Chapter Summaries

The Gray Feather Squad traveled through the Ash Snow to search for materials listed in the Abyss Compendium. They encountered the Lord's Spirit Plant and witnessed a huge bronze-patterned treant emerge through a spatial formation, while a calm voice assured them it would not harm them.

• The Gray Feather Squad left Longwind City and discussed how the Ash Snow would melt, their mission deadline, and their route toward the mines near Flint City.
• The squad skied across the wasteland and chased a fast-moving black dandelion, which Bai Ge recognized as the Lord's Spirit Plant.
• The Spirit Plant stopped and unleashed a spatial formation that poured golden-red Flame onto a nearby Shrine, melting the Ash Snow and awakening its symbiotic plant.
• A towering treant with bronze patterns, eight wooden arms, and deep green eyes emerged from the formation and turned its gaze toward the Gray Feather Squad.
• A calm voice told the frightened Gray Feather Squad that the treant would not harm them.

Lincon traveled beyond Longwind Territory aboard the B-Rank War Treant to carry out his class advancement mission and prepare to secure Jiangzhou's B-Rank Abyss Rift. He left the Gray Feather Squad behind, and his heavily armed expedition continued across the snowfield.

• Lincon surprised the Gray Feather Squad at Longwind Territory's border, reassured them, and urged them to return alive.
• Bai Ge and Night Owl mistook Lincon's casual warning for an important mission and solemnly promised to meet his expectations.
• Lincon departed on the War Treant, whose leap sent the Gray Feather Squad staggering through the snow.
• The Gray Feather Squad resumed its own mission while Lincon traveled for a day across the snowfield.
• Lincon reviewed the War Treant's B-Rank abilities and brought several powerful Spirit Plants to prepare for the B-Rank Abyss Rift.

Lincon traveled from Longwind City to the Jiangzhou Abyss Rift to complete his second class advancement mission: entering the Abyss alone and obtaining an Abyssal Core from the Abyss Ant Queen. After waiting through the night, he jumped into the rift at sunrise.

• Lincon rode the War Treant toward the Abyss Rift, reflecting on how quickly darkness and Ash Snow had erased the traces of human civilization.
• Lincon reached the rift and reviewed his Dark Overlord advancement mission, which required him to enter the Abyss alone and obtain an Abyssal Core from the Abyss Ant Queen.
• Lincon inspected the rift using the power of nature to protect his eyes, then spent the night nearby as the War Treant killed Dark Creatures that approached.
• At sunrise, Lincon sensed a primal presence watching from within the Abyss and leaped into its darkness.

Lincon descended into the Abyss to find the Abyssal Ant Queen and her Abyssal Core, avoiding a dangerous fissure that seemed to lead to another world. He explored a chamber beyond it and discovered membranes containing developing Dark Creatures.

• Lincon stopped his fall with the War Treant and used Flame to reveal Eye Worms covering the Abyss’s walls.
• Lincon descended about thirteen hundred meters and found a glowing floor split by a fissure that filled him with alarm.
• Lincon decided to search the upper rift for the Abyssal Ant Queen before considering entering the Abyssal World.
• The War Treant descended into the rift and carried Lincon through the darkness as he searched with his mental power.
• Lincon entered a broad chamber and found translucent, web-like membranes holding curled, undeveloped Dark Creatures.

Lincon discovered that the Abyss Rift was filled with Incubation Sacs and pushed deeper with the War Treant, overcoming a gaseous Weird Calamity along the way. They reached a Dark Energy–sealed archway, where swarms of worm-like creatures attacked as the War Treant blasted open the mist.

• Lincon found humans hatching into Dark Creatures inside the Incubation Sacs and ordered the War Treant to destroy them.
• The War Treant absorbed Dark Energy from the sacs as Lincon advanced through the increasingly dense growths.
• A gaseous Peach Miasma Ghost infected Lincon, but the Kindling Sunflower’s Radiant Domain drove it out and burned it away.
• Lincon ordered the War Treant to stop destroying sacs and charge through the Rift behind its Nature Barrier.
• At a Dark Energy–sealed archway, the War Treant used War Stomp to force out liquid Dark Energy and draw out swarms of worm-like creatures.
• The worms battered the Nature Barrier, and the War Treant unleashed a shockwave that turned them to dust and tore apart the blocking mist.

