Chapter Summaries

Huo Ling met Southern Heaven Province’s leading families and young talents, who sought marriage alliances and positions in his plans to develop the Spirit Realm. After the legends finished their private discussions, Gu Zhengyuan presented Huo Ling to the waiting crowd.

• Gu Zhengyuan hosted families, marriageable young women, and ambitious talents hoping to ally with Huo Ling or join his venture in the Spirit Realm.
• Gu Zhengyuan, Shan Liang, Ren An, Zhao Ziming, You Taining, and Huo Ling discussed their completed exchanges of interests.
• Gu Zhengyuan, Zhao Ziming, and Ren An offered female relatives for marriage alliances, and Huo Ling accepted their offers.
• The legends discussed how marriages and future descendants would strengthen ties among their families and establish dragon-descendant bloodlines.
• Gu Zhengyuan led the legends onto the balcony and introduced Huo Ling, Viscount of Stone Creek, to the waiting crowd.

Huo Ling attended a banquet where powerful families sought business partnerships and marriage alliances with him, while young talents were brought forward to meet him. The event moved on to introductions of the families’ younger members, beginning with three juniors presented to Huo Ling.

• Huo Ling greeted the banquet guests, drawing excited reactions from the young women present.
• Gu Zhengyuan introduced Huo Ling to a Sanctuary, and Huo Ling established a potential partnership through their conversation.
• The Legends introduced families to Huo Ling, who accepted proposals for business cooperation and marriage alliances while declaring An Ruirui his principal wife.
• After business and marriage arrangements were settled, the powerful families brought their gifted young talents to meet Huo Ling.
• An old man introduced three young members of his family to Huo Ling, who praised them as outstanding talents.

Huo Ling recruited talented young people from powerful families and universities to build the ranks of Huo Corporation’s security department. The banquet ended with the families evaluating Huo Ling as a potential faction leader and the young ladies left captivated by him.

• Huo Ling examined three youths brought by a powerful family head and agreed to take them into his ranks at Huo Corporation.
• Families and university leaders introduced young descendants and disciples, and Huo Ling assessed their talents and potential, accepting those he could use and turning away the unqualified.
• The families observed Huo Ling’s judgment and leadership, deciding whether to commit more resources and manpower to his faction.
• Young ladies approached Huo Ling for the banquet’s final dances, but his aura overwhelmed them while he showed little interest in their advances.
• The banquet ended with the legends, family heads, and young talents satisfied, while the ladies hoping to win Huo Ling’s attention left disappointed.

Huo Ling received marriage-alliance brides and thousands of retainers from powerful families, then met Ren Jingchen, whom the Ren Family sent to serve him under a thirty-year contract. Huo Ling offered Ren Jingchen two possible paths and explained why the contract would limit the treatment and opportunities he received.

• Aristocratic families sent young women, their maids, and retainers to Huo Ling, adding nine wives and more than three thousand elite soldiers to his forces.
• Huo Ling found Ren Jingchen waiting with a thirty-year magical contract that would make Huo Ling his employer.
• Ren Jingchen explained that the Ren Family suspected him of murdering his eldest brother and had punished him with dangerous service in its private army.
• Huo Ling examined Ren Jingchen and discovered that his injuries were few, despite his claims of hardship.
• Huo Ling offered Ren Jingchen a contract with fair pay but warned that his ties to Earl Nanhe's family would keep him from the best posts and cultivation.

Huo Ling persuaded Ren Jingchen to sign a follower contract and assigned him to reorganize the troops and form an officer corps. He then met Gu Yuquan, whose advice focused on establishing management systems before expanding into the Spirit Realm.

• Huo Ling offered Ren Jingchen a worker contract or a follower contract and urged him to join his core circle.
• Ren Jingchen accepted the follower contract, and both he and Huo Ling left their soul imprints on it.
• Huo Ling ordered Ren Jingchen to reorganize his personal troops and use the young recruits to build an officer corps.
• Huo Ling received Gu Yuquan, a Silver-ranked caster from the Gu Family, and asked for advice on managing his enterprises.
• Gu Yuquan recommended building a management framework and sound systems before expanding into the Spirit Realm.

Huo Ling expanded his organization by recruiting talented people and delegating its operations, then revived Modo as his first Legendary undead. He planned to send Modo to Purgatory to secure and expand his territory there.

