Chapter Summaries

Plot and major events

• After seven days of orderly resource extraction on the New Continent, Chen Fan leaves trusted aide Crippled Monkey in charge and returns to the Mortal Domain. The new territory is yielding large amounts of eerie stones, but extraction is limited by a shortage of workers and transport capacity.
• To increase throughput, Chen Fan spends two sleepless days laying a second track through the Undersea Tunnel. The route reopens with separate tracks for loaded and empty trains, greatly improving transport.
• After sleeping for a full day, Chen Fan reviews the Mortal Domain’s finances and staffing. It has 51.32 million eerie stones in its warehouses, plus nearly two million recently shipped from the New Continent; Wang Kui reports 2,379 members, including 1,908 auxiliary personnel.
• With the rainy season approaching—and a catastrophic Netherworld Strange Tide predicted for year 382—Chen Fan orders a large-scale recruitment of 50,000 auxiliary personnel. Though Wang Kui warns about the cost and risk of admitting spies or destabilizing the organization, Chen Fan plans to send recruits to the isolated New Continent, where they can work and be screened.
• Chen Fan launches a massive defensive construction effort. He builds a 14.8-kilometer wall, upgrading it to level 5 and giving it shared effects: reflected damage, eerie blood-vein patterns, the legendary “Great Wall” ability that lets connected walls move within camp boundaries, and a ban on flight over the wall. The project costs 52.688 million eerie stones, leaving the Mortal Domain with only 600,000.
• He then upgrades the Main Eerie Fire from level 5 to level 10, using stored Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures. Its safe zone expands to 20 kilometers in diameter, and its max-level effect, Heavenly Dominion, eliminates daily upkeep costs. The movable wall encloses Nameless Mountain, Mortal City, Sunset City, and the Harbor, astonishing onlookers.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Fan shows relentless industriousness and strategic foresight: he personally builds the second rail track, then spends nearly all the Mortal Domain’s reserves on defenses against the coming crisis. He is confident enough to reject less useful upgrade options and prioritize protection and infrastructure.
• Wang Kui proves diligent and well-prepared, having memorized key organizational figures before Chen Fan’s return. He raises practical concerns about recruitment costs, screening, and the risk of disrupting the Mortal Domain, but ultimately accepts Chen Fan’s orders.
• Crippled Monkey remains behind as Chen Fan’s trusted coordinator for New Continent operations.
• Shao Qiu accompanies Chen Fan during the exhausting tunnel work, anxious to support him despite having no way to help.
• Qi Feng, the young Valley Lord of Medicine King Valley, witnesses the enormous wall and recognizes that the Mortal Domain’s preparations are far beyond ordinary rainy-season defenses.

Significant themes

• Preparation for looming catastrophe: Chen Fan treats the coming rainy season and predicted Strange Tide as existential threats, building defenses well ahead of time.
• Growth through infrastructure and resources: Railways, tunnel capacity, recruitment, and New Continent extraction are all part of scaling the Mortal Domain for future conflict.
• Leadership and calculated risk: Chen Fan makes sweeping decisions despite financial and organizational dangers, while Wang Kui represents the practical concerns those decisions entail.
• Security versus expansion: Recruiting tens of thousands could weaken the organization, so Chen Fan uses the New Continent’s isolation as both a workforce strategy and a screening measure.
• Ambition and limits: Chen Fan gains a powerful continental-scale objective through “Heavenly Dominion,” but dismisses it for now because the resources required are far beyond reach.

