Chapter Summaries

Huo Ling sold demonic materials to New Southern City at a steep profit and used gifts and connections to arrange a safer transfer for the Eighth Group. After successfully building goodwill with local officials and Sanctuary-rank experts, he prepared to return to Purgatory.

• Huo Ling sold his demonic materials to Liu Hu for eighteen million magic stones, more than twice their Purgatory value.
• Huo Ling gave Liu Hu additional demonic materials as a gift, and You Taining observed the exchange without objecting.
• You Taining considered establishing a territory in Purgatory but dismissed the idea because he lacked the means and would be too conspicuous there.
• Huo Ling attended Liu Hu's banquet and met New Southern City's Sanctuary-rank experts, then sought a safer, more profitable assignment for the Eighth Group.
• Liu Hu introduced Huo Ling to a military official, who arranged the Eighth Group's transfer and earned Huo Ling's gratitude.

Huo Ling reunited with Dodd, who asked about Sylvia and learned she was still in Purgatory. Huo Ling then returned to New Southern City to visit An Ruirui and his son, but the chapter ended when Xiao Yue opened the gate and recognized him.

• Huo Ling welcomed Dodd and thanked him for his past guidance and for sending a tree fruit to Huo Ling's son.
• Dodd asked about Sylvia, and Huo Ling told him she was alive in Purgatory and had chosen not to return to the Wood Elves.
• Huo Ling said goodbye to Dodd, teleported to New Southern City, and visited You Taining and several affairs departments.
• Huo Ling learned that An Ruirui and their son lived in Sparkfire's old courtyard, then went to the headquarters gate.
• Xiao Yue opened the gate, saw Huo Ling, and screamed.

Huo Ling reunited with Xiao Yue and met his son, Huo Chengguang, for the first time. After examining the boy, he recognized his strong dragonkin bloodline and exceptional talent, while reflecting on how much his own rapid rise had depended on the attribute panel.

• Xiao Yue recognized Huo Ling as he returned, and Huo Chengguang sensed danger and revealed his dragonkin traits.
• Xiao Yue told Huo Chengguang that Huo Ling was his father and explained that his grandfather had named him.
• Huo Ling held Huo Chengguang and discovered that his chubbiness came from eating fruit he could not yet digest.
• Huo Ling examined Huo Chengguang and found that the boy had a high-grade bloodline, strong spiritual power, and the ability to use dragon breath.
• Huo Ling reflected on his son's likely potential and on how the attribute panel had helped him advance so quickly.

Huo Ling reunited with his family in New Southern City, cared for his brothers’ futures, and began attending banquets as a newly advanced Sanctuary. At Shen Tianyu’s gathering, nobles and Sanctuaries tried to secure ties with Huo Ling through marriage proposals.

• Huo Ling reunited with An Ruirui, their son Huo Chengguang, and his parents, while Huo Feng and Huo Yi joined the family gathering later.
• Huo Ling secretly gave Huo Feng the inheritance of the legendary knight Scum Gray and prepared awakening supplies for Huo Yi.
• After two days with An Ruirui, Huo Ling attended a banquet hosted by his former superior, Shen Tianyu.
• Shen Tianyu praised Huo Chengguang’s bloodline and asked whether the two-year-old had been betrothed, but Huo Ling refused to discuss marriage so early.
• Shen Tianyu and other Sanctuaries began offering their daughters, granddaughters, nieces, and other female relatives to Huo Ling.

Huo Ling accepted Shen Tianyu’s proposal to marry one of his daughters, seeing marriage ties as a way to build a dependable network of allies. Before the marriage, he returned to Blue Star and reunited with his teacher, He Wenhan, to recount his experiences in Purgatory.

• Huo Ling welcomed Shen Tianyu’s offer to arrange a marriage alliance, while other families withdrew after learning he planned to return to Purgatory.
• Shen Tianyu introduced one of his daughters to Huo Ling, and Huo Ling agreed to the match.
• Huo Ling returned to Blue Star before marrying and visited He Wenhan at Southern Heaven University.
• He Wenhan welcomed Huo Ling back to his laboratory, where they talked about Huo Ling’s time in Purgatory.

