Chapter Summaries

Xavier led the God of Courage's legion toward Huo Ling's newly claimed territory, while hundreds of thousands of devils followed in hopes of finding land to claim. The vanguard reached Wace City and witnessed Huo Ling's undead patrols encircling and attacking a demon group.

• Xavier allowed the devil groups following the legion to stay, believing they could help draw off demons in battle.
• Xavier spotted Wace City and redirected the legion toward Huo Ling's newly opened territory.
• A Pit Fiend recognized that a devil lord had independently pioneered the territory and praised the lord's strength.
• Kim's vanguard entered Huo Ling's territory and found fewer demons there because Huo Ling's patrols hunted them relentlessly.
• Two undead patrols encircled a demon group on the lich staff officers' orders, and Dread Knights charged through the demons' flank.

Huo Ling’s undead defeated a demon horde and captured several Silver-rank demons as Xavier’s divine servant legion passed through the territory. Xavier and Gaden observed Huo Ling’s forces, while Huo Ling chose not to interfere with the far stronger army.

• The Dread Knights broke through the demon horde, and the undead pursued the fleeing demons, killing most and capturing some wounded Silver-rank demons.
• An elite Dark Warrior reassured the captives with promises of worms and succubi while the undead guarded them closely.
• The divine servant legion’s commander reported the undead battle to Xavier, who ordered the legion to cross Huo Ling’s territory and continue toward Abyss New Land.
• Xavier and Gaden watched Huo Ling’s forces from the floating cloud platform and discussed the red dragon’s strength and necromancer status.
• Huo Ling let the divine servant legion pass, judging that its powerful clergy, angels, and Legendaries could overwhelm his army.

Huo Ling prepared to expand his territory while the God of Courage's army drew demons into a massive battle in the Abyss-controlled New Land. After warning the devil pioneer lords away from his chosen territories, Huo Ling ordered his army to march in three days, and the chapter ended with the divine legion holding its ground against the surrounding demons.

• Carl delivered Huo Ling's chosen territory coordinates to the devil pioneer lords and warned them to stay away.
• The Sanctuary-ranked devils dismissed Carl's threat publicly but memorized the coordinates and planned to settle elsewhere.
• Huo Ling told Sali that his army would march in three days, after the God of Courage's forces had drawn in demons and weakened them.
• The God of Courage's legion attracted demons from across the New Land and crushed them in a vast battlefield.
• The divine servants and godly attendants maintained a defensive line as demons attacked on the ground and Sanctuary-ranked demons charged the floating cloud platforms.

The God of Courage’s legion defeated the demons after five days of battle, with Xavier and Gaden supporting the forces from the floating cloud platform. After the victory, Xavier brought forth a gigantic statue of Kim, the God of Courage, above the mountains of demon corpses.

• War Angels, archangels, priests, and cleric soldiers battled the demons while Xavier and Gaden supported the legion with divine spells.
• Xavier wounded a powerful Berserker Demon with his scepter, allowing a paladin to finish it.
• The devils formed disciplined battle arrays and fought the demons alongside the God of Courage’s forces.
• On the fifth day, the demons retreated after their Sanctuary-rank fighters were nearly all killed.
• The victors gathered demon corpses and salvaged the bodies of Gold-rank demons and above.
• Xavier guided the battle-scarred floating cloud platform over the corpse mountains and revealed a gigantic statue of Kim, the God of Courage.

Xavier and the Church of the God of Courage sacrificed demon corpses to power a divine array that summoned reinforcements, while Huo Ling advanced toward his destination with little resistance. The chapter leaves Xavier committed to his mission and unaware that many of the summoned servants were lost when the array ran out of energy.

• Xavier began the sacrifice as the clergy and divine servants formed a divine-script array around the demon corpses.
• Kim, the God of Courage, descended upon his statue and directed Xavier to begin the sacrifice before his power faded.
• Gaden placed demon corpses, heart cores, and spatial equipment beneath the statue, and Kim used the burning corpses to power a summoning array.
• The array summoned waves of divine servants, but it lost power and two thousand servants still in transit were destroyed by spatial turbulence.
• Kim promised to crown Xavier as a servant god if he completed the mission, and Xavier vowed to obey.
• Huo Ling's army advanced with little resistance while he remained unaware of how the God of Courage's legion was faring.

