Chapter Summaries

Lincon and Luo Chiyou joined forces against the Ant Guard, but Luo Chiyou betrayed him with her Windfall Kill. Lincon survived, killed Luo Chiyou, claimed the Life Fruit, and confirmed the Ant Guard’s death before preparing to leave the Abyss Rift.

• Lincon agreed to help Luo Chiyou hold off the Ant Guard for fifteen seconds while she charged her attack.
• Lincon used the Dragonblood Flood Dragon Vine to obstruct the Ant Guard, but it tore through the vine as Luo Chiyou charged Windfall Kill.
• Luo Chiyou aimed Windfall Kill at both Lincon and the Ant Guard, and Lincon escaped while the storm trapped and devastated the Ant Guard.
• Luo Chiyou assumed Lincon had died, but Lincon ambushed her and broke her neck before taking the Life Fruit and searching her robes for other items.
• Lincon repeatedly smashed and burned the Ant Guard to ensure it was dead, then received confirmation that he had killed the B-Plus Rank anomaly.

Lincon killed the Ant Guard, escaped with valuable materials, and followed the Twisted Treant back toward Longwind Fortress while recovering from his injuries. He discovered that Luo Chiyou’s Life Fruit and B-Rank blood could help advance the Demon Ancient Tree, and learned from her diary that she and Xiao Jing belonged to the Star Pavilion.

• Lincon finished off the Ant Guard and took its Dark Matter Crystal, Life Fruit, and other spoils before fleeing after the Twisted Treant.
• Two returning Ant Guards found their companion dead, revealed that Xiao Jing had been killed after discovering Luo Chiyou’s Life Fruit was fake, and carried Luo Chiyou’s corpse toward the Abyss Rift.
• Lincon caught up with the Twisted Treant, treated his injuries, and fell asleep as it carried him away from the Abyss Rift toward Longwind Fortress.
• After waking, Lincon identified the red liquid from Luo Chiyou’s belongings as B-Rank blood and realized that it and the Life Fruit were materials for advancing the Demon Ancient Tree.
• Lincon read Luo Chiyou’s diary and learned that she and Xiao Jing were Star Pavilion members who had taken a bounty to retrieve a Life Fruit from a B-Rank Abyss Rift.

Lincon advanced two Dark Dandelions into a Rift-Cleaving Dandelion and a Delirium Mist Dandelion, then returned to Longwind Fortress. He learned that Black Iron City had agreed to send fifty thousand people and decided to send messengers to investigate the city’s conflicts and the newcomers’ origins.

• Lincon read Luo Chiyou’s diary and learned about the Northern Region, the Star Pavilion, and Peerless City.
• Lincon used a Low-Grade Space Fragment and two thousand Sunlight to advance a Dark Dandelion into a Rift-Cleaving Dandelion, bonded with it, and tested its teleportation.
• Lincon advanced another Dark Dandelion into a Delirium Mist Dandelion and stored both new Spirit Plants in the Sacred Court.
• Lincon returned to Longwind Fortress, where Zhang Rui told him that Chen Siwei had agreed to a second collaboration and planned to send fifty thousand people.
• Lincon ordered Guan Teng and Luo Qian to accompany the Black Iron City messenger and investigate the city’s internal conflicts and the origins of the incoming group.
• Lincon returned to the Sacred Court, tended to his Spirit Plants, and forbade the two dandelions from using their abilities there without his permission.

Lincon watched Longwind Fortress begin its day and sent Guan Teng, Luo Qian, and three messengers to Black Iron City on a dangerous mission. He then discussed strengthening the messenger profession, leaving Jiang Li and Jiang Wei wondering whether he planned to create another advancement path for ordinary people.