Huo Ling told He Wenhan that he planned to return to Purgatory and pursue the path to becoming Legendary, then saw his teacher’s successful Flesh Modification experiment. Back in New Southern City, Huo Ling prepared to marry An Ruirui and Shen Tinghan in a joint ceremony, and he met Shen Tinghan the day before the wedding.

• Huo Ling declined He Wenhan’s suggestion that he take a university position and said he intended to continue developing in Purgatory.
• He Wenhan showed Huo Ling a gnoll modified into a successful test subject, though he admitted it was the only success among many failed experiments.
• Huo Ling gave He Wenhan Gold-level demon and devil heart cores to consider for further research.
• Huo Ling and the Shen family agreed that he would marry An Ruirui and Shen Tinghan in one ceremony because the Shen family would not let Shen Tinghan become a lesser wife.
• Huo Ling met Shen Tinghan at a Shen family banquet the day before the wedding, and both he and the family approved of the match.

Huo Ling married Shen Tinghan in an alliance that brought him the Shen family's support, wealth, and guards. After the wedding, he went to Shen Tinghan's bridal chamber, where they began their first night together.

• The Shen family gave Shen Tinghan a substantial dowry, including plantations, resources, and a squad of guards, and Huo Ling promised to help them if needed.
• Shen Tinghan reflected on how her family had prepared her for an arranged marriage and felt fortunate to wed the young, powerful Huo Ling despite fearing life in Purgatory.
• After the wedding, Huo Ling went to An Ruirui's room first because they were already married and had a child together.
• Huo Ling then entered Shen Tinghan's bridal chamber, lifted her veil, and Shen Tinghan nervously helped him remove his wedding clothes.
• When Shen Tinghan hesitated, Huo Ling took the lead as they began their wedding night.

After spending half a month with his brides, Huo Ling bought several Sanctuary spells in New Southern City and claimed a high-level Spatial Lock study from the elves. He prepared to return to Purgatory with Shen Tinghan, while Roland realized Huo Ling had already reached Sanctuary and wondered where Sylvia was.

• Huo Ling spent half a month moving between his two bridal chambers before turning his attention back to improving his strength.
• Huo Ling spent his magic stones on Enemy-Slaying Blade, Death Wound, Advanced Spell Dispel, and Ring of Weakening.
• Huo Ling claimed a high-level Spatial Lock study from the elves and left Elf Fortress without confronting them.
• Huo Ling encountered Roland, who recognized that Huo Ling had reached Sanctuary and wondered what had happened to Princess Sylvia.
• Huo Ling left An Ruirui and his son in New Southern City, then asked Shen Tinghan if she was ready to enter Purgatory with him.
• Shen Tinghan said she wanted to follow Huo Ling, and he prepared to take her into Purgatory.

Huo Ling returned to Purgatory with Shen Tinghan, introduced her to his powerful subordinates, and caught up on the work awaiting him in his territory. Seeking to expand his income and lands, he decided that his next war would target the demons.

• Huo Ling returned to the Pioneer Plains plantation and found Abu managing it as a dragonkin nearing Gold rank.
• Huo Ling remembered that he had forgotten Wilmot and resolved to check on the gnoll's progress on his next trip to the Spirit Realm.
• Huo Ling brought Shen Tinghan to his castle, where Sali greeted her and three high-ranking undead prepared to command his forces.
• Sylvia arrived, and Huo Ling teleported with her and Shen Tinghan to a bedroom to settle their jealousy.
• Huo Ling reviewed his territory's work and monthly income, then chose the demons as the target for expanding his territory.

Huo Ling found Carl’s loan contract among Morin’s belongings and offered to forgive Carl’s debt and fund his advancement if he submitted. Carl hesitated over becoming Huo Ling’s servant as Sali pressed him about how he could repay the loan.

• Carl came to Huo Ling and begged for help with a predatory loan tied to Morin Town’s scheme.
• Carl explained that the lender had disappeared and that Morin might have held the loan contract.
• Huo Ling searched Morin’s spatial equipment and found the original contract but did not give it to Carl.
• Huo Ling asked about Carl’s ruined territory and demanded that Carl submit in exchange for debt forgiveness and enough Calamity Coins to advance to the Saint Domain.
• Carl hesitated, and Sali challenged him to explain how he could repay the two-million-Calamity-Coin loan on his own.