Huo Ling led his army to the valley he had chosen and began establishing a settlement there. The troops secured defensive positions while the devils prepared a pioneering ritual to gain Purgatory’s blessing.

• Xavier ordered his army to leave the battlefield, then had the divine servants and clergy rest and restore their divine power at a new camp.
• Huo Ling advanced through the wilderness with little resistance as demons avoided his large army and devil lords fled from it.
• Huo Ling led nearly two hundred thousand combat troops and hundreds of thousands of Lemures into the valley, which had been left unclaimed after Carl’s announcement.
• Huo Ling’s officers positioned the undead at defensive strongpoints while the Lemures prepared a pioneering ritual using demon corpses as sacrifices.
• Sali, Carl, Slater, and nine other newly advanced high-ranking devils joined the expedition, and Huo Ling planned to use the territory’s blessing to speed their advancement.

Huo Ling began pioneering territory with the Pioneering Decree while the God of Courage's legion remained besieged nearby. A demon force headed for Huo Ling's valley, where his undead defenses and Dread Knights were ready to meet it.

• Huo Ling activated the Pioneering Decree and summoned the Purgatory Will to begin pioneering territory.
• Xavier and nearby devil pioneer lords sensed the conflict between the Purgatory and Abyssal Wills, and the lords resented Huo Ling for starting before they could safely begin.
• A demon legion abandoned its siege of the God of Courage's legion and headed toward Huo Ling's pioneering site.
• Huo Ling welcomed the approaching demons as a source of corpses for his sacrifice, while undead troops fortified the valley and cavalry intercepted smaller groups.
• The Dread Knight Warlord led the Dread Knights in a flank charge that split a force of several thousand demons and left a bloody path through their ranks.

Huo Ling’s devils and undead defeated the demons besieging them, then collected and sacrificed the corpses while Huo Ling and his allies studied Purgatory rules. The battle left Huo Ling’s forces with valuable spoils and a chance at another blessing, while Sali and Carl hoped to grow stronger.

• The Dread Knights and Skeleton Cavalry crushed the demons on the battlefield, killing a golden-rank Minotaur Demon and many others.
• Huo Ling attacked the sanctuary-rank demons with spells from the rear, forcing them to flee after they suffered heavy losses.
• The battle ended on the third day, and the demons who had lingered outside the fight fled after being driven away.
• The devils and undead collected the demon corpses, salvaging valuable materials and placing the remaining bodies in a sacrificial formation.
• Huo Ling, his sanctuary-rank undead, Sali, and Carl studied rules after the battle, while Sali and Carl anticipated further growth from their new knowledge and blessing.

Huo Ling sacrificed hundreds of thousands of demon corpses and received an immense Infernal Blessing from the Purgatory Will. He transformed into an adult-sized red dragon, gained a devil's heart core, and mastered a complete Purgatory rule as the blessing ended.

• Huo Ling began the sacrifice after the Purgatory Will drove the Abyssal Will from the territory.
• The Purgatory Will sent down pillars of light, blessing Huo Ling and the assembled devils with magical power and Purgatory rules.
• Huo Ling's body strengthened, grew dark-red scales and longer horns, and developed a devil's heart core before he returned to his red dragon form.
• Huo Ling spent his accumulated potential points to comprehend and master a complete Purgatory rule.
• The Infernal Blessing ended, and the devils opened their eyes, reluctant to lose the feeling of growing stronger.

Huo Ling emerged from his slumber after mastering a complete Purgatory rule and chose to delay advancing to Legend rank so he could comprehend more rules, beginning with one from the Spirit Realm. Meanwhile, the devils benefited from the Infernal Blessing and built the mountain city’s walls.

• Huo Ling’s black egg split open, revealing his dark-red dragon form, while he remained asleep mastering the complete Purgatory rule.
• Sali and Carl organized advancement ceremonies as more than a hundred thousand Nupperibos and other newly advanced devils joined the mountain city’s construction.
• After more than a month, Huo Ling awoke with greatly increased strength, displayed his complete Purgatory rule, and returned to dragonman form.
• Huo Ling decided not to advance to Legend rank yet and resolved to comprehend a complete Spirit Realm rule first.
• Huo Ling resumed directing the devils, whose work rapidly shaped the mountain city’s southern walls.