Plot points and events

• Rumors spread about the Mortal Domain’s activity, including claims that it was mining Eerie Ore or conducting blood sacrifices. Chen Fan reads them with amusement: the “New Continent” is, in effect, an enormous source of Eerie Ore.
• The Mortal Domain rapidly recruits and transports 50,000 auxiliary workers to the New Continent. Screening is orderly and practical, while members remain guarded about the mission. Logistics, food, livestock, tools, and Eerie Stone are shipped by rail to support the workforce.
• The workers are told they will mine Eerie Stone and may earn full membership through exceptional performance. A Punishment Pavilion member warns them to follow the rules: surviving long enough to take wealth does not mean they will survive long enough to enjoy it.
• More than ten days later, the workers are established and mining. Chen Fan reflects on how much the Mortal Domain has grown in a year, but worries that no one has arrived to reinforce the Northbank Defense Line. This may mean the Eternal Night Front is near collapse, leaving the Mortal Domain to defend the continent alone.
• Preparing for the approaching rainy season, Chen builds the 14.8-kilometer Rainy Season Defense Line around the Mortal Domain. He installs 740 max-level Godslayer Cannons, 148 Anti-Aircraft Cannons, and 50 Level 3 Altars, linking the defenses with Copper Pipes. He tests the Anti-Aircraft Cannon’s area-scattering attack, which resembles fireworks.
• Reaching ten max-level buildings earns Chen a Blue Grade Lucky Bag, a rare reward he saves to open later with a Fortune Whistle.
• At the New Continent’s outpost, workers finish their shifts, wash, and are given plentiful meals. Uncle Zhang, who joined expecting dangerous labor, finds himself making buns instead.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Fan is pleased with the Mortal Domain’s rapid growth and newfound resources, but remains cautious: its success depends on opportunities that may not recur, and the larger war may soon reach it. He channels that concern into extensive defensive preparations.
• Wang Kui shares Chen’s concern about the absent reinforcements, while expressing confidence that the Mortal Domain may be able to defend itself if development continues.
• The Medicine King Valley Master accepts the Mortal Domain’s superiority rather than exhausting himself through comparison, reflecting a pragmatic, peace-minded outlook.
• Mortal Domain members keep outsiders at arm’s length because strict secrecy rules make even casual disclosure risky. Recruitment workers apply practical standards, and Xiao Tian gives Uncle Zhang special consideration because cooks need not meet the usual physical requirements.
• Uncle Zhang reconnects with Xiao Tian and begins a new role in the Mortal Domain, illustrating how ordinary people find unexpected places in its expanding organization.

Significant themes

• Preparation and survival: The chapter’s title captures its warning that wealth and opportunity matter only if one survives to enjoy them.
• Growth versus vulnerability: The New Continent brings immense resources, but the Mortal Domain is still immature and cannot assume such opportunities—or time—will last.
• Pragmatism over envy: The Medicine King Valley Master’s acceptance of relative strength contrasts with the ambition driving Chen’s preparations.
• Organization and collective effort: Recruitment, transport, food production, and defense construction show how large-scale coordination underpins the Mortal Domain’s rise.
• Prosperity shadowed by impending danger: The bustling city and well-fed workers coexist with the approaching rainy season and the possibility that the wider front is collapsing.

Chapter Summary

Plot points and events

• On the eve of the rainy season, Chen Fan reviews the Mortal Domain’s preparations. It has 16.27 million Eerie Stones, steady supplies from the New Continent, and a fully armed, 14.8-kilometer defense line.
• Chen opens a Blue Grade Lucky Bag and obtains the Rebirth Tower blueprint, which prevents enemies killed inside the camp from reviving. He also builds 148 max-level Soul-Devouring Sculptures along the wall, reducing the Eerie Stone cost of nearby defensive weapons.
• Elsewhere, a middle-aged man trapped in darkness discusses Little Flowers—their child—with two crocodiles. Little Flowers’ Heavenly Affliction makes them fragile but grants exceptional formation-breaking abilities. The man believes the child may have become powerful on Nameless Mountain and warns that a massive undersea Strange Tide may reach Jiangbei North in three years.
• On the Eternal Night Front, humans prepare for the rainy season, when Strange Entities grow stronger and attacks intensify.
• A powerful enemy leader, the Three-Thousand Emperor, reveals his plan to seize Jiangbei North and earn the Heavenly Dao’s Blessing. He intends to let the undersea Strange Tide break through the remaining defenses, then claim the territory himself. Seeing the Mortal Domain as an obstacle, he orders an immediate attack.
• Although his advisers disagree about how much they know of the Mortal Domain’s defenses, the Emperor chooses an overwhelming surprise assault: hundreds of thousands of Strange Entities descend by Heaven Formation onto Nameless Mountain.
• As the rainy season begins, Chen Fan and Wang Kui watch the invasion appear overhead. The enemy expects to overwhelm the settlement—but the attackers suddenly find themselves unable to move. The Mortal Domain’s upgraded Level-5 walls impose a full airspace ban, trapping the descending army in the sky.

