Recaps

Avilan met Cameron, the War Readiness Commander of Vought Province, after Cameron's troops defeated the Blood Church knights who had attacked Chika Village. Avilan introduced himself as the spellcaster Aslan and explained the attack, while secretly scouting Cameron; the chapter ended with Cameron accepting Avilan's refusal to reveal his face.

• Avilan watched Cameron's roughly six hundred soldiers regroup after clearing the battlefield and advance toward Chika Village.
• Cameron introduced himself as the War Readiness Commander of Vought Province in the Kompno Duchy, and the village chief told Avilan about Cameron's reputation as a tournament champion and commander of Vought City's elite soldiers.
• Avilan introduced himself to Cameron as Aslan, a traveling spellcaster who had rescued the village, and Cameron dismounted to thank him.
• Avilan told Cameron that the attackers had called themselves the Blood Church and that his Light Spirit Swordsman was a servant he had created.
• Cameron asked to see Avilan's face, but Avilan refused, warning that the Light Spirit Swordsman might lose control, and Cameron accepted the explanation.
• Avilan secretly cast a scouting spell on Cameron.

Avilan learned about the Human Race’s limits from Cameron, then summoned a powerful new Horned Demon Lord from the corpses of the Light Spirit Swordsmen. After checking the Wellington siblings’ memories, he considered whether they could become his followers and tested an Aptitude Crystal on his summoned swordsmen.

• Avilan asked Cameron and his soldiers to leave their weapons in the square, then spoke with Cameron and Kalons through the night about combat and learned that Humans generally needed a special profession and divine grace to surpass Level 50.
• After Cameron departed, Avilan returned to the corpses and summoned more than three hundred Horned Demons, including the Level 35 Horned Demon Lord Aranda.
• Avilan ordered Aranda to take the new demons to Despair Fortress and take over the Horned Demon Legion.
• Two Light Spirit Swordsmen brought Wellington and Anxi to Avilan, who examined their memories and found they had not witnessed his summoning.
• Wellington and Anxi asked to follow Avilan, but he told them they did not yet meet his requirements and tested an Aptitude Crystal on his two Light Spirit Swordsmen.

Avilan tested Wellington and Anxi, named the Light Spirit Swordsmen Light Wolf and Light Tiger, and left the siblings in their care while returning to Despair Fortress in response to an attack. Zhou Yu and Mi Yue returned safely after defeating powerful invaders from Messiah Forest, though the threat of Blood Church retaliation remained on everyone’s minds.

• Avilan tested Wellington and Anxi, found their aptitudes promising, and agreed to take them in as followers while promising to prepare cultivation paths for them.
• Avilan named the Light Spirit Swordsmen Light Wolf and Light Tiger, and empowered them to the fourth tier before assigning them to protect Wellington and Anxi.
• Anxi scolded Wellington for acting carefree about Avilan’s departure, then asked Light Wolf and Light Tiger to pretend they had not seen her outburst.
• After Arthur warned him about enemies near Despair Fortress, Avilan returned and waited there while Zhou Yu led soldiers to investigate the slaughtered tribes.
• Zhou Yu and Mi Yue returned to Despair Fortress after ambushing and destroying powerful invaders from Messiah Forest, easing Miuo and the others’ fears of an immediate defeat.

Avilan learned that the Blood Church had used a secret route through the Eternal Night Duchy and uncovered a crystal ball containing thousands of wronged souls. He ordered investigations and tests of Despair Fortress’s creatures, while Cameron’s report prompted Vought City’s officials to consider searching the Messiah Great Forest.

• Zhou Yu gave Avilan a map showing a secret passage through the Eternal Night Duchy and a marked Blood Church location, and Avilan ordered both investigated.
• Zhou Yu said she had already sent Aranda to investigate the passage and that the distant marked location would take six or seven days to reach.
• Avilan discovered that a crystal ball held several thousand wronged souls, and Arthur advised purifying them and sending them into reincarnation.
• Avilan kept the crystal ball for the time being and ordered Zhou Yu and the others to test every creature in Despair Fortress with Aptitude Crystal Balls and sort them by rank.
• Cameron reported the mysterious magical chanter Aslan to his superiors, who considered sending a search party into the Messiah Great Forest.