Lincon entered the Abyssal Ant Queen’s palace, where she offered to cooperate in exchange for learning how he wielded the power of light. After showing him her collection of human corpses, she revealed an Abyssal Core embedded in the wall.

• Lincon found the Abyssal Ant Queen waiting in a palace beneath the nest and learned she had deliberately allowed him to reach her.
• The Ant Queen explained that she had studied humans by extracting their brain fluid and offered to help Lincon expand his territory in exchange for learning about his power of light.
• Lincon followed the Ant Queen deeper into the palace, where she showed him human corpses sealed in amber-like walls and claimed their memories and emotions had become part of her.
• The Ant Queen argued that humanity could not escape the abyss and revealed a massive Abyssal Core embedded in the wall.

Lincon rejected the Ant Queen’s offer to share the Abyssal Core and attacked her instead. As the Ant Queen unleashed her mental assault and surrounded him with Aberrant Insects, she was shocked by how much stronger Lincon had become.

• The Ant Queen explained that the Abyssal Core could grant access to the Abyss and provide power to break through A-Rank, then offered to share it in exchange for learning the source of Lincon’s power.
• Lincon pretended to consider cooperating while the Ant Queen prepared to turn him into a puppet if he refused.
• Lincon ordered the War Treant to attack and declared that he would not cooperate with an invading species.
• The Ant Queen vanished and launched a vast mental assault as Aberrant Insects emerged from all around Lincon.
• The War Treant shielded Lincon and fought off the insects while Lincon searched for the Ant Queen and resisted her mental attack.
• The hidden Ant Queen wondered how Lincon had grown so much stronger in only a few days.

Lincon used his Nature Saint power and Composite State to find and expose the Ant Queen, then unleashed the Light-Dark Cherry’s Cherry Blossom Slash against her. The chapter ended with Luo Chiyou’s twin blades cutting through the Ant Queen’s hidden body.

• Lincon sensed the Ant Queen’s faint consciousness through her mental attacks and formed platinum armor with the Kindling Sunflower.
• Lincon charged through the Nature Barrier and burned the Aberrant Insects that tried to stop him.
• Lincon’s Dragon Fist dispersed the Ant Queen’s mental mist and revealed her tumor-like body, which contained a small Abyssal Core.
• Lincon struck the tumor and forced it to collapse, prompting a human head to emerge and attack him with a mental spear.
• Luo Chiyou shattered the spear and used Cherry Blossom Slash to cut through the head and pierce the Ant Queen’s hidden body.

Lincon overwhelmed the Ant Queen in the Abyss and captured her original body, forcing the Ant Guards and the swarming insects to submit. He then reached for the Abyssal Core to complete his class advancement mission.

• Lincon used the Light-Dark Twin Blades to split the Ant Queen’s body, then evaded two Ant Guards with a Void Dandelion seed.
• Lincon stopped the Ant Queen from escaping her living body and burned away her mental attack with the Kindling Sunflower’s flames.
• The Ant Queen summoned swarms of Aberrant Insects and larvae, but Lincon tore her original body from its shell and threatened her life.
• The Ant Guards knelt to Lincon, and the Ant Queen’s cry halted the charging insects and larvae.
• Lincon reached for the Abyssal Core embedded in the Ant Queen’s shriveled living body.

Lincon absorbed the Abyssal Core and advanced into the Dark Overlord, gaining dominion over dark creatures. He enslaved an Ant Guard as Number One and asked the Ant Queen to submit or die.

• Lincon touched the Abyssal Core, completed the hidden class advancement quest, and became a Level 41 Dark Overlord.
• Lincon overpowered the Ant Guards, killing one and stopping the other while the Ant Queen trembled in his grasp.
• Lincon applied an Overlord Mark to the surviving Ant Guard, severing its bond with the Ant Queen and making it loyal to him.
• Lincon named the enslaved Ant Guard Number One and ordered it to attack nearby Aberrant Insects.
• Lincon gave the Ant Queen a choice between submitting to him and dying.

Lincon marked the Ant Queen as his subordinate, gaining control of the Abyss Rift territory and learning more about the Abyssal World’s origins and its weakening restraints on Blue Star. He ordered her to breed an Insect Race army and, after learning she had no Life Fruit, waited to hear what other items she could offer.