Carl gave up resisting Huo Ling and signed a master-servant contract, becoming his slave. Huo Ling gave Carl the Calamity Coins he needed to pursue advancement to the Sanctuary realm, leaving Carl to train and Huo Ling pleased with his new subordinate.

• Huo Ling and Sali convinced Carl that he could not repay his debt or advance without Huo Ling's help.
• Huo Ling promised to help Carl advance toward becoming a Greater Devil, and Carl agreed to submit to him.
• Carl signed Huo Ling's master-servant contract, even though it did not include Huo Ling's promise.
• Carl told Huo Ling that he needed about four million Calamity Coins to reach the Sanctuary realm.
• Huo Ling gave Carl the Calamity Coins, and Carl withdrew to train.

Huo Ling appointed Slater to govern Carl Fortress and ordered him to develop its resources. Meanwhile, Sali proposed capturing a resource-rich abandoned bend in the Styx, and Huo Ling learned that Sali had once considered the site but could not take or hold it.

• After Carl advanced to the Sanctuary rank, Huo Ling decided to preserve Carl's former territory by sending a devil unit to garrison and develop it.
• Huo Ling appointed Slater to govern Carl Fortress, bound him with a master-servant contract, and promised to help him advance if the fortress earned two million Calamity Coins.
• Slater departed for Carl Fortress with five thousand devil soldiers, Infernal Ballistas, and Huo Ling's development plan.
• At a war meeting, Sali recommended attacking a resource-rich abandoned riverbed beside a bend in the Styx, explaining that mining its resources could also control the demon population.
• Huo Ling praised Sali's research, and Sali revealed that he had previously chosen the site but lacked the strength to seize and hold it.

Huo Ling prepared to expand into an alluvial plain where demon maggots hatched, while strengthening Kote Fortress and sweeping nearby demons from his territory. After months of battles, one of his Dread Knights advanced to the Sanctuary tier, and Huo Ling named him the Dread Warlord.

• Sali's intelligence revealed that the alluvial plain was a demon-mag­got hatchery, making it valuable but difficult for Huo Ling to hold.
• Huo Ling mobilized his forces to prepare for expansion, first ordering Sanctuary-tier subordinates to sweep the territory and eliminate nearby demons.
• Huo Ling bought materials from Morin Town and worked with his liches to craft Spatial Locks and defensive arrays for Kote Fortress.
• Huo Ling protected a promising Dread Knight while the Death Warlord led him through battles to help him grow stronger.
• After a border battle, the Dread Knight advanced to the Sanctuary tier, and Huo Ling named him the Dread Warlord.

Huo Ling assembled more than one hundred thousand undead and devils for his largest campaign yet and reorganized his command structure before marching into Abyss-controlled territory. With Sali as chief of staff and Carl overseeing the devil legion, the army set out prepared for battle.

• Huo Ling gathered six Sanctuary-rank combatants and prepared to venture deeper into the Abyss-controlled New Land.
• Huo Ling left a small garrison behind and mobilized a force of more than one hundred thousand undead and devils.
• Huo Ling divided the army into company-sized combat units and limited his mental connections to undead command nodes to ease the strain of command.
• Huo Ling established a general staff headquarters with Legion Devil veterans and five liches to plan battles and relay orders.
• Huo Ling created magical battle banners so the liches could command junior officers, appointed Sali chief of staff, and assigned Carl to oversee the devil legion.
• Huo Ling reorganized the army until it achieved its desired formation and began its march.

Huo Ling led a vast army toward the alluvial plain by the Styx, bringing Lemure fodder and protected war machines for his campaign. He surveyed the plain and considered making it his main base, while observing the dangerous demon larvae and their struggle to survive.

• Huo Ling gathered more than two hundred thousand Lemures and marched with his army, using elite troops as the vanguard against demons encountered along the way.
• Huo Ling brought Infernal Catapults, Infernal Ballistae, and enormous shielded war chariots hauled by Lemures.
• Huo Ling secretly flew ahead to the alluvial plain Sali had mentioned and judged its open terrain and mana-rich surroundings suitable for a future main base.
• Huo Ling saw demon larvae covering the Styx’s banks and watched newly evolved demons face predation from stronger demons.
• Huo Ling noted that weak demons were bullied and strong, arrogant demons were targeted, leaving ordinary and lucky demons the best chance to survive.