Avilan assessed the Despair Fortress’s food supplies and the weak growth values of most of its inhabitants, while learning that reviving Bian Que would be too expensive. He decided to turn the castle servants’ forging skills into a source of income by producing silver equipment for adventurers.

• Avilan learned from Arthur that the Despair Fortress had abundant food but needed its northern granaries repaired.
• Zhou Yu and Mi Yue reported the inhabitants’ growth values, with Humans appearing stronger on average than Horned Demons, Catfolk, Ratkin, and Goblins.
• Mi Yue suggested asking Bian Que about the Humans, but Arthur said reviving him would cost five hundred thousand gold coins.
• Avilan learned castle servants could repair and manufacture equipment and decided to have them make silver gear.
• Arthur and Zhou Yu realized Avilan planned to sell the equipment to adventurers who had once entered the Despair Fortress.

Avilan welcomed Carter, Miuo’s uncle and a Fourth-Rank Great Swordmaster who taught swordsmanship, hoping to learn how to train people in martial arts. After Carter’s disrespectful behavior nearly got him killed, Avilan spared him and brought him into Despair Fortress.

• Avilan worried that he did not know how to teach martial arts or magic, then learned from Miuo that her uncle Carter would join Despair Fortress.
• Avilan went to meet Carter and found him leering at the maids, while Mole Xiu followed, curious about the visitor.
• Carter struck Mole Xiu down with his cane, and Arthur forced Carter to his knees for disrespecting Avilan.
• Miuo begged Avilan to spare her uncle, and Avilan dismissed Carter’s ignorance and helped him up.
• Avilan asked Carter about his work as a sword instructor, then led him into Despair Fortress as Carter sensed Arthur’s terrifying power.

Carter arrived at Despair Fortress to train swordsmen, giving the aliens hope of gaining more influence and protection. After the Duke ordered every city and town to prepare for war, Avilan and Zhou Yu planned to expand nearby settlements and sell Despair Fortress’s surplus military supplies.

• The aliens welcomed Carter, whose sword training they expected to strengthen their standing against the Horned Demons.
• Avilan demonstrated his Triple Strike skill to Carter, who praised it as a lethal technique forged through blood and slaughter.
• Avilan asked Carter how he taught swordsmanship, then sent him away and tried to sense the flow of power.
• Zhou Yu told Avilan that the Duke had ordered every city and town to reorganize its forces and prepare for war.
• Zhou Yu proposed starting preparations at Chika Village and establishing Satellite Towns around Despair Fortress under the Alien Alliance’s banner.
• Avilan assigned Zhou Yu to allocate supplies and took responsibility for the market, planning to sell the fortress’s excess military equipment.

Avilan returned to Chika Village with nearly a hundred Catfolk swordsmen and carts loaded with goods, where he reunited with Anxi and met an envoy from Essin City. He declined to help the envoy take control of the village and instead offered to sell grain, weapons, and armor, leaving the envoy eager to hear more.

• Avilan arrived at Chika Village with nearly a hundred armored Catfolk swordsmen and more than twenty carts, prompting the militia to gather at the entrance.
• Anxi recognized Avilan, rushed into his arms, and Light Wolf and Light Tiger greeted their lord.
• Light Tiger told Avilan that Essin City had sent an envoy to negotiate taking control of Chika Village, and Anxi explained that the village lacked a legitimate heir.
• Mesa Edson, Essin City's administrative minister, asked Avilan to let Light Wolf and Light Tiger withdraw so Essin City could take over the village.
• Avilan dismissed the request and offered to sell Mesa a supply of grain, weapons, and armor, causing Mesa to react with excitement.