Character developments

• Chen Fan is quietly proud of the domain he built, but remains cautious. He rejects the idea that their defenses guarantee safety, stressing that the Strange Entities are still formidable.
• Wang Kui has confidence in the Mortal Domain’s preparations and believes its defenses may rival those of the Eternal Night Front.
• The middle-aged man and the crocodile parents reveal grief and uncertainty over their absent child, Little Flowers, while the father recognizes the child’s unusual potential.
• The Three-Thousand Emperor is shown to be patient, ambitious, and resentful of the greater rewards others earned in past battles. His strategy reflects a desire to preserve his forces and secure territory—and recognition—through careful planning.

Significant themes

• Preparation versus uncertainty: Chen Fan has made extensive preparations, but knows planning cannot remove every danger.
• Ambition and resentment: The Emperor’s long-standing jealousy shapes his calculated campaign for power and reward.
• Family and separation: Little Flowers’ parents hope their child is alive, despite having left before the child could know them.
• Strength through adaptation: The Mortal Domain’s defenses turn the enemy’s surprise tactic against them, demonstrating the value of learning from past threats.
• The cost of survival: Both humans and Strange Entities face the rainy season as a decisive struggle in a world where losing territory may mean annihilation.

Character interactions

• Chen Fan and Wang Kui discuss the domain’s readiness and differ in their degree of confidence; Chen Fan insists that their strength is still insufficient.
• The crocodile parents argue playfully about having another child, then share their anxiety over Little Flowers.
• The Three-Thousand Emperor dismisses one subordinate’s suggestion, hears competing assessments from his Wraith Kings, and ultimately orders the entire army to attack.
• The chapter ends with the Emperor’s forces confronting the unexpected airspace ban, reversing the attackers’ initial advantage.

Key events

• The rainy season begins, and the Greater Wraith launches a surprise attack on Jiangbei with several hundred thousand entities. Chen Fan’s 14.8-kilometer Rainy Season Defense Line—740 max-level Godslayer Cannons and 148 Anti-Aircraft Cannons—annihilates the airborne army. The Greater Wraith dies insisting that humans misled him and warning that a “true Strange Tide” is coming.
• Chen Fan confirms through the Rebirth Tower that the Greater Wraith had no resurrection ability; his final warning was only a threat. The tower does, however, permanently eliminate Funeral Wraiths, whose splitting ability had once nearly killed Chen Fan. It records 48 “unexpected factors” eliminated.
• Lesser entities continue gathering outside the Level-5 City Wall, but most cannot damage it. When Meatworm Wraiths arrive, the rain neutralizes their corrosive fluid, and the wall holds. Chen Fan sends Shao Qiu and Zhou Mo to lead the Shadow and War Pavilions in clearing manageable groups, preserving corpses for sacrifice.
• The Mortal Domain shifts into rainy-season defense: outside workers and their families are recalled, construction pauses, and the High-Speed Rail stops operating. Chen Fan reflects on how his perspective has changed: dangers that once drove him to panic can now be watched from safety.
• On the New Continent, Crippled Monkey sees an unexplained green glow stretching from the direction of the Thunderstorm Sea as the rainy season begins in Jiangbei. He reports it and plans to investigate.
• Weiwei watches a monkey family feeding its baby and appears to miss its own parents. Crippled Monkey awkwardly comforts it, reminding it that its parents left it Snow Lotus Flowers and are with “That One.”
• Elsewhere on the New Continent, Wang Mazi and his crew continue exploring. They have found several ancient battlefields, but excavation lags behind their advance. Wang Mazi also wonders about a huge, apparently artificial crater discovered nearby.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Fan displays confidence born of preparation and growth, contrasting his calm during this rainy season with his desperation the previous year. He also remains practical: cannon fire is powerful but wasteful against weak enemies, whose intact remains are more valuable.
• The Greater Wraith is intelligent enough to draw on human proverbs, but Chen Fan judges that he follows sayings uncritically rather than adapting them to circumstances.
• Shao Qiu and Zhou Mo receive authority to activate defenses and lead troops, showing the Mortal Domain’s trust in its trained members.
• Crippled Monkey moves from joking crudely about Weiwei to recognizing its sadness and trying to reassure it.
• Weiwei is shown as both a childlike Beast Pavilion leader—proud of its identity token—and a lonely creature longing for its family.
• Wang Mazi is increasingly absorbed in exploration, while Zhang Damao voices concern that the rest of the team cannot keep pace.