Huo Ling analyzed the Teri Plane’s rules and mastered one complete rule, increasing the strength his projection could wield there. Augustine then summoned him to a meeting about the Ante Empire’s demands, where the nobles began debating how to respond.

• Huo Ling built a cultivation altar in his courtyard and used it to study the Teri Plane’s rules without relying on potential points.
• Over two or three months, Huo Ling mastered one complete rule, weakening the plane’s suppression of him and boosting his power there.
• Augustine sent an envoy to invite Huo Ling to discuss important military intelligence, and Huo Ling attended the meeting in the royal hall.
• Augustine introduced Huo Ling to the gathered nobles as the royal family’s Grand Court Mage.
• Augustine raised the Ante Empire’s demands, and an elderly northern marquis objected to sending a princess for a marriage alliance or ceding two counties.

The Alto Kingdom’s nobles argued over the Ante Empire’s demand for two earldoms as a princess’s dowry, while King Augustine refused to cede territory and ordered the kingdom to prepare for war. Huo Ling reported that the demon army had around twenty-five thousand battle-ready soldiers, and Augustine said he would delay the Ante Empire’s attack.

• A duke proposed negotiating with the Ante Empire and offering one earldom, prompting a furious dispute between nobles whose interests differed by region.
• Augustine rejected the demand for two earldoms and ordered Duke Dero to negotiate with the Ante Empire without ceding territory.
• Augustine warned the nobles that the marriage alliance was a pretext and ordered them to prepare for war.
• After the nobles left, Augustine asked Huo Ling about the demon army, and Huo Ling reported that around twenty-five thousand soldiers were fit for battle.
• Augustine said he would make the Ante Empire delay its attack, despite the Alto Kingdom’s disadvantage in troop numbers.

After Aphrei was sent away to marry a prince of the Ante Empire, she was abducted near the border. Augustine secretly asked Huo Ling to find her and gave him coordinates, leaving Huo Ling to decide how to carry out the search.

• Augustine sent Aphrei to the Ante Empire despite Xili's plea to delay the marriage, and Huo Ling watched her tearful departure.
• An officer reported that Aphrei had been abducted after the Alto escort handed her over to the Ante Empire's guards at the border.
• Xili urged Augustine to condemn the Ante Empire and demand Aphrei's return, and Augustine ordered him to make the arrangements.
• Augustine visited Huo Ling's camp at night and asked him to search for Aphrei using a lock of her hair.
• Augustine told Huo Ling to bring Aphrei back if the Ante people abducted her, but to send her to the Tyr Kingdom if she did not want to return; he left Huo Ling a scroll of coordinates.

Huo Ling tracked down Princess Aphrei and found her with the mercenary friends who had rescued her from her escort. He arrived at their campfire, where his presence terrified the mercenaries, and Aphrei addressed him as Lord Huo Ling.

• Huo Ling used Aphrei's hair to locate her and traveled to the northern lands of the Alto Kingdom.
• Aphrei sat with the mercenary squad that had abducted her from the Ante Empire's escort convoy, and Alo offered her roasted rabbit.
• Huo Ling emerged from the forest and took a rabbit leg from Alo, while his aura left the shield guard frozen with fear.
• Aphrei recognized Huo Ling, agreed to eat some rabbit, and began chewing as tears welled in her eyes.

Huo Ling offered Aphrei the choice of returning to the Ante Empire for her political marriage or vanishing under an assumed name, and she chose to return. He brought her back to the royal palace, where Augustine ordered her to rest before being sent to Ante again.

• Huo Ling questioned the mercenaries about how they had rescued Aphrei, and the old mercenary described their surprise attack on the Ante Empire's convoy.
• Aphrei offered to return with Huo Ling, and he knocked Alo aside when the young mercenary drew his sword.
• Huo Ling revealed Aphrei's two choices, and Aphrei tearfully chose to return to her father and the political marriage.
• Huo Ling took Aphrei through teleportation gates to the royal palace, where Augustine told her she would be sent to Ante again in a few days.

After the Ante Empire declared war on the Alto Kingdom, Augustine prepared to face its much larger army with the kingdom's nobles and Huo Ling's hidden Demon Army. He ordered the coalition to gather at Bru City and sent nearly twenty-nine thousand Demon Army soldiers toward the battlefield.