Avilan brought weapons, equipment, and grain to Chika Village, where Meisha inspected the goods and negotiated bulk discounts. Meanwhile, Eric’s elite Dark Elf squad investigated the Messiah Great Forest after finding a goblin tribe destroyed, while a bat headed toward Despair Fortress.

• Avilan showed Meisha more than twenty carts of standardized weapons and offered a little over one hundred thousand jin of grain for sale.
• Eric’s reconnaissance squad found the Blue-Dust Goblin Tribe reduced to ruins and bloodstains, prompting him to split the squad to investigate nearby tribes.
• A bat emerged from a tree hollow and flew toward Despair Fortress after the Dark Elf squad departed.
• Meisha praised the quality of Avilan’s weapons and equipment and asked about bulk discounts and prices.
• Avilan offered discounts for purchases of up to five thousand sets, but held firm at fifty gold coins per white-grade set, one hundred gold coins per Fine Iron set, and fifty copper coins per jin of grain.

Mi Yue mobilized the Destruction Secretariat to hunt in the forest while Avilan arranged a large equipment deal with Essin City and began teaching Anxi and Wellington to cultivate. Anxi sensed her Energy Seed, while Wellington had not yet succeeded.

• Mi Yue sent herself and ten vampire Horned Demons from the Destruction Secretariat out of Despair Fortress, as South District residents feared the group and its blood-donation law.
• Avilan agreed to deliver five thousand equipment sets to Kalons in five batches, and Chika Village became the trading location.
• Essin City's army took the first five hundred sets of armor and weapons, leaving Wellington impressed by their uniform appearance.
• Avilan promised Anxi and Wellington weapons or armor if they advanced in cultivation and implanted Energy Seeds in both of them.
• Anxi sensed her Energy Seed after one day, and Avilan told her to move it through her body.

Avilan left Chika Village to join the battle in the Messiah Great Forest, where Mi Yue’s squad was fighting Dark Elves who had destroyed the Forest Demons’ settlement. Eric sacrificed his life to empower a rearguard while Dixin fled with the rest of the squad, vowing to return with the Eternal Night Duchy's army.

• Cameron arrived at Chika Village, saw its defenses and learned that Avilan had taken two children as disciples.
• Zhou Yu told Avilan that powerful intruders had stalled Mi Yue, and Avilan flew to the forest while Zhou Yu led reinforcements from Despair Fortress.
• Mi Yue’s squad fought Dixin and Eric’s Dark Elves at the razed Forest Demon settlement, where the Dark Elves struggled against the stronger force.
• Eric used Life Sacrifice to call down the Nature Goddess’s power, raising his and four companions’ strength so they could cover the retreat.
• Dixin fled with the younger Dark Elves, grieving for Eric and the others as he vowed to return with the Eternal Night Duchy's army.

Mi Yue’s group drained Eric and the other Dark Elves, while Avilan’s arrival triggered a confrontation with a powerful presence in the Messiah Great Forest. Back at Despair Fortress, Avilan sacrificed a mountain of corpses to summon demon reinforcements, including Flame Demon Bat, and the chapter ended with the fortress’s population being counted.

• Mi Yue and other members of the Destruction Secretariat drained five Dark Elves, and a powerful gaze soon fixed on them.
• Avilan arrived and released enough power to make the gaze withdraw, while Cameron ordered his group to retreat from the Black Sun in the sky.
• A Dark Elf priest sensed the god he worshipped in the confrontation and sent a pastor to alert the queen and contact Her Majesty the Empress.
• Avilan returned to Despair Fortress, ordered preparations for war, and used one hundred thousand gold coins to activate the Demon Gate.
• Avilan sacrificed nearly ten thousand corpses to summon formations of Horned Demons, more than three hundred winged Demonkin, and Flame Demon Bat.
• Avilan placed Bat under Zhou Yu’s command, then teleported to his bedroom as Arthur took over; Mize, Miuo, and Mole Xiu reported the fortress’s population counts.