Significant themes

• Preparation and growth: Chen Fan’s defenses transform once-terrifying threats into manageable spectacles.
• Context over slogans: Chen Fan argues that people should choose words to suit their actions, not let proverbs dictate decisions.
• The costs of power: Overwhelming firepower wins the battle but destroys corpses that might otherwise yield rewards.
• Safety, memory, and changing perspective: Chen Fan and Weiwei look back on past hardship from new positions—one with security, the other with unresolved longing.
• Unanswered mysteries: The Thunderstorm Sea’s green glow, the absence of exotic treasures on the New Continent, and the blasted crater suggest larger events still unfolding.

Key plot points and events

• After a Greater Wraith dies, Wang Kui presents Chen Fan with two Yellow-grade Exotic Treasures: a Heavenly Dao Stone, which can bless a max-level building and extend the effect to all buildings of that type, and a Tribulation Cloud, which creates localized rain and lightning at the cost of Eerie Stones.
• Chen Fan considers how to use the Stone and sees the Cloud as a possible way to charge the Sky-Piercing Pillar, which stores lightning for powerful attacks.
• A separate scene reveals a mysterious, imprisoned middle-aged man speaking with a Strange Entity. The entity tries to bargain for information about another continent, claiming the Strange Entity Clan seeks only a home. The man refuses to help, explaining privately that he is not human, has no home to return to, and is committed to protecting the Eternal Night Continent. He and his two powerful Sky-Swallowing Crocodiles share a warm, humorous exchange about his past death and self-destruction.
• On the New Continent, Wang Mazi leads an expedition into an enormous, funnel-shaped Deep Pit with smooth, obsidian-like walls. His party later returns safely, though he is badly weakened.
• Chen Fan fully charges a Level-1 Sky-Piercing Pillar and discovers that activating it launches its inner core like a long-range missile. It strikes more than ten kilometers away, leaving a crater and a lingering storm of lightning.
• Realizing the weapon’s potential, Chen Fan builds and maxes out a Level-10 Sky-Piercing Pillar, whose capacity and power are far greater but would take years to charge naturally. He then uses the Tribulation Cloud to accelerate charging for a cluster of max-level pillars and begins planting many Level-6 pillars designed to be ready in three years—timed for the coming Undersea Strange Tide.

Character developments

• Chen Fan continues to think strategically, turning discoveries into long-term defensive plans. His surprise at the Pillar’s missile-like function quickly becomes enthusiasm for mass deployment; he also shows caution by checking that no one is in the strike zone before firing.
• The imprisoned middle-aged man is revealed as a unique, nonhuman being with a tragic past and deep homesickness. Though he jokes with his companions, his commitment to defending the continent remains steadfast.
• Wang Mazi shows curiosity about the possibility of other continents, though his exploration of the Deep Pit leaves him exhausted.
• Wang Kui grows more impressed by Chen Fan’s speed and competence as a Builder, and increasingly wary of what the Pillars could mean for the Mortal Domain’s enemies.

Significant themes

• Preparation against future catastrophe: Chen Fan treats the coming Strange Tide as a deadline, building defenses well in advance.
• Power and its limits: The Pillar is enormously destructive, but its charging time makes careful planning and resource allocation essential.
• Home, belonging, and duty: The imprisoned man has lost his home yet chooses to protect a place that is not originally his.
• Curiosity and uncertainty: Questions about other continents and the origins of the Deep Pit suggest a much larger world and hidden history.
• Humor amid danger: Banter between characters provides levity alongside imprisonment, warfare, and looming threats.

