Chapter Summaries

Chen Changhe fed Julia a divine mushroom that replaced her faith in the Harvest Goddess with faith in the Ork God, transforming her into his Chosen One. Julia gained a new body and Ork abilities, giving Chen Changhe a powerful ally as he prepared to establish himself in the world.

• Chen Changhe explained that Julia had to eat a mushroom made from his Divine Power for his talent to take effect, and Julia obeyed despite her disappointment.
• Julia experienced visions of Orks and the Ork God as her faith shifted, drawing the Harvest Goddess's furious curses.
• The power of Waaagh! transformed Julia's body and appearance while changing her into an Ork Chosen One.
• Julia's new abilities made her an Ork Planter who could plant explosive mushrooms and summon Orks to fight.
• Chen Changhe concluded that Julia's combat power gave him a foundation for establishing himself in the world.

Julia’s transformed strength impressed Ma Dexiang and made him reconsider leaving Chen Changhe’s service. As Chen Changhe’s party approached Bull Fief, he learned of the territory’s ruinous taxes and desperate condition.

• Julia appeared transformed, and Ma Dexiang sensed that she had become a powerful force who could overwhelm him.
• Ma Dexiang considered staying with Chen Changhe, while Chen Changhe noticed that Ma Dexiang’s attitude toward him had begun to improve.
• Chen Changhe recognized Ma Dexiang’s talent and considered cultivating him as a loyal subject.
• Ma Dexiang reported that Bull Fief lay more than fifty kilometers away and that the party would arrive by noon the next day.
• Chen Changhe learned that Corrupted Creatures and crushing taxes had devastated Bull Fief, and he judged its lord to be foolish or resigned to its decline.

Chen Changhe planned to leave Bull Fief by becoming a powerful noble’s retainer and recognized the value of the elderly, disabled craftsmen among his slaves. He sent Ma Dexiang to arrange shelter and supplies before continuing toward his territory, where the Ork God’s power could restore the slaves and earn their faith.

• Chen Changhe reasoned that Bull Fief’s lord would need to pay high nobles dearly to escape his failing territory, likely abandoning his family and land.
• Chen Changhe ordered Ma Dexiang to find an abandoned village for the group to rest and sent him to buy food and Corruption Godstones.
• Chen Changhe considered exchanging his human slaves for cheaper demi-human slaves, including beast-eared girls, and relied on slave contracts to prevent them from fleeing.
• Chen Changhe discovered that several slaves were elderly or disabled craftsmen whom a viscount had discarded, and he planned to use their skills to train others.
• Chen Changhe expected his Orkification Lord Talent to restore the slaves’ health and strength, earning their gratitude and faith in the Ork God.

Chen Changhe planned to recruit Bull Fief’s bandits for his campaign in Blackwater Fief, sending Julia to capture them while he and Ma Dexiang assisted. The chapter revealed how Vasili’s soldiers became Bull Fief’s strongest bandit group after Bull Viscount and Fabian cheated and punished them.

• Chen Changhe told Ma Dexiang that helping Bull Fief’s lord eliminate bandits was an imperial noble’s duty, though he intended to take the bandits to Blackwater Fief.
• Chen Changhe assigned Julia to handle the bandits while Ma Dexiang and his men helped tie them up.
• Vasili, a Third-Tier battle aura knight and former centurion, resented Bull Viscount for fining his unit after inferior Corruption Godstones failed to protect their camp.
• Vasili blamed Fabian Anteniant, Bull Viscount’s attendant knight and quartermaster, for arranging the slander and withholding the soldiers’ pay.
• Vasili and his subordinates abandoned their post, drew Corruption creatures to the camp, and became bandits who absorbed several gangs and dominated Bull Fief.

Vasili used Corruption Perfume to sneak into the Northlands and collect several thousand gold coins, hoping to raise the money needed to become a landed lord. He resolved to pursue the lordship of Bull Fief himself and free his former comrades from the Bull Viscount’s oppression.

• Vasili blamed the Bull Viscount and Fabian Anteniant for driving him into banditry, though he had never robbed commoners.
• Vasili used his knowledge of Bull Fief’s secret routes and Corruption Perfume, made from spent Corruption Godstones, to evade corrupted creatures and enter the Northlands.
• Vasili and his companions obtained treasures worth several thousand gold coins, but he decided the sum was still far short of what he needed to become a landed knight.
• Vasili resolved to seize the lordship of Bull Fief himself after the Bull Viscount planned to leave it, so he could help his former comrades.

Vasili planned to use his treasures to secure a Northlands territory and eventually take Bull Fief, and he saw Baron Wang Zizhen as a potential partner. When Chen Changhe arrived at Vasili’s camp, both men recognized the other’s value, and Chen Changhe decided to try persuading Vasili to join him.