• Lincon branded the Ant Queen with the Overlord Mark and confirmed she could still control dark creatures and breed the Ant Race.
• Lincon inspected his new Abyssal Territory model and learned it showed the Ant Queen and Ant Guard as his subordinates.
• The Ant Queen described the Abyssal World as a chaotic realm of constant slaughter and explained that Abyssal Lords had been promised a chance to become gods beyond the fissures, though Blue Star’s remnant will had long suppressed them.
• Lincon ordered the Ant Queen to destroy her human-corpse collectibles, stop converting corpses into dark creatures, and breed an Insect Race army.
• The Ant Queen warned that breeding B-Rank units would be slower without the Abyssal Core, then told Lincon she had no Life Fruit but possessed other items he might want.

Lincon inspected the Ant Race’s rare treasures and discovered that a Shapeshifting Tree could become a source of currency for Longwind City. After planning the nest’s future with the Ant Queen, he left the Abyss with several trees, materials, and the Ant Race following him.

• The Ant Queen presented Lincon with treasures including a Low-Grade Space Fragment, Shapeshifting Trees, Netherfrost Crystal Marrow, and Abyssal Blood Coral that produced Blood of a B-Rank Lifeform.
• Lincon found that the Seed Mark offered the Shapeshifting Tree advancement paths for Gold Coin, Silver Coin, and Copper Coin Trees, and devised a currency system for Longwind City.
• Lincon learned from the Ant Queen that more Abyssal races would arrive as Dark Erosion deepened, and discussed how the nest should develop to withstand future threats.
• Lincon took three Shapeshifting Trees and some materials with him, leaving the Abyssal Blood Coral in the nest and taking several bottles of its blood.
• The Ant Queen and thousands of Abyss Ant Clan insects watched as Lincon left the Abyss Rift.

After returning from the Abyss, Lincon discovered that his advancement to Dark Overlord had granted him the Trial Temple, a structure that nullified the Life Law and could let people train in deadly combat without truly dying. He realized it could transform Longwind City's training system, but wondered what using it would cost.

• Lincon left the Abyss Rift as the Ash Snow melted and Sunlight began to reach the land.
• Lincon returned to the Sacred Court, restored his symbiotic Spirit Plants to their original places, and ordered Luo Chiyou to receive visitors while he rested.
• After Lincon woke, Luo Chiyou told him Zhang Rui had visited and planned to return, and she revealed that Lincon carried an aura like the Ant Queen's.
• Lincon checked his Main Career Panel and discovered that his Dark Overlord advancement had granted the Trial Temple, where Life Law Nullification took effect.
• Lincon realized the Trial Temple could provide real combat training without permanent death and wondered what its cost would be.

Lincon built a Trial Temple in Misty Forest and tested its Life Law Nullification, learning that entrants could revive three times before being reset to where they entered. He left planning to fill the Temple with dangerous trial creatures and Spirit Plants so Longwind City's people could train there safely.

• Lincon chose a concealed site in Misty Forest for the Trial Temple and spent Longwind City's sole Temple Point to build it.
• Lincon and Luo Chiyou entered the Temple's underground palace, where Lincon killed a Carrion Rat to test the Temple's abilities.
• The Carrion Rat revived after each of its first two deaths, then stopped reappearing after Lincon killed it a third time.
• Lincon tested the same process on the other Carrion Rat and confirmed the Temple's three-revival limit and forced reset.
• Lincon left the Temple and planned to add dark creatures from the B-Rank Abyss Rift and training Spirit Plants to create varied trials.

Longwind City promoted nearly a thousand Provisional Subjects to Formal Subjects in a ceremony led by Zhang Rui. Lu Pingyan and You Qing received their certificates, with You Qing finding a handwritten welcome from the Longwind Lord and Lincon.

• The remaining Ash Snow melted as people gathered in the Provisional Subject Camp for the largest promotion ceremony yet.
• The chapter explained how the Sunlight Sunflower became Longwind City's flag symbol through its history of hope, sacrifice, and protecting the city's leaders.
• Zhang Rui presided over the ceremony and had staff distribute Formal Subject Certificates to the waiting Provisional Subjects.
• Lu Pingyan startled a staff member by answering her name with a loud shout, then received her certificate with You Qing's help.
• You Qing received her certificate and read a handwritten welcome signed by the Longwind Lord and Lincon.

Lu Pingyan and You Qing received their Formal Subject certificates as Longwind City unveiled Longwind Currency as its new legal tender. After the ceremony, the two entered the Inner City as Garrison Guard members and saw its orderly streets and shops.