Character interactions

• Wang Kui reports the Exotic Treasures to Chen Fan, who evaluates their uses and plans how to incorporate them into the Mortal Domain’s defenses.
• The imprisoned man rejects the Strange Entity’s offer and spars verbally with it; afterward, he shares affectionate, teasing conversation with his two crocodiles, whose admiration brings out his more open, humorous side.
• Wang Mazi and his subordinate discuss the sun and speculate about other continents before turning to their expedition; Wang Mazi later returns safely from the Deep Pit.
• Chen Fan reassures Wang Kui that the distant lightning strike was his own test, then explains little about the Deep Pit. Wang Kui watches Chen build and reflects on the gulf between Chen’s efficiency and other Builders’ performance.

Plot points and events

• Chen Fan spends over twenty million eerie stones constructing more than a hundred Sky-Piercing Pillars along the Jiangbei coastline. Their long-range strikes will take three years to mature, but their reach could extend to the West Pass Plains and beyond. He jokingly renames them the Mortal Domain Cruise Missiles.
• With Jiangbei’s eerie-stone reserves dwindling, Chen Fan plans to move south after the rainy season. Before doing so, he receives word that Wang Mazi has returned from exploring a Deep Pit on the New Continent in a severely shaken state.
• In the West Pass Plains, a wealthy Sun-Moon House leader enjoys the Mortal Domain’s Braised Delicacies, sold there by Jiangnan’s West Lake Tower. Impressed, he orders a subordinate to travel to Jiangbei and recruit their maker—by force if necessary.
• West Lake Tower’s Pavilion Master trains his faction during the rainy season to improve its new food business. He has turned the Mortal Domain’s cheap delicacies into an upscale product, using silver tableware, tiny portions, and high prices to make eating them fashionable.
• At the New Continent, Wang Mazi tells Chen Fan that a mysterious cave inscription showed him a vision of the continent’s ancient fall. He saw humanity’s last defenses overwhelmed by Strange Entities, then witnessed the Heavenly Dao explode in a burst of Seven-Colored Light that destroyed nearly everything. Chen Fan concludes that Wang Mazi experienced the Heavenly Dao’s perspective rather than becoming it.

Character developments

• Chen Fan remains ambitious and pragmatic: he invests heavily in future defenses, plans the Mortal Domain’s expansion, and responds calmly to Wang Mazi’s frightening account.
• Wang Mazi shifts from panic to relative calm after recounting his vision. He had mistaken the experience for becoming the Heavenly Dao.
• West Lake Tower’s Pavilion Master has moved from despair over losing the Skeleton Horse market to confidence in a profitable new venture. He sees the Mortal Domain’s expansion as an opportunity to grow alongside it.
• The Sun-Moon House leader is intrigued by the delicacies and treats their maker as a valuable asset to acquire.

Significant themes

• Development creates winners and casualties: The Mortal Domain’s growth disrupts older businesses, but some factions adapt and prosper.
• Commerce and status: West Lake Tower turns an inexpensive product into a prestige good through branding, presentation, and exclusivity.
• Preparation and long-term ambition: Chen Fan’s defenses require years to mature, while the Mortal Domain steadily lays groundwork for expansion.
• The hidden past: Wang Mazi’s vision reveals that the New Continent once suffered a catastrophic invasion, hinting at the world’s ancient history and powerful forces.

Character interactions

• Wang Kui admires Chen Fan’s newly named “Cruise Missiles,” despite not fully understanding the term.
• Chen Fan sends Wang Kui to guard the Mortal Domain while he investigates Wang Mazi’s condition.
• The Sun-Moon House leader orders his subordinate to recruit the Mortal Domain’s food maker, showing the commercial pull of West Lake Tower’s success.
• West Lake Tower’s Pavilion Master rallies his members around the Mortal Domain’s reputation and trains them to support the new business.
• Chen Fan listens patiently to Wang Mazi, initially suspects an illusion or possession, then interprets the vision as a glimpse into the ancient Heavenly Dao’s final battle.