• Lincon rested safely in the Sacred Court, then watched Longwind Fortress awaken the next morning.
• Jiang Li and Jiang Wei ate with Lu Linfeng, who revealed that Guan Teng and Luo Qian would escort the Black Iron City messenger on a secret mission.
• Guan Teng, Luo Qian, and three messengers departed with the Ability User for Black Iron City, while Lincon watched and hoped they would return safely.
• Lincon told Zhang Rui that Longwind Fortress needed stronger guards and messengers, and Zhang Rui agreed that ordinary messengers faced grave dangers in the darkness.
• Jiang Li reflected on the Rune Warrior advancement path and suspected Lincon intended to create a new career path to strengthen messengers.

Lincon tested Jiang Li and Jiang Wei's sensitivity to energy within a Crystal Orchid Branch to see whether either could become a Rune Master. Jiang Wei showed exceptional perception and agreed to pursue the path, giving Lincon a result to report to Shen Congzhi.

• Lincon called Jiang Li and Jiang Wei to test their sensitivity to energy.
• Jiang Li sensed fire and water energy in the branch, but her forceful spiritual power damaged it and blocked her from perceiving more.
• Jiang Wei used her healing light to restore the scorched branch and described the different energies and irregularities she sensed within it.
• Lincon recognized Jiang Wei's extraordinary energy perception and explained the role of Rune Masters to her and Jiang Li.
• Jiang Wei agreed to become a Rune Master, and Lincon felt relieved that he could report back to Shen Congzhi.

Jiang Wei began training as a Rune Master while Longwind Fortress continued preparing for Harsh Winter. In Black Iron City, Li Yunfan learned that he and other ordinary people would be sent to Longwind Fortress, and he decided to take the uncertain chance rather than remain where he expected to die.

• Lincon taught Jiang Wei Rune knowledge, and she quickly learned to guide energy and inscribe Runes before Shen Congzhi took over her instruction.
• Lincon noticed wild fluctuations in his reputation and suspected that Black Iron City was preparing to send people to Longwind Fortress.
• Li Yunfan watched a middle-aged man die by suicide in their overcrowded room, took his leather coat, and later went to work at a coal yard.
• Zhou Qing arrived at the coal yard, and the foreman announced that the workers would be sent to Longwind Fortress in exchange for resources.
• Li Yunfan recalled that Longwind Fortress had once been believed destroyed, noticed Zhou Qing's apparent envy, and decided to go in hopes of finding a chance to survive.

Black Iron City gathered tens of thousands of vulnerable residents to send to Longwind Fortress, while Zhou Qing privately explained that the transfer was meant to save them from the coming winter. Meanwhile, Lincon spotted Flint City scouts entering his territory, and Ye Yuan prepared an assault to weaken Longwind Fortress and seize its supplies.

• Li Yunfan joined the procession to Longwind Fortress with his suitcase of Old Era novels as Xue Manzi and Brother Fei gathered Black Iron City's residents.
• Brother Fei told Xue Manzi that Black Iron City was selling its elderly, children, sick, and disabled residents to reduce the burden on the city.
• Zhou Qing explained that Longwind Fortress could save the residents from Harsh Winter and ordered his subordinate to fill the remaining places mainly with people in need.
• Guan Teng and Luo Qian traveled toward Black Iron City while Lincon detected groups of Flint City intruders probing Longwind Fortress's territory.
• Lincon recognized the intruders as Flint City's vanguard, sent to clear the plants that strengthened his abilities before a battle.
• Ye Yuan led several hundred ability users near Longwind Fortress, intending to weaken Lincon and plunder the fortress's food before Harsh Winter.

Lincon used the Delirium Mist Dandelions in the forest to trap Flint City's assassination squad, then advanced an Albizia Tree into a Stasis Albizia Tree to weaken the attackers further. The squad remained disoriented in the mist as Lincon prepared to combine its effects with the tree's stasis pollen.