• Lu Pingyan celebrated her certificate from the Lord, but You Qing showed her that all the certificates carried the same standard commendation.
• Li Yunfan watched the new subjects celebrate and found inspiration for expanding his book, Thunder Lord.
• Zhang Rui announced that Longwind City would issue gold, silver, and copper coins and use them as the standard for all city transactions.
• You Qing and Lu Pingyan agreed that currency would make trade more convenient and entered the Inner City after showing their certificates.
• You Qing and Lu Pingyan saw the Inner City's orderly streets and shops, which supplied businesses in the Outer City.

Newly promoted Formal Subjects Lu Pingyan and You Qing visited the Inner City, where they bought wine and learned about Longwind Currency before joining the residency-registration line. As they presented their identification, the familiar procedure reminded them of the peaceful nation before darkness came.

• Lu Pingyan admired the peaceful Inner City and hurried to a tavern to ask about its wine, while You Qing warned her not to delay.
• The tavern owner sold them Soul Jade Forget Worry and advised that exchanging gold for Longwind Currency early could be worthwhile; You Qing paid with a piece of gold.
• You Qing examined the unusually uniform Gold Coins and Silver Coins, suspecting their creation was connected to the Lord.
• You Qing and Lu Pingyan joined the long line at the Governing Hall, where they met Zhou Cang and He Su and showed them a Gold Coin.
• After waiting about half an hour, the group reached registration, and the clerk's request for identification reminded them of the peaceful Old Era.

You Qing registered as a Longwind City Formal Subject and received an identification card recorded by the Myriad-Knowledge Dome. After choosing to become a Mutant Creature Investigator, she collected the key to her new Mushroom House and savored having a home of her own.

• You Qing registered her identity through the Crystal Ring Mother Tree, which recorded her details and produced an official ID card.
• You Qing reunited with Lu Pingyan, Zhou Cang, and He Su, and Zhou Cang explained that they could claim housing and choose careers.
• Lu Pingyan and Zhou Cang chose the Garrison Guard, He Su chose Qingrang Academy, and You Qing chose to become a Mutant Creature Investigator.
• The group collected their keys from the Urban Planning Bureau and visited their Mushroom Houses.
• You Qing explored her new home, locked the door, and felt glad that she could live there.

Lincon explained to Luo Chiyou that he built systems and order in Longwind City because he wanted people to live with hope, not fear. As Longwind Currency entered use, residents celebrated their promotions and gathered in the Outer City, where the new money divided those who could afford wine from those who could not.

• Luo Chiyou questioned Lincon's effort to create the Trial Temple, an Identity Verification System, and Longwind Currency, and suggested ruling through force.
• Lincon told Luo Chiyou that fear only made slaves, while hope could inspire loyalty, and said he had already gained a city and people willing to help him.
• Luo Chiyou accepted Lincon's principles and asked him not to treat her like a tool.
• Newly promoted Formal Subjects settled into the quiet Inner City or went to the Outer City to meet old friends.
• At the Explosive Tavern, Zhou Cang praised Soul Jade Forget Worry, but Lu Pingyan drank the remaining wine before he could pour himself more.
• Customers paid with Longwind Currency at the tavern, while people with only a few Copper Coins watched others drink and realized how little they could afford.

Longwind Currency reshaped Longwind City’s economy, spurring new businesses, curbing fraud and speculation, and giving subjects and adventurers a convenient way to trade. As the currency spread, the Adventurer Guild expanded and the city’s commercial cycle grew stronger.

• Merchants from Black Iron City exchanged their gold for Longwind Currency and opened small shops near the Temporary Subject Camps, which the Governing Hall permitted as long as they followed market rules.
• Old Zhao finally exchanged his gold after Longwind City stopped distributing food for completed tasks, but learned the exchange rate had fallen and received far fewer Gold Coins than expected.
• The Governing Hall exposed counterfeiters and punished them by confiscating their property and expelling them, while Zhang Rui warned against market manipulation and the city curbed hoarding.
• Longwind City canceled task assignments for subjects who turned to business, preventing them from earning Contribution Points and advancing while they remained merchants.
• Adventurers used Longwind Currency to spend their high earnings on supplies and comforts in the city, and the Adventurer Guild expanded as more of them accepted tasks and ventured into the wasteland.