Chapter Summary

Key plot points and events

• An enormous earth-gold deposit is discovered beneath the Deep Pit on the New Continent. Weiwei’s test digging confirms that the crater contains far more earth gold than expected, but the prospect of excavating it all leaves Weiwei despondent.
• Chen Fan limits the excavation after Wang Mazi reports that digging the whole deposit could take nearly ten years. He tells the team to mine for about thirty days and leave the rest for later, treating the untouched deposit as stored wealth. To encourage Weiwei, he promises double portions of braised delicacies.
• Chen Fan asks artifact refiner Zhao Shengping whether earth-gold hoes would be effective. Though Zhao calls the idea an extravagant waste, Chen orders fifty thousand hoes anyway. Zhao works out how to add weight using ghost-bone slag, while his apprentices are both eager for real artifact work and dismayed at the materials being wasted.
• During the rainy season, earth gold is transported by high-speed rail to the Heavenly Artifact Pavilion, and newly forged hoes are sent back to the New Continent. The rainy season passes without deaths in the Mortal Domain. Mining proceeds rapidly, and its Warehouse accumulates 189 million eerie stones.
• After the rain ends, Chen surveys the Domain’s progress and considers strengthening the Northbank Defense Line beyond his original plans. He also checks his Sky-Piercing Pillars: most will take years to charge, underscoring how little time he believes remains before the Eternal Night Front may collapse.
• The chapter then shifts to Soaring City in Jiangnan, where Hu Zi, an arrogant Sun-Moon House envoy from the West Pass Plains, encounters the Mortal Domain’s railway. Ignoring warnings, he parks on its track and boasts that the local people are too timid to challenge him.
• A high-speed train smashes his carriages. Mortal Domain officials issue him a 50,000-eerie-stone fine for deliberately obstructing the line. When Hu Zi attacks one of them, the official defeats him with ease, revealing himself as a Martial King with perfect body tempering. The official identifies him as a likely outsider and calls for backup.

Character developments and interactions

• Weiwei shifts from despair at an apparently endless mining task to renewed enthusiasm when told it need only work for thirty days and will receive extra food. Its bond with Chen Fan is emphasized by the fact that Chen alone can communicate with it reliably.
• Chen Fan continues to think strategically and pragmatically: he preserves most of the deposit for the future, uses the New Continent’s abundant resources to support large-scale industry, and remains focused on building defenses before the coming danger.
• Wang Mazi efficiently reports the discovery and Weiwei’s distress, serving as Chen’s link to the expedition.
• Zhao Shengping resists the idea of turning a precious crafting material into tools, but accepts the order and turns the challenge into a practical engineering problem. His apprentices likewise move from frustration at idle work to energetic production.
• Hu Zi’s arrogance and sense of superiority collapse when the train destroys his carriages and the Mortal Domain enforces its rules. His contempt for local officials leads him to attack—and be decisively beaten.
• The Mortal Domain’s officials and the local crowd contrast Hu Zi’s assumptions with the Domain’s order and strength: residents obey the railway rules, while the officials enforce them confidently and without deference to his claimed status.

Significant themes

• Abundance and resourcefulness: The New Continent’s wealth lets Chen use materials in ways that would once have seemed absurd, turning a supposed waste into a means of accelerating development.
• Preparation against looming catastrophe: Mining, transport, defensive construction, and the long charging time of the Sky-Piercing Pillars all reflect Chen’s urgency about the future.
• Order backed by power: The railway scene shows that the Mortal Domain’s rules apply beyond Jiangbei—and that its members have the strength to enforce them.
• Changing power relations: Hu Zi expects prestige from his West Pass Plains connections to command respect, but the Mortal Domain’s institutional reach and trained personnel overturn that assumption.