Despair Fortress’s population and military strength continued to grow as Avilan’s forces completed the Demon Gate repairs and prepared to challenge the Elves. The chapter ended with Avilan calling for an attack and Mi Yue urging war against the Eternal Night Duchy despite the possible response from the Forest of Life.

• Eddie and his three brothers fled Despair Fortress, but Zhou Yu watched them escape and ordered Bat to follow them and capture everyone in their village.
• Zhou Yu proposed establishing a human-centered settlement in Satellite Town, and Avilan approved her plan.
• Essin City delivered the remaining gold, allowing the Demon Gate to be repaired; it began producing two Horned Demons per hour.
• Avilan declared that Despair Fortress should attack the Elf forces to establish its authority in the forest.
• Carter warned that an attack could draw in the Forest of Life, but Mi Yue argued that Despair Fortress need not fear the Elves and voiced her desire to drink their blood.

Avilan ordered Mi Yue to lead the Wild Demonfolk and Catfolk legions in an attack on Oldwood Fortress, while Zhou Yu was assigned to establish a Satellite Town. After scouting the fortress’s strong defenses, Mi Yue prepared to breach its gate at midnight.

• Avilan ordered Mi Yue to attack Oldwood Fortress and tasked Zhou Yu with establishing a Satellite Town.
• Mi Yue led more than two thousand elite soldiers through mountain paths toward Oldwood Fortress.
• Mi Yue surveyed the fortress’s southern gate and discovered its high walls, strict inspections, and heavy crossbows.
• Mi Yue ordered her troops to rest without lighting fires and planned to breach the gate at midnight with Aini.
• Mi Yue instructed Miuo and his fighters to charge into the fortress as soon as the gate was broken.

Mi Yue led a night raid on Oldwood Fortress, using transformed Dark Elf soldiers and a hundred elite fighters to overwhelm the defenders. She destroyed the fortress’s iron gate with Avilan’s crystal ball, leaving Bierteli to suspect she was the Sixth-Tier Bloodkin who had killed Lord Eric.

• Mi Yue and Shadow Moon stealthily reached Oldwood Fortress, where Mi Yue transformed ten Dark Elf soldiers into Bloodkin to conceal the raiders’ approach.
• Aini slaughtered a patrol, and Mi Yue used Pain Shock to incapacitate nearby Dark Elf soldiers as the alarm spread.
• Aini and the elite warriors charged through the fortress, while Dark Elf soldiers were driven back by their formation and ferocity.
• Mi Yue attached Avilan’s crystal ball to the iron gate and activated it, causing a blast that cracked the wall and brought the gate crashing down.
• Bierteli hurried to the gate and recognized Mi Yue, suspecting she was the Sixth-Tier Bloodkin who had killed Lord Eric.

Mi Yue’s assault on Oldwood Fortress was interrupted when an Elf Race priest arrived and fought her, but Zhou Yu’s fire magic forced the priest to order a retreat. Mi Yue’s forces entered the city, and she learned Avilan had sent Zhou Yu because he was worried about her.

• Bierteli’s Dark Elf defenders were struck by ballista bolts, and Mi Yue attacked him in a cloud of bats.
• An Elf Race high priest arrived, stopped Mi Yue’s attack on Bierteli, and demanded that the attackers withdraw.
• Mi Yue challenged the priest, who attacked her with blood-draining vines and Splendor of Nature; she countered by transforming into bats and using black mist.
• Zhou Yu appeared above the wall and unleashed a powerful rain of fire, forcing the priest to order a retreat.
• Mi Yue’s foreign race legion charged into Oldwood Fortress, and Zhou Yu told Mi Yue that Avilan had sent her because he was worried about her.

Zhou Yu, Mi Yue, and their allies defeated the Dark Elves and captured Oldwood Fortress, making Tian Ye its new lord. As Tian Ye gathered Wild Men to secure the fortress, the Piten Tribe considered seizing control for itself.

