the frontline monsters’ assault began, while the flesh-covered king on the beach recoiled from its false sunset.

• Lu Xiu persuaded Quelaag to let her take Quelaag and her sister into reality in exchange for help resisting the invaders, then rang the second bell and brought Blighttown into the real world.
• Lu Xiu defeated Great Grey Wolf Sif, took the Covenant of Artorias, and sent Sif into reality before beating and transporting more Dark Souls bosses.
• At the Seventh Defense Line, Cheng Xiu, Wei Yidong, Shen Nian, Jian Li, Yan Fushou, and the others watched South City transform as the Dark Souls instance expanded.
• Lu Xiu reached Anor Londo and convinced Gwyndolin to leave his vigil, causing the false sunset to vanish and Anor Londo to materialize over South City.
• The Dark Souls bosses slaughtered the King's Scions in South City, while Anor Londo’s golden light erased the shadows sustaining many of them.
• On the beach, the flesh-covered king recoiled from Anor Londo’s light, pulled in its tentacles, and repeated, “Not a hero.”