• Vasili considered selling his wines, artworks, and antiques to obtain a Northlands territory and establish a legitimate base for his men.
• Vasili identified Baron Wang Zizhen of Blackwater Fief as a possible partner and planned to develop the Northlands under Wang’s name before seeking a title of his own.
• A subordinate told Vasili that Wang Zizhen had arrived outside the camp, and Vasili excitedly ordered him welcomed with fine wine.
• Chen Changhe met the armored Vasili and inspected his disciplined retainers, who were marked as neutral rather than hostile units.
• Chen Changhe abandoned his plan to seize the bandits as slaves and decided to persuade Vasili and his men to join Blackwater Fief.

Chen Changhe rejected Vasili’s attempt to take control of Blackwater Fief and revealed that Julia could summon a force of Orks. Vasili’s plan to overpower Chen Changhe’s group collapsed as the Orks appeared.

• Vasili refused to become Chen Changhe’s subject and proposed taking Blackwater Fief’s income and authority for three years in exchange for reclaiming it.
• Vasili judged Julia to be a weak production-type Chosen One and ordered his warriors to draw their swords against Chen Changhe’s group.
• Chen Changhe told Julia to begin and ordered her to keep the Orks from killing anyone.
• Julia threw mushrooms onto the ground, and they grew before releasing thirty-six Orks, including Snotling Orks and towering High Orks.
• Vasili realized Julia was a summoning-type Chosen One and feared that his warriors could not withstand the Orks.

Vasili suspected that the Lion Count had secretly sent Wang Zizhen to the Northlands as part of a careful political strategy, though Chen Changhe knew he was overthinking it. When Julia's summoned Orks proved nearly invulnerable, Vasili realized he had no chance of opposing her.

• Vasili reasoned that the Lion Count might have sent Wang Zizhen to the Northlands to build ties with Her Majesty the Empress while keeping his faction from suspecting his intentions.
• Chen Changhe privately dismissed Vasili's elaborate theory and resolved to return to the Lion Earl's Domain and claim what he believed belonged to him.
• As the Orks approached Vasili and his men, one terrified soldier attacked an Ork with his steel blade.
• The Ork trapped the blade in its muscles, healed its wound, crushed the weapon into powder, and ate it before looming over the unconscious soldier.
• Vasili judged that he could not defeat even one Ork and feared that Julia could summon far more from the many mushrooms in her basket.

Chen Changhe forced Vasili and his men to surrender as slaves, then learned that Vasili possessed a valuable formula for perfume that confused corrupted creatures. He rewarded Vasili and promised him a territory, while Vasili unknowingly began to undergo Orkification.

• Vasili surrendered and agreed that his men would become Chen Changhe's slaves after Chen Changhe threatened them with the Ork.
• Chen Changhe offered the slaves a chance to earn their freedom through bounty, but Vasili claimed he could pay to buy their freedom back.
• Vasili took Chen Changhe to a temporary warehouse and gave him the Corruption Perfume formula, which Vasili said only he knew.
• Chen Changhe recognized the formula's value to pioneering lords and praised Vasili, promising to give him a vast territory and make him a lord.
• Vasili knelt to thank Chen Changhe and unknowingly began undergoing Orkification, with his soul and faith changing first.

After the slaves experienced a miraculous surge in health and strength, Chen Changhe led them to thank the Ork God and then detoured toward Vasili’s former camp to claim its armory. Vasili revealed that a powerful corrupted creature had made its nest there, leaving Chen Changhe’s group facing a dangerous obstacle.

• Chen Changhe found that the frail slaves had regained strength, grown healthier, and, in some cases, grown taller or regrown teeth.
• Chen Changhe and Julia led the group in a sacrificial rite to thank the Ork God Waaagh!, strengthening the slaves’ faith.
• Chen Changhe led everyone toward Vasili’s former camp, where Vasili revealed that it contained one of Bull Viscount’s five armories and explained how he had tried to keep its weapons from Bull Viscount’s men.
• Chen Changhe reflected on Bull Viscount’s strategic fief and the possibility that the Empress tolerated his incompetence because corrupted Godchosen advanced by destroying territories.
• Vasili explained that a powerful, intelligent corrupted creature had settled in the armory and killed every force sent to recover it, including a third-tier battle aura knight and his troops.

Chen Changhe used Julia and her Orks to clear corrupted creatures from the Northlands and reached the Bull Viscount’s armory. The Orks’ ability to devour corruption let Chen Changhe absorb the Corruption Goddess’s divine power, while he claimed the stored weapons for his future fief.