• Miuo and Tian Ye led the assault on the Dark Elves while Zhou Yu and Mi Yue kept Priest Alpha occupied.
• Tian Ye and Miuo killed Bierteli as the attacking forces overwhelmed the Dark Elves and captured the fortress walls.
• Alpha ordered the Dark Elves to retreat, and Zhou Yu let them withdraw to avoid costly losses.
• The victors took Oldwood Fortress, where Mi Yue claimed the captured elves and merchants were allowed to leave.
• The next day, Tian Ye became lord of Oldwood Fortress and gathered thousands of Wild Men under the former War God Tribe banner.
• The Piten Tribe, a powerful nearby group, considered taking control of Oldwood Fortress for itself.

Pi Teng led the Piten Tribe into Oldwood Fortress, where Tian Ye disarmed them and revealed that the Wild Demonfolk had set a trap. As the slaughter began, Avilan observed the War God’s power of faith, and Tian Ye wounded the old shaman with a demonbreaking battleaxe.

• Pi Teng accepted Lord Fox’s assurance that the Munk Kingdom would support the Piten Tribe if it seized Oldwood Fortress.
• Tian Ye trapped Pi Teng’s warriors in a killing ground, and ballistae killed or wounded nearly half of them before Fox ordered them to surrender their weapons.
• Tian Ye allowed only five unarmed Wild Men to enter unless the rest swore allegiance to Avilan, while the old shaman accused them of betraying their god.
• Pi Teng and his warriors invoked the Light of the War God, and Avilan sensed the power of their faith as Tian Ye ordered the Piten Tribe slaughtered.
• The old shaman flew to attack Tian Ye, but Tian Ye’s enchanted battleaxe cut through his gold-element shield and left him wounded.

Tian Ye and the Wild Demonfolk crushed the Piten Tribe at Oldwood Fortress with superior armor and Gun Staffs, killing Pi Teng and the old shaman while leaving Fox alive. As Mi Yue consolidated control of the fortress, Avilan described how industry and technology could reshape the use of magic.

• Tian Ye revealed his Barbarian Warrior strength and led twenty Wild Men armed with Gun Staffs in an attack on the old shaman.
• The Wild Demonfolk overwhelmed the Piten Tribe’s defenders, and Tian Ye killed the old shaman as Pi Teng was torn apart after evolving into a Barbarian Warrior.
• Fox survived the massacre and watched Wild Demonfolk soldiers clear the bodies from the barbican.
• Mi Yue, now lord of Oldwood Fortress, had turned three hundred captured Dark Elves into Blood Thralls and drew close to Avilan.
• Avilan explained that industrial methods such as Directional Demolition Magic Orbs and Gun Staffs let warriors use magic without traditional mage training.

Avilan spared Fox and offered the Fox Clan a weapons and armor deal, using the Munk Kingdom’s rivalry with the Raccoon Dogfolk to draw him in. Fox inspected Avilan’s enormous stockpile, leaving the negotiations poised to continue.

• Avilan decided to question Fox rather than kill him, hoping to learn important information from the Fox Clan chief.
• Fox toured Oldwood Fortress and met Avilan, while Miuo reported that the Piten Tribe’s remaining members had been killed.
• Avilan proposed selling weapons and equipment to Fox, warning that he could sell to the Raccoon Dogfolk instead.
• Fox explained the Munk Kingdom’s shortage of metal and the Noyin Coordinating Committee’s restrictions, then asked to inspect the goods before agreeing on a price.
• Avilan led Fox to the warehouse, where Fox was stunned by its vast, neatly organized supply of armor and weapons.

Fox negotiated a large weapons and armor purchase from Avilan for the Munk Kingdom, while Avilan prepared Despair Fortress for a prolonged war by restoring farmland, recruiting craftsmen, and planning a merchant guild. The chapter left Avilan frustrated that the humans needed for the guild had not been found.