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Plot points and events

• Chen Fan reviews Mortal Domain’s growing stockpile of 189 million Eerie Stones, with mining on the New Continent accelerating. He hopes to reach 300 million and build a basic Northbank Defense Line before the Undersea Strange Tide arrives in three years.
• He sends Shao Qiu and the Shadow Pavilion south to investigate the Guandong Plains’ coastal defenses, concerned that a breach there could let the Strange Tide advance through Jiangnan into Jiangbei.
• At Mortal Domain, Hu Zi, captured while attempting to take the person responsible for its Braised Delicacies, is questioned. When his faction refuses to pay a ransom, Mortal Domain releases him and his companions rather than killing them.
• Hu Zi decides not to return to the Sun-Moon House. Rejecting his former life as his master’s “dog,” he resolves to find a meaningful purpose of his own.
• Big Fish, the War Pavilion’s Deputy Pavilion Master, struggles with feeling useless as Mortal Domain grows strong enough that it no longer needs her Night Watcher abilities. Gongyang Yiyue comforts her and encourages her to stop measuring her worth by her usefulness. They discuss her possibly taking a role better suited to her interests, such as working with flowers.
• News of Mortal Domain spreads across the West Pass Plains as visitors return from Jiangnan. The Slaying Immortal Holy Land’s Holy Lord worries that past events involving Chen Fan, Yu Ning’er, and Shao Qiu may have created a grudge, then learns Shao Qiu survived and now leads Mortal Domain’s Shadow Pavilion.
• Shao Qiu travels toward the Guandong Plains, passing near the Slaying Immortal Holy Land, where a storyteller uses his history as a prelude to a tale about Mortal Domain. He continues his covert mission.
• At Wraith-Suppressing Pass, Shao Qiu and his companions stop at an inn. They discover that its “entertainment” is Strange Combat: two badly wounded eerie beasts are placed in a cage while spectators bet on the outcome.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Fan shows strategic foresight: his preparations focus not only on the northern coast but also on the possibility of threats entering from elsewhere.
• Big Fish is outwardly gentle but privately doubts her place in Mortal Domain. Her honest, trusting conversation with Gongyang Yiyue gives her reassurance and a possible new direction.
• Gongyang Yiyue speaks from experience, explaining that a Night Watcher’s value need not depend on being activated or indispensable.
• Hu Zi undergoes a sudden change in outlook after being defeated and released. His exchange with the War Pavilion escort shows both his determination to change and the escort’s amused skepticism.
• Shao Qiu remains proud of his past and eager to test his abilities, but prioritizes his assignment. His team’s interest in his former fame contrasts with the storyteller’s use of his story mainly to introduce Mortal Domain.
• The Slaying Immortal Holy Lord’s anxious attempts to convince himself there is no conflict provide comic relief, while highlighting his unease about Mortal Domain’s rapid rise.

Significant themes

• Worth beyond usefulness: Big Fish’s story questions whether a person’s value depends on the role they can perform.
• Choosing a new life: Hu Zi’s decision to abandon his former master’s service echoes the broader possibility of people separating from old allegiances.
• Preparation and uncertainty: Chen Fan’s defensive planning reflects the danger of making assumptions about where future threats will come from.
• Reputation and rising power: Mortal Domain’s achievements spread through rumor and storytelling, turning it into a force the wider world must reckon with.
• Unexpected consequences: The chapter’s humor comes from reversals—released prisoners reconsider their lives, old rivals fear an unintended feud, and Shao Qiu’s legendary tale becomes mostly an introduction to someone else.

Summary

Key plot points and events

• At Wraith-Suppressing Pass, Shao Qiu learns that Strange Entities can now survive in daylight on the East Guandong Plains. An inn worker warns that fewer traders are arriving from the region and that travel there may be dangerous. Shao Qiu suspects Defense Line Seven has been breached and heads east to investigate.
• Meanwhile, Chen Fan uses the Mortal Domain’s growing stores of eerie stones to extend its coastal wall. Over two stages, he completes the 170-kilometer Northbank Defense Line, built from Level-5 City Walls, with Wraith Blood Patterns and an Airspace Ban. He also builds a separate 14.8-kilometer Last Line of Defense around the Mortal Domain. Defensive weapons and support structures are still to come.
• Chen Fan hopes to make an example of a faction in the West Pass Plains to deter attacks on the Mortal Domain’s infrastructure. The Slaying Immortal Holy Land complicates this plan by repeatedly offering compensation and insisting their past conflict was a misunderstanding.
• On the New Continent, Crippled Monkey reports that the Thunderstorm Sea remains stable. Wang Mazi, exploring elsewhere, has noticed rifts spreading slowly outward from the continent’s center.
• Shao Qiu reaches Defense Line Seven and confirms the crisis: during the rainy season, a vast Strange Tide nearly destroyed it and devastated the East Guandong Plains. Fewer than three in ten people remain. The Eternal Night Hall intervened just before dawn, allowing the line to be repaired and the region to survive.
• Shao Qiu sends two Shadow Pavilion members back to warn Chen Fan while he and the others stay to gather intelligence. They enlist at the defense line and learn that it is severely short of resources and depends on volunteers rather than paid soldiers.