• Gu Yuquan chose to sign a lifelong follower contract with Huo Ling and began working for him.
• Huo Ling recruited dozens of young Golden-rank talents, more than two hundred Silver-rank individuals, and their retainers, then assigned them roles in his organization.
• Huo Ling delegated procurement, construction, and other foundational work so he could focus on developing his strength.
• Huo Ling revived Modo by inscribing death runes and lesser death laws into his corpse.
• Modo arose as a Legendary undead and swore service to Huo Ling, who planned to station him in Purgatory.

Huo Ling returned to Purgatory as a legend, strengthened Mountain City’s defenses, and reclaimed Wace City, where his arrival silenced potential rivals. After reviewing the city’s affairs, he appointed Modo as its supreme commander in his stead.

• Huo Ling brought Modo from the Spirit Realm to Purgatory and inspected the completed walls and mine at Mountain City.
• Huo Ling spent half a month improving Mountain City’s flame furnace, then flew to Wace City.
• Huo Ling transformed into a red dragon, announced his return, and used his legendary pressure to make Wace City’s devils kneel and abandon their schemes.
• Sali, Carl, and the city’s officials greeted Huo Ling, who spent four days reviewing reports from the past year.
• Huo Ling appointed Modo supreme commander in his stead, and Modo revealed a trace of legendary pressure to the astonished officials.

Huo Ling removed the Purgatory corruption from Sylvia and brought her to the Spirit Realm, then returned to Blue Star to review the growing Huo Corporation. He found Huo Security had organized an elite force and established a General Staff Headquarters under Ren Jingchen.

• Huo Ling told Sali to find out how he could become an archdevil so he could preside over Sali's advancement ceremony.
• Huo Ling used the laws of Purgatory to remove Sylvia's corruption, and her hair began returning to grayish white.
• Huo Ling offered to take Sylvia back to the rebuilt Wood Elf Royal Court, but she chose to stay with him.
• Huo Ling took Sylvia to one of his Spirit Realm coordinates, where Wilmot was expanding Red Dog City, then returned to Blue Star.
• Huo Ling found that Huo Security commanded three Type B combat regiments led by Ren Jingchen, who had also established a General Staff Headquarters with more than fifty staff officers.

Huo Ling built an everlasting teleportation gate linking Blue Star to the Spirit Realm, including an outer-void array to collect spatial energy and a Legendary-grade shield on the Spirit Realm side. After testing the gate in both directions, he began transferring troops and workers to Red Dog City.

• Huo Ling designed the gate and hired blacksmiths and spellcasters to forge its components and carve the underground array plate.
• Huo Ling carried runic metal components into the outer void and assembled an array to gather spatial energy for the gate.
• After more than two months, Huo Ling completed the gate beneath Huo Corporation and installed its Legendary-grade shield in Red Dog City.
• Huo Ling activated the gate and sent a Skeleton Warrior through; a Saint-domain spellcaster at Red Dog City sent a Dark Warrior back to confirm two-way operation.
• Huo Ling told Ren Jingchen to begin the transfer, and the Type-B combat regiments started moving into the Spirit Realm in batches.

After bringing workers and troops through the portal to Red Dog City, Huo Ling assigned his followers roles in building the city, developing plantations, surveying resources, training the army, and establishing outposts. The territory’s development began, though the city walls and outposts would remain limited by a shortage of manpower.

• The workers entered Huo Ling’s territory, where they would build a temporary camp and take the risks of developing a new city in exchange for high wages and land.
• Huo Ling entered the portal after the last workers, leaving one battalion of guards and a regiment of undead soldiers at the Blue Star base.
• Huo Ling appointed Gu Yuquan to oversee new-city construction and gave him the design blueprint.
• Huo Ling assigned Shi Haoyu to develop plantations across the territory and Stone to survey and catalogue its resources.
• Huo Ling put Ren Jingchen in charge of training the army and ordered Zhao Yuanliang to establish outposts with a command banner that could store undead soldiers.

Huo Ling inspected Wilmot’s laboratory and learned how its researchers augmented goblins into Silver-rank warriors. Impressed by the low cost, he decided to expand the research team and considered selling augmented soldiers to Great Xia’s expanding factions.