• Lincon spotted Flint City's Ability Users sneaking through the forest toward Longwind Fortress and directed them into the Delirium Mist Dandelions.
• The mist separated Cao Ling from his squad and caused him to loop through the forest, lose track of his thoughts, and suffer hallucinations.
• Lincon observed that the squad had entered a Delirium State but remained strong enough to threaten the Treant Guards.
• Lincon advanced the Albizia Tree into a C-Rank Stasis Albizia Tree, whose pollen slowed the strength, speed, and energy reactions of creatures that inhaled it.

Lincon’s defenses wiped out two of Flint City’s invading squads, while a third squad led by Liu Nong reached the outskirts of Longwind Fortress to attack its Spirit Plants. The chapter ends as Liu Nong orders the assault on the Fallen Sun Thorncrown and fortress.

• Cao Ling’s squad succumbed to the Misty Forest’s delirium and stasis effects, and Treant Guards killed all five C-Rank Ability Users.
• Lincon gained Sunlight and experience from the deaths, noted that the first squad had been eliminated in twenty-two minutes, and watched as Spirit Plants destroyed the second squad.
• Lincon deliberately let the third squad pass through his territory toward the Provisional Subject Camp outside Longwind Fortress.
• Wang Cai identified the Fallen Sun Thorncrown for Dragon Guard Liu Nong, while Blackie reported that the camp’s patrols posed little threat.
• Liu Nong ordered his team to begin their attack, and the ability users rushed toward Longwind Fortress.

Lincon’s defenses exposed and defeated Liu Nong’s assassination squad, while Flint City’s larger force advanced into Longwind Territory. Lincon and Ye Yuan made contact through a shrine, and Ye Yuan declared he had come to kill him.

• Lincon watched the approaching assassins through his shrines as Blackie and Gecko were discovered and captured by Longwind Fortress’s guards and plants.
• Liu Nong threw a white phosphorus bomb at the Fallen Sun Thorncrown, but it swallowed the bomb and destroyed him with an explosion.
• Lincon received Sunlight and experience for the defeated invaders and welcomed the prospect of a war with Flint City.
• Ye Yuan led his Ability Users into Longwind Territory and found one of Lincon’s shrines, where the two rulers saw each other across the distance.
• Ye Yuan told Lincon he had come to kill him, and Lincon calmly replied that he would be waiting.

Lincon used his Lord’s authority to trap Ye Yuan’s Flint City force in the Misty Forest and prepared the forest’s Spirit Plants to fight them. As Ye Yuan’s team entered the mist, Lincon readied a hidden advancement that could provide battlefield intelligence.

• Lincon moved the Misty Forest into Ye Yuan’s route, but Ye Yuan repeatedly changed course and found the same forest blocking him.
• Ye Yuan decided to force his way through the forest and led the Flint City ability users inside.
• Lincon deployed offensive Spirit Plants throughout the forest and arranged traps to wear down Flint City’s force.
• Lincon advanced the transplanted catalpa tree into an Empty-Nest Bird Roost Tree to provide concealed observers for the battle.

Ye Yuan led Flint City's Ability Users through the Misty Forest, where Lincon used hostile Spirit Plants to ambush them. Ye Yuan cleared a path with a devastating mental attack, but Destruction Dark Sunflowers then exploded beneath the group, causing the first casualties.

• Ye Yuan detected and crushed a concealed Void-Nesting Bird carrying a fragment of Lincon's mind, while Lincon watched the group through another bird.
• Ye Yuan's group found that fire could not clear the mist, and several Ability Users began suffering its poisonous effects.
• A wind user blew away the mist, revealing Spore Shooter Mushrooms that attacked Flint City's Ability Users behind a line of Nut Guardians.
• Ye Yuan unleashed a mental shockwave that destroyed the Spirit Plants blocking the path, allowing his group to advance.
• Destruction Dark Sunflowers exploded when a member of the group stepped on one, killing Ability Users within three meters.