• Fox agreed to buy ten thousand sets of armor and weapons from Avilan, signing a contract and taking one thousand sets back to the Munk Kingdom without a deposit.
• Mole Xiu reported that one-fifth of the northern food base had been restored, with more than 1.5 million mu cultivable and 500,000 mu already being planted.
• Avilan ordered Despair Fortress to recruit craftsmen, alchemists, and mages, then announced plans to establish a merchant guild.
• Zhou Yu advised Avilan to appoint merchants from different races to handle trade with their own peoples and nations.
• Avilan asked about the search for Eddie and the other humans, and Didi reported that their remote village remained unfound.
• Arthur rebuked Didi at Avilan's command, and Didi prostrated himself in fear.

Avilan questioned Zhou Yu about the satellite towns and ordered one built near the southern waters while waiting for intelligence on the Blood Church. Meanwhile, Allen and his companions returned to Moning Village, where Allen came face-to-face with a terrifying figure at his doorstep.

• Zhou Yu reported that Chika Village could become the eastern satellite town and described the Narisi River and ocean south of the Messiah Great Forest.
• Avilan ordered a satellite town built about fifty kilometers from the southern waters and asked about intelligence from the Roen Kingdom, but Zhou Yu had no news.
• Avilan worried that the Blood Church might ally with the Eternal Night Duchy and resolved to strengthen Despair Fortress.
• Eddie, Allen, Agonsi, and the others traveled through the Kia Mountains to avoid exposing Moning Village while fleeing Despair Fortress.
• Allen and his companions returned to peaceful Moning Village, and Allen found a terrifying figure waiting at his doorstep.

Avilan spared Allen and the other three villagers after they fled home, moving Moning Village’s residents to Chika Village and assigning the newcomers to help expand and defend it. As civil war spread through the Kompno Duchy, Vought City’s officials struggled to contain the growing conflict among the province’s lords.

• Avilan confronted Allen and the others, then agreed to spare Moning Village if they moved its residents to Chika Village and served him.
• Allen and the other three persuaded Moning Village’s residents to relocate, and Avilan brought more than forty villagers to Chika Village.
• Avilan praised Anxi and Wellington’s training and told them to welcome refugees and expand the village.
• Anxi asked Avilan for weapons and armor to protect the growing village, and he agreed to provide them.
• After the Sovereign died, the princes’ struggle for power spread to Vought Province, overwhelming Vought City’s officials.

Cameron abandoned Vought City and joined Essin City as the duchy’s political order crumbled. Avilan learned of the ancient Dark Seal and assigned Mitqi to develop magic technology, leaving the Eastern District set to receive priority resources.

• Edward ordered Cameron to warn Essin City to stop its attacks, but Cameron resolved to leave Vought City and join it.
• Cameron secretly departed with his family and five hundred elite soldiers, and Edward could not send troops after them.
• Zhou Yu told Avilan that ancient books and murals confirmed a great battle called the Dark Seal had taken place at least a thousand years earlier.
• Avilan suspected the Blood Church was pursuing the sealed dark existence and decided to contact his business partners.
• Avilan had Mitqi inspect Fox’s list of magic technology products, and Mitqi said it could make nearly all of them if the Eastern District’s industrial zone was restored.
• Avilan prioritized resources for the Eastern District, gave Mitqi authority to recruit personnel, and shared mechanical ideas that excited Mitqi and impressed the onlookers.

Avilan received an invitation from the Komer Family and agreed to attend its banquet, suspecting it was a trap. Later, Xuelin Ai visited with Li En Conde and tried to recruit Avilan to serve the second prince, but he refused.

• Light Tiger delivered the Komer Family’s invitation, and Avilan ordered him to confirm that the Despair Chamber of Commerce would arrive in seven days.
• Light Tiger reported that Xuelin Ai of the Baoli Chamber of Commerce would visit, and Avilan agreed to receive her.
• Xuelin Ai arrived with Li En Conde, who belittled the Despair Chamber of Commerce until he learned Avilan had killed Adahua.
• Xuelin Ai asked Avilan to join the second prince, but Avilan refused and offered only to sell weapons and equipment.