• Wilmot told Huo Ling that the laboratory could augment ordinary goblins into Black Iron-rank soldiers with an eighty percent success rate, then raise some to Silver rank with a success rate just over forty percent.
• Wilmot explained that the process took about fifteen months and showed Huo Ling a fully augmented Silver-rank goblin warrior.
• Huo Ling calculated that outfitting Silver-rank soldiers could cost thousands of magic stones per warrior and that a full Type-A combat division would require at least two hundred million magic stones.
• Wilmot reported that the laboratory’s augmentation cost was around twelve hundred magic stones per soldier, including failed attempts.
• Huo Ling praised Wilmot and decided to provide more researchers, hoping to lower costs and sell augmented soldiers to Great Xia’s factions.

Huo Ling reviewed Wilmot’s goblin enhancement method and considered how enhanced soldiers could become a major source of revenue for Huo Military Industries. The method could produce Black Iron-tier goblins in five months and Silver-tier fighters after a further eight months, though the power came with hidden costs.

• The chapter explained why Silver-tier Type-A forces were expensive and slow to build, and why factions often relied on cheaper indigenous soldiers.
• Huo Ling considered plans to turn enhanced soldiers into a source of revenue for Huo Military Industries.
• Huo Ling studied the Black Iron-tier enhancement process, which modified goblins’ hearts, bones, muscles, and skin before five months of accelerated cultivation.
• The documents described Silver-tier enhancements that added digestive organs and kidneys, modified cells and internal organs, and strengthened goblins with magic potions and Silver-tier metals.
• The Silver-tier training process took eight months and granted goblins combat power at the cost of other hidden consequences.

Huo Ling expanded his territory by developing plantations, recruiting workers, and selling low- and mid-rank mineral deposits. He named the growing settlement Plains City, where Gu Yuquan oversaw construction and defensive towers were already being erected.

• Huo Ling assessed the short lifespan and limited peak combat years of modified goblin soldiers, and considered selling them to other forces for profit.
• Shi Haoyu surveyed suitable sites for plantations, while construction crews built their main structures and spellcasters prepared runes to supply them with magical power.
• The Huo Corporation recruited workers on Blue Star and transported hundreds of employees each day into the Spirit Realm.
• Stone and mineral exploration experts surveyed Huo Ling's territory, and Huo Ling decided to sell or jointly develop most low- and mid-rank mineral veins.
• Huo Ling named the new settlement Plains City, where Gu Yuquan oversaw construction and defensive towers rose despite the lack of funds for an outer wall.

Huo Ling prepared his territory for its first development tender, showcasing the strength of his undead forces as prominent factions from Southern Heaven Province arrived. The visiting patriarchs saw that even his honor guard outweighed the combined strength of their families.

• Huo Ling kept his living army at its current size while training its four combat regiments and securing his territory from native tribes and magic beasts.
• Huo Ling stationed twenty skeleton-based combat divisions, two Dark Warrior combat divisions, and twenty Sanctuary-ranked undead in his territory to bolster investors' confidence.
• Representatives of prominent Southern Heaven Province factions gathered at Huo Corporation headquarters to attend Huo Ling's development tender.
• The permanent teleportation gate opened, and the visiting factions entered the Spirit Realm through an imposing honor guard of undead knights and Dark Warriors.
• The patriarchs compared the honor guard's strength with their own and realized their families were no match for it.

The Gu Family administrator saw the strength of Huo Ling’s Dread Knight honor guard and reflected on how the family’s territory had benefited from Huo Ling’s permanent teleportation gate. After a seven-day inspection of Plains City and its surrounding resources, Huo Ling brought the inspectors to the northern border and said he planned to keep expanding.

• The Gu Family administrator arrived through the teleportation gate, admired Huo Ling’s Dread Knights, and learned from his Saint Domain guard that the Gu Family could not assemble a force of comparable strength.
• The administrator considered how Huo Ling’s gifted territory had let the Gu Family develop resources quickly and provide opportunities for younger family members, while permanent teleportation gates gave powerful houses a major advantage in Spirit Realm expansion.
• Huo Ling arranged a seven-day inspection for auction participants, who toured mineral veins and undeveloped land as they assessed Plains City’s potential.
• Huo Ling led the senior inspectors to the territory’s northern border and described the nearby tribes and the vast Half-Orc Empire beyond them.
• Viscount Chiyuan asked about Huo Ling’s future plans, and Huo Ling said Plains City would continue expanding and follow New Southern City’s development model.