Huo Ling’s army captured a Demon Worm hatchery and devoured its worms while preparing defenses against the demons expected to attack. He used the Pioneering Decree to bring the Will of Purgatory into the region, where he began studying its exposed rules.

• Huo Ling led his army to the Styx, where the devils charged into the hatchery and feasted on more than a million Demon Worms.
• Huo Ling’s undead searched for defensive positions while wraiths attacked the low-ranking demons on the outskirts.
• Huo Ling promoted more than three thousand Lemures into Nupperibos after they gained enough energy from eating worms.
• Huo Ling directed his devils to build a five-tiered altar, then activated the Pioneering Decree and prayed to the Will of Purgatory.
• The Will of Purgatory began invading the region, and Huo Ling studied the rules revealed as it clashed with the Abyssal Will.

Huo Ling built up his forces and defenses while using battles with gathering demons to grow his undead army. When eleven Sanctuary demons finally revealed themselves amid a massive siege, Huo Ling prepared to make his move.

• Huo Ling, Sali, and Carl studied Purgatory's laws while their troops and lemures built defensive pillars and trenches.
• Huo Ling used a small force to lure demons into attacking, and his undead soldiers fought while devils salvaged the corpses for reanimation.
• Huo Ling's forces gained thirty thousand Skeleton Warriors in less than half a month as the demon host around them grew.
• Sali and Carl stopped studying the laws to command troops and guard against Sanctuary demons, while Huo Ling activated the Greater Spatial Lock.
• Huo Ling sensed and revealed eleven Sanctuary demons among the hundreds of thousands of besieging demons, then prepared to act as they watched one another warily.

Huo Ling used his Scorching Eyes to devastate the demons’ ranks and then targeted the arriving Sanctuary-rank demons. He killed a Sanctuary-rank Berserker Demon, the first Sanctuary-rank demon to die on the battlefield.

• Huo Ling strengthened himself, his undead, and the two greater devils with defensive and enhancement spells, then summoned more than fifteen Scorching Eyes.
• Sanctuary-rank demons drove Gold-rank and weaker demons into Huo Ling’s military formation while refusing to attack him directly.
• Huo Ling ordered the Scorching Eyes to fire, killing demons in successive volleys and showing that the spells recovered mana between attacks.
• Two more Sanctuary-rank demons arrived, bringing their number to thirteen, so Huo Ling decided to attack before further reinforcements came.
• Huo Ling targeted a Berserker Demon with the Scorching Eyes; after teleporting away from the first volley, the demon was struck by a second series and killed.

Huo Ling reinforced his formation with three Death Guards and a Sanctuary-tier white dragon projection as the demons attacked. The battle remained locked in combat, with the white dragon diving toward a Six-Armed Serpent Demon.

• The Sanctuary-tier demons charged Huo Ling’s formation after a Balor Demon urged them to attack the spellcasters.
• Huo Ling summoned three Death Guards, who joined his existing Death Guard to protect the Dark Warriors with their Guardian Aura.
• Huo Ling’s nine Sanctuary combatants engaged the twelve demons while the Scorching Eyes fired rays at their enemies.
• Two Balor Demons attacked the Scorching Eyes, and Huo Ling detonated one after a Balor’s sword tore open its spell structure.
• Huo Ling used Dragon Pact to summon a Sanctuary-tier adult white dragon projection, which chose a Six-Armed Serpent Demon and dived toward it.

Huo Ling and his allies weakened and overwhelmed the demons trapped by the spatial lock, while the White Dragon fought a Balor Demon. The chapter left the battle ongoing, with Huo Ling targeting the remaining wounded Sanctuary-tier demons.

• The White Dragon froze the Six-Armed Serpent Demon and attacked it alongside a Death Vanguard while Huo Ling weakened it with Ring of Weakening.
• A Balor Demon attacked the White Dragon with Implosion, but Huo Ling dispelled the spell before the demon grappled with the dragon in the air.
• Huo Ling shifted his focus to injured demons, while Scorching Eye rays and allied fighters kept them under pressure.
• Huo Ling weakened the Glabrezu and struck it with Flame Entombment and Massive Flameburst as Sali pinned it down.
• Sali killed the Glabrezu and stored its corpse at Huo Ling's request.