• Vasili led Julia and the Orks to the armory as they fought through corrupted corpses and devoured them.
• Chen Changhe realized the Orks could consume corrupted creatures and absorb the Corruption Goddess’s divine power instead of letting it return to the Corruption Mists.
• Chen Changhe estimated that the divine power accumulated across the Northlands equaled that of a medium-divine-power deity and planned to absorb it all.
• Chen Changhe opened the armory and found enough rusted weapons and armor to equip over a thousand people, deciding he deserved to take them.
• The Orks tore apart and ate a giant corrupted wolf whose strength rivaled that of a fifth-tier battle aura knight.

Her Majesty the Empress, Nefertari Vivi Long, discovered that someone was stealing her divine power and considered the unexplained loss while ordering Corruption Chosen to investigate. She also reviewed Wang Zizhen’s arrival in the Northlands and revealed that Hannah Tarashuk, now one of her guards, had lost her memories.

• Chen Changhe warned the soldiers in the armory not to dirty the weapons and equipment with their vomit, or he would feed them to the Orks.
• Nefertari Vivi Long grew enraged when she sensed that someone was stealing her divine power.
• Nefertari revealed that she was an avatar of the Corruption Goddess and that the Corruption Mists were spreading across the planar world.
• Unable to locate the source of the divine power loss, Nefertari ordered the Corruption Chosen hidden in the mists to search for suspicious targets.
• Nefertari read that Wang Zizhen had gone to inherit Blackwater Fief and remarked that Wang Defeng would regret sending his son there.
• Hannah Tarashuk told Nefertari that she had lost her former memories after becoming one of the Corruption Chosen.

Nefertari Vivi Dragon reflected on Wang Defeng’s possible replacement by a Soul-Eating Spider and plotted to use the secret to seize House of the Lion Earl’s inheritance. She dismissed concerns about Chen Changhe and took pride in having Hannah Tarashuk, now a powerful corruption chosen, under her command.

• Nefertari Vivi Dragon considered whether the current Lion Count Wang Defeng was actually a Soul-Eating Spider controlling his body.
• Nefertari Vivi Dragon recalled that she had helped the Elves implant the Soul-Eating Spider in Wang Defeng and had arranged for the Lion Countess to bear two sons while he was controlled.
• Nefertari Vivi Dragon planned to expose Wang Defeng’s condition after Wang Zizhen died, undermining the sons’ inheritance claims and giving her a chance to seize House of the Lion Earl.
• Nefertari Vivi Dragon recalled how her corruption chosen had slaughtered Northlands pioneers and how noble families had since stopped sending settlers there.
• Nefertari Vivi Dragon praised Hannah Tarashuk’s strength and admitted she had acted against the Lion Count early because she feared Hannah.
• Nefertari Vivi Dragon celebrated that Hannah now belonged to her and forgot about Chen Changhe, whom she believed dead.

Chen Changhe led his newly strengthened followers through the Northlands toward Blackwater Fief, testing Vasili and his warriors against Corruption creatures. Their performance convinced him to entrust Vasili with the territory’s defense, while the chapter explained how Crimson Corruption and its mists threatened the region.

• Chen Changhe’s group transported weapons and supplies toward Blackwater Fief, while Orkification gave the residents enough strength to carry heavy equipment with ease.
• Chen Changhe had Julia return most of the summoned Orks to the Ork God's Mushroom Basket, leaving three to devour Corrupted corpses as Vasili and his warriors fought the creatures.
• Vasili and his selected knights easily slew the Corrupted corpses that approached the nearly thousand-person group.
• Satisfied with Vasili’s combat ability, Chen Changhe decided to entrust him with territorial defense and considered Ma Dexiang for trade and daily management.
• Chen Changhe reflected on the possibility of gaining more God's Chosen, who could become hero units and join his forces.
• The chapter explained that Crimson Corruption blanketed the Northlands, and that territories needed recurring potions made from Corruption Godstones to keep the deadly mists away.

Chen Changhe brought his followers into Blackwater Fief, named the mutated grass “Corruption Goddess's Gift,” and activated a farm as his temporary territory. His Waaagh Power cleansed the land, and his subjects witnessed the transformation and proclaimed their faith in the Ork God.

• Chen Changhe reasoned that his Orkification Lord talent would let him resist the Corruption Mists without Corruption Godstones, and that his Orkified subjects could breathe the mists and eat mutated grass.
• Vasili told Chen Changhe that the corrupted grass could be roasted and eaten, though it could cause diarrhea; Chen Changhe named it “Corruption Goddess's Gift” and saw it as a plentiful food source.
• Chen Changhe's group entered Blackwater Fief and occupied a farm that Vasili's team had cleared of Corruption creatures.
• Chen Changhe chose the farm as his temporary lord's residence and poured his Divine Power into the land, restoring its soil, vegetation, and air.
• Chen Changhe's subjects witnessed the land's transformation, fell to their knees, and shouted Waaagh! as he continued preaching exclusive faith in the Ork God.