Flint City’s forces suffered heavy losses in Lincon’s Misty Forest before Ye Yuan’s elite squad reached him at the clearing chosen as the final battlefield. Lincon and Ye Yuan faced off as both sides prepared to fight, with the forest’s plants unleashing their buffs and Ye Yuan leading the attack.

• Destruction Dark Sunflowers and hidden mines killed or injured Flint City Ability Users, while the returning mist caused delirium among the troops left with the butler.
• Ye Yuan led twenty C-Class Ability Users through the forest, where Stasis Pollen weakened them and they discovered the corpses of Cao Ling’s failed assassination squad.
• Ye Yuan followed the strongest energy source deeper into the forest as his companions grew increasingly impaired by the mist.
• Lincon waited in a clearing with the Garrison Guard and Jiang Li’s group, having chosen the forest as the site of the final battle.
• Lincon activated the Delirium Mist Dandelions and Stasis Albizia Trees as Ye Yuan drove back the mist and charged, ordering Flint City’s forces to attack.

Lincon fought Ye Yuan with his Spirit Plants, then revealed a golden Composite State that let him break through Ye Yuan’s psychic defense and strike him down. The battle remained unresolved as Lincon layered the Dragonblood Flood Dragon Vine onto his armor and charged Ye Yuan with only three minutes to finish the fight.

• The Twisted Treant blocked Ye Yuan’s psychic sword, but Ye Yuan gravely wounded it with a psychic attack.
• Lincon summoned the restored Dragonblood Flood Dragon Vine, which endured Ye Yuan’s psychic swords and was then heavily damaged by his Psychic Warhammer.
• Ye Yuan unleashed Psychic Break, but Lincon appeared beside him and battered through his psychic barrier, caving in his chest with a golden-armored punch.
• Lincon revealed the Solar Sunflower Armament’s Composite State, leaving Ye Yuan shocked by his strength and unfamiliar form.
• Lincon combined the Dragonblood Flood Dragon Vine with his armor as Dragon Fist, knowing the form would drain him quickly, and charged at Ye Yuan.

Lincon fought Ye Yuan, the lord of Flint City, through a brutal close-quarters battle that left his armor cracked and his strength nearly spent. Ye Yuan trapped him in a Psychic Web, but Lincon escaped with a Rift-Cleaving Dandelion seed and killed him with the Shadow Sword and a final punch.

• Lincon broke through Ye Yuan’s Mental Domain with a powerful Xingyi Fist strike and injured him.
• Ye Yuan strengthened his body with psychic power and fought Lincon in a rapid close-quarters battle.
• Ye Yuan created a Psychic Web that enclosed Lincon after damaging his armor.
• Lincon escaped the web with a Rift-Cleaving Dandelion seed and appeared behind Ye Yuan.
• Lincon stabbed Ye Yuan through the heart with the Shadow Sword and smashed his head with a final punch.

Lincon defeated Ye Yuan and Longwind Fortress crushed Flint City’s surprise attack, triggering an early Territory War mission to unify Jiangzhou. Zhang Rui offered the surviving Flint City forces surrender or death, and the butler led them in surrendering.

• Lincon killed Ye Yuan, gained enough Sunlight to pass ten thousand, and unlocked the Territory War mission to unify the Jiangzhou region.
• Jiang Li, Qiu An, and the Spirit Plants defeated Flint City’s remaining attackers without casualties, while Lincon ordered the survivors surrounded rather than killed.
• Lincon returned to Longwind Fortress to recover, and Zhang Rui led core subjects into the Misty Forest to handle the captured Flint City forces.
• Zhang Rui offered the prisoners three years of work for Longwind Fortress or death, and the butler urged them to surrender.
• When some prisoners resisted and cursed the butler, vines killed them, after which the remaining Flint City forces fell silent and accepted surrender.

After Flint City’s defeat, Lincon and Zhang Rui judged that Longwind Fortress could not yet control the distant city, so they decided to send its steward Liu Bowen back with a limited mission. Lincon offered Liu Bowen permanent citizenship in exchange for bringing back people and materials listed in the Abyss Compendium.