• The Ante Empire declared war on the Alto Kingdom, and both sides spent more than a month gathering their forces.
• Augustine reviewed the enemy's numbers and found that the Alto Kingdom had roughly thirteen thousand elite soldiers and over fifty thousand ordinary troops.
• As nobles argued in the command tent, Augustine had painters record them and declared that the war would begin the Alto Kingdom's revival.
• Augustine ordered the coalition army to enter Bru City and wait for the Ante Empire's forces.
• Augustine visited Huo Ling's hidden camp, learned that the Demon Army had nearly twenty-nine thousand qualified soldiers, and ordered them to set out under cover of night.

Augustine stationed the Alto Kingdom's army in vulnerable Bru City to bait the Ante Empire into a decisive battle, while Huo Ling's concealed demon army waited outside. The Ante Empire's duke advanced cautiously and sent cavalry to search for hidden forces, leaving Augustine's trap undiscovered.

• Augustine chose Bru City as the battlefield and used the Alto Kingdom's soldiers as bait for the Ante Empire.
• Huo Ling and several court mages concealed the demon army outside Bru City with a formation.
• The Ante Empire's duke doubted the reports that Augustine had stationed his entire army in Bru City, but ordered his forces to advance there cautiously.
• The duke used a magical image to inspect Bru City, but Xili destroyed the image after discovering it.
• The duke ordered cavalry to scout the area within a hundred li, and his men swept the surrounding countryside in search of hidden enemies.

Huo Ling concealed the demon army in an abandoned town by using Suggestion to fool Ante scouts, while the Ante Empire began its assault on Bru City. Sensing that something was wrong, the Duke ordered the Saint Domains into battle despite objections.

• Huo Ling watched from the abandoned town as his Suggestion spell made an Ante cavalry squad overlook the demon soldiers hidden among the weeds.
• The cavalry left without finding anything, and the Ante army began attacking Bru City after two days of scouting reports found no nearby ambushes.
• Ante siege engines and mages exchanged attacks with Bru City's defenders, while Alto's court mages dispelled a powerful war spell.
• The Duke noticed that the battle felt wrong and ordered a full assault, including the deployment of the Saint Domains.
• A nobleman protested that the order went against the battle plan, but the Duke insisted that the Saint Domains advance so he could learn how many were defending Bru City.

Ante’s Saint Realm experts clashed with Alto’s defenders above Bru City while the duke believed the enemy’s leaders were occupied. A force of at least thirty thousand elite soldiers appeared behind Ante’s army, forcing the duke to reorganize his lines and send the marquis leading the cavalry to delay them.

• Five Ante combat professionals flew into Bru City and fought the Alto Kingdom’s Saint Realm experts, while Augustine suppressed two opponents at once.
• The duke ordered Ante’s Saint Realm experts to withdraw, but a general spotted an approaching enemy force behind the army.
• A Gold Realm spellcaster projected the distant soldiers, but an attack shattered the image and injured him; the duke estimated the force at at least thirty thousand elite troops.
• The duke ordered the mage corps to attack the rear force, sent the knight corps to delay it, and began reforming the army’s lines.
• The duke sent a young noble general to the siege front after he questioned abandoning troops on the walls, then entrusted the cavalry to an old marquis.
• The marquis rallied more than ten thousand cavalrymen and led their charge toward the approaching enemy.

Huo Ling led the demonic army against the Ante Empire’s cavalry, using precise formations and his overwhelming strength to repel the charge. He counterattacked the marquis after burning through the cavalry, and their clash ended in a violent collision.

• Huo Ling ordered the demonic army’s five thousand cavalry to split toward the flanks while its infantry marched in flawless square formations.
• The Ante Empire’s marquis rallied his cavalry and led a charge at the demonic army’s rear.
• Huo Ling used his mental power to turn the infantry around instantly and form a shield-and-spear defensive line.
• Huo Ling unleashed his Dragon Might and Fear Aura, causing the charging horses and riders to fall into chaos.
• Huo Ling burned the marquis’s guards with dragon breath and scorched the marquis himself.
• Huo Ling flew at the marquis with his halberd, and the two collided in a powerful blow.