Chen Changhe cleansed the farmstead with Ork divine power and planned to recruit believers by presenting the Ork Miracle as a gift from Ork God Waaagh!. The people settled in the restored territory praised their god, while Chen Changhe took up residence in a former House of Blackwater estate.

• Chen Changhe planned to recruit believers beyond other lords’ territories by promoting Vasili’s corruption perfume as the Ork Miracle and portraying Ork God Waaagh! as the Corruption Goddess’s nemesis.
• Chen Changhe’s pure Ork divine power permanently drove corruption from his territory, creating a safe enclave within the Northlands.
• The farmstead was cleaned, its homes and surroundings returned to normal, and its people praised Ork God.
• Chen Changhe moved into the farmstead’s lavish residence, which bore the crest of House of Blackwater.
• Chen Changhe found the estate stripped of valuables and noted that deeper areas of Blackwater Fief were less likely to have been explored because of their stronger corruption creatures.

Chen Changhe saw Blackwater Fief recover after the farm was cleansed of Corruption Divine Power and prepared to profit from transformed Northlands wine and Ork Miracle perfume. He planned to sell the goods in Miracle City, control the wine supply, and establish vineyards to support the trade.

• Chen Changhe checked Blackwater Fief’s improved development and happiness, while the farm’s new walls and houses helped restore order.
• Ma Dexiang left with more than a dozen barrels of wine and a batch of Ork Miracle perfume for Miracle City.
• The wine from Vasili’s cellar had been cleansed of Corruption Divine Power and transformed into valuable Northlands wine infused with Waaagh Power.
• Chen Changhe chose Miracle City over Bull Fief because it offered a better market for the goods.
• Chen Changhe decided to gather more spoiled wine, limit how much he sold, and plant vineyards near the farm.

Chen Changhe prepared Blackwater Fief for a trade route to Miracle City while keeping his growth secret from the Corruption Goddess. After discovering that the Northlands’ mists formed a divine avatar and that corrupted creatures threatened even the outskirts, he recognized the danger of his hidden enemy and the misleading information about the region.

• Chen Changhe explained that Waaagh Power let his territory grow crops successfully, unlike lands tainted by Corruption Divine Power, and planned to bring slaves back from Miracle City.
• Ma Dexiang led five hundred warriors and more than a dozen battle-aura knights to secure the caravan’s journey and open a stable trade route.
• Chen Changhe concluded that the Corruption Mists formed an avatar of the Corruption Goddess, identified Nefertari Vivi. Dragon as the goddess’s incarnation, and resolved to stay hidden while he grew stronger.
• Chen Changhe’s remaining subjects continued their labor and study of his Waaagh Codex as Vasili and his men defended the purified estate from corrupted creatures.
• Chen Changhe examined a Corrupted Treant and realized that the Dragon Empire had understated the dangers of the Northlands.
• The narrator lamented that His Majesty had turned out to be the enemy’s general, leaving the narrator unsure how to fight.

Chen Changhe considered the Corruption Goddess’s plan to consume the Northlands and resolved to conquer the plane first. He grew closer to Britney Wilson while managing his territory, then relied on Julia’s Orks to defend it as he restricted their outside activity.

• Chen Changhe decided he would claim the plane as his Node Divinity before Nefertari Vivi. Long could consume it for the Corruption Goddess.
• Chen Changhe told Britney Wilson to calculate the slaves’ rewards under his system for earning their freedom.
• Britney asked Chen Changhe why he had been avoiding her, and he comforted her and invited her to his room.
• Chen Changhe woke refreshed beside Julia and Britney Wilson after a night together.
• Chen Changhe recognized Julia’s ability to summon Orks for the territory’s defense but allowed only a small number and forbade them from exploring outside.

Chen Changhe reviewed how Vasili’s soldiers and the Orks had grown stronger while exploring the Northlands, then welcomed Ma Dexiang’s returning caravan and its 2,100 slaves to Blackwater Fief. He promised the new arrivals work, housing, and a path to freedom, though the demi-humans remained wary of him.

• Vasili and his men survived waves of Corrupted creatures, and many soldiers advanced in Battle Aura while the Orks grew stronger by eating the creatures’ corpses.
• Vasili’s team collected supplies from the Northlands as they cleared the surrounding territory of Corrupted creatures.
• Nine days after departing, Ma Dexiang returned with 30,000 gold coins and 2,100 slaves, half of them demi-humans.
• Chen Changhe introduced himself to the new arrivals as Wang Zizhen, Baron of Blackwater Fief, and promised they would be treated as members of the territory.
• Chen Changhe explained that the slaves would receive work, housing, and rewards, and could buy their freedom after saving ten gold coins.