• Zhang Rui imposed strict terms on Flint City’s prisoners, gathered intelligence from Liu Bowen, and led the prisoners to Longwind Fortress.
• The prisoners saw Longwind Fortress’s flourishing settlement, and Zhang Rui reported Flint City’s situation to Lincon and the fortress’s core members.
• Zhang Rui and Lincon agreed that Longwind Fortress lacked the strength to govern Flint City directly and decided to release Liu Bowen to reclaim benefits from it.
• Lincon summoned Liu Bowen and offered him permanent citizenship if he returned with people and materials recorded in the Abyss Compendium.

Lincon spent 2,000 Sunlight to advance the Charred Branch of the Fire God Tree into a B+ Fire God Tree, unleashing a powerful fire-energy field throughout Longwind Fortress. The new tree offered hope against the coming Harsh Winter, but its heat upset the Sacred Court’s other Spirit Plants, so Lincon needed to find it a new home.

• Lincon considered the Fire God Tree’s possible advancement paths and chose its standard evolution because he lacked the materials needed to awaken the Fusang Divine Tree.
• Lincon spent 2,000 Sunlight to advance the charred branch, and the transformation unleashed overwhelming fire-element energy across the Sacred Court and Longwind Fortress.
• Jiang Li sensed the surging fire-element energy and used the opportunity to attempt another breakthrough.
• The branch awakened into a B+ Fire God Tree with abilities that produced a pure fire domain, dispelled cold and frost conditions, and could eventually condense fire essence.
• Lincon heard the other Spirit Plants complain about the Fire God Tree’s heat, and even the Crystal Orchid Giant Tree urged him to move it.

Lincon planted the Fire God Tree outside the Sacred Court, where its Pure Fire Domain helped Jiang Li advance and gave him new ideas about cultivating Spirit Plants. Meanwhile, Guan Teng and Luo Qian began escorting fifty thousand people from Black Iron City toward Longwind Fortress, leaving the frightened crowd unsure of their fate.

• Lincon moved the Fire God Tree Sapling to the Western District, where it transformed the soil and spread a fifty-meter Pure Fire Domain; Zhang Rui agreed to fence off the area and protect it.
• Jiang Li told Lincon that she had advanced to C-Class using the Fire God Tree’s released fire energy, and Lincon allowed her to train beside the sapling.
• Lincon visited Ying and told her he could help her advance with an A-Rank Dark Matter Crystal, but Ying asked to keep growing naturally until she had used more of her potential.
• As Harsh Winter approached, Guan Teng and Luo Qian prepared to take fifty thousand people from Black Iron City to Longwind Fortress, despite Guan Teng’s concerns about the group’s large share of elderly people, women, and children.
• Zhou Qing arranged the crowd’s departure, while Black Iron City residents watched with relief and the selected people feared they were being sent to their deaths.

Black Iron City’s factions changed course after learning that Longwind Fortress had destroyed Flint City’s forces with zero casualties, while New River City moved to seize Flint City’s assets. At Longwind Fortress, Lincon developed Frost Crystal Rice, a crop suited to Harsh Winter, and began growing enough seed for wider cultivation.

• Zhou Qing and Chen Siwei watched the escorted refugees leave for Longwind Fortress as Black Iron City’s internal conflict worsened.
• Hong Qi learned that Longwind Fortress had annihilated Flint City’s main force without losses, ordered his people to stop sabotaging the fortress, and moved to seize control of Black Iron City.
• Chen Siwei and Zhou Qing reconsidered Longwind Fortress’s strength, while New River City set its sights on taking Flint City’s assets.
• Lincon discovered a rice plant that could thrive in cold conditions and evolve into Frost Crystal Rice.
• Lincon matured the Frost Crystal Rice, planted it in the garden, and began producing seeds for large-scale cultivation.