Huo Ling showed noble families plans for a fortress to defend against the Half-Orc Empire, then began auctioning mineral-vein mining rights to attract investment. The auction opened with fierce bidding, and more than a hundred veins were available to the participating families.

• Huo Ling explained that he needed outside capital and allies to develop his territory quickly and prepare for a possible war with the Half-Orc Empire.
• Huo Ling presented plans for a fortress designed to house at least ten combat divisions and answered the inspectors' questions.
• Huo Ling led the inspection delegation back to Plains City, where the mineral-vein auction began.
• Several families competed for a medium-sized Azure Demonstone vein, and one family won it for fifteen million magic stones.
• Huo Ling's auction offered mining rights while keeping ownership of the land in Plains City and requiring winners to pay 30% of extracted materials as tax.

Huo Ling auctioned large mining veins as the Zhao and Gu families competed for one that might contain valuable Saint-tier Green Copper and legendary Green Gold. Huo Ling secretly overheard the Zhao family’s discovery and remained unconcerned, viewing the veins as bait to attract the great families.

• The Zhao Family elder and the Gu Family governor raised their bids against each other for a mining vein estimated to yield at least 500 million magic stones.
• The Zhao Family elder paused the auction and privately asked his family’s prospecting expert about the mine’s true value.
• The expert revealed that a hidden derivative vein contained Saint-tier Green Copper and might indicate Green Gold, and the elder promised to recommend his son for family training if the Zhao Family secured the mine.
• The Zhao Family elder resumed bidding at 145 million magic stones, while the Gu Family governor refused to be pressured and continued the contest.
• Huo Ling saw through the Zhao Family’s concealment and heard their discussion, but he was not troubled by the discovery because he viewed the auctioned veins as bait.

After the mineral vein auctions set a new price record, Huo Ling celebrated the families’ gains and considered using his wealth to build a mage tower. He began designing the tower and researching legendary spells while the families started mining and building roads across the territory.

• An elder of the Zhao Family won the third large-scale mineral vein for 183 million magic stones after the Gu Family’s governor drove up the bidding.
• Huo Ling hosted a banquet after the auctions and hinted that he would expand his territory again soon.
• Huo Ling reflected that his nearly 1.1 billion magic stones from the auction would not cover the costs of legendary equipment or the mage tower he wanted to build.
• Huo Ling used You Taining’s mage tower design framework and, after paying for legendary spell frameworks, began designing his tower and developing spells.
• The noble families sent workers to excavate their mineral veins, build houses, and construct roads with funding from Plains City.

Augustine conquered the Ante Empire’s capital and unified nearly the entire Teri Plane under the Alto Kingdom. As his followers hailed him as emperor, the plane’s laws surged, revealing themselves to him and allowing him to grasp several lesser laws.

• Augustine’s forces defeated the Ante Empire’s defenders and captured its imperial capital after nearly a year of resistance.
• The Ante Emperor told his attendants to surrender after his death, then killed himself and was consumed by flames on the palace platform.
• Augustine entered the imperial palace and took the throne as nobles, officers, and soldiers knelt and hailed him as emperor.
• The plane’s sea of laws surged as Augustine unified the realm, revealing the complete laws of the Teri Plane and helping him grasp several lesser laws.

Huo Ling traveled to Ante’s imperial capital and found Augustine empowered by the Teri Plane’s laws after conquering the plane. Huo Ling explained that Augustine was nearing Legend rank, but the Teri Plane might confine him until it could advance.

• As the Teri Plane’s oppression intensified, Huo Ling handed command of his army to Augustine’s adjutant and teleported to the imperial capital.
• Huo Ling entered the royal hall and saw the plane’s laws coiling around Augustine, then asked him to dismiss everyone so they could speak privately.
• After the nobles and Xili left, Huo Ling sealed the hall and revealed that he had advanced to Legend, while Augustine’s power was also rapidly growing.
• Huo Ling told Augustine that the Teri Plane’s blessing might help him become its first Legend and raise the plane’s rank.
• Huo Ling warned that the plane’s small size could leave Augustine shackled after his advancement, though Augustine might eventually seek other planes or become a god.