Character developments and interactions

• Shao Qiu shifts from suspicion to urgent investigation, then chooses to remain in the region and serve at the front while gathering information. He wants to understand how Defense Line Seven fell and how large the threat is.
• Chen Fan demonstrates his ambition and strategic focus by completing the Northbank Defense Line, but remains wary of wider threats. He is willing to retreat to the New Continent if the continent’s defenses prove beyond saving.
• The disabled recruitment officer embodies the defenders’ resolve. Despite losing both legs, he climbs the wall’s stairs himself, explaining that many who serve there have lost loved ones and fight for revenge rather than abstract ideals.
• The officer’s account challenges Shao Qiu’s hopeful belief that the defenders are protecting everyone. He warns that disillusionment can destroy a person’s resolve. Their exchange reveals the bitterness between the Guandong defenders and West Pass factions that ignored pleas for aid.
• Crippled Monkey and Wang Mazi represent the Mortal Domain’s continuing work behind the front: maintaining the New Continent outpost and monitoring its dangers.

Significant themes

• Preparation versus uncertainty: Chen Fan builds a formidable northern defense, yet Shao Qiu’s discovery shows that the broader continent may be far less secure than expected.
• Neglect and shared responsibility: Defense Line Seven nearly fell partly because most West Pass factions refused to help, despite the line protecting them as well.
• Grief, revenge, and conviction: Many defenders fight because Strange Entities killed their families. The officer argues that personal loss can sustain fighters when broader ideals fail.
• The limits of power: Even skilled fighters may make little difference against a massive Strange Tide; survival depends on defenses, resources, coordination, and timely support.
• Isolation and contingency: Chen Fan is prepared to protect his own people and abandon Jiangbei if the wider world proves irrecoverable.

Chapter summary

• The Hate Heaven Sect rejects the Mortal Domain’s threat. After receiving the Mortal Domain’s proclamation that it would act within an hour, the sect master dismisses the warning and vows to make the new Jiangbei faction lose face. The Slaying Immortal Holy Land, however, sends him 10,000 eerie stones and an apologetic letter, then brings 78 people to watch from nearby.
• The Slaying Immortal Holy Lord misreads the situation. The Hate Heaven Sect master assumes the Holy Lord has come to support him and warmly thanks him. Ziwei repeatedly sends him back inside, ostensibly to keep him from catching a chill. As word spreads, factions flock to Hate Heaven City to witness the confrontation, hoping either to curry favor, see a defeat, or enjoy the Mortal Domain’s embarrassment.
• The Mortal Domain approaches in overwhelming force. Chen Fan leads 100 Flying Boats carrying 1,700 max-level Godslayer Cannons. He tells the Gongyang Clan’s head that the expedition is partly motivated by the clan’s ties to Big Fish, but admits he also wants to make an example of someone. The Slaying Immortal Holy Land’s repeated apologies had made it an awkward target, so the Hate Heaven Sect became the chosen one.
• Hate Heaven City is destroyed. The Flying Boats take position above the city and unleash a quarter-hour bombardment. The city’s defenses collapse almost instantly, and the entire city is reduced to a vast pit before its people can meaningfully resist. Chen Fan then introduces himself to the shaken onlookers and departs without collecting the spoils.
• The West Pass Plains are transformed by the demonstration. The gathered factions abandon their feuds and hurry home, recognizing that their traditional ground-based warfare is no match for air power. Demand and prices for anti-aircraft blueprints surge, while factions begin reconsidering the value of fighting one another.
• Chen Fan returns secretly to salvage the ruins. Under cover of eternal night, the fleet returns and sends War Pavilion members into the pit to recover whatever remains. Chen Fan’s larger plan is to establish control through high-speed rail and Signal Towers across the region.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Fan is revealed as both a strategic commander and a pragmatist: he uses a spectacular show of force to establish the Mortal Domain’s reputation, but returns later to collect salvage. He also values personal connections, citing Big Fish’s relationship with Gongyang Yiyue as one reason for helping the Gongyang Clan.
• The Hate Heaven Sect Master shifts from defiant confidence to silence and presumed destruction. His friendly reception of Ziwei rests on a misunderstanding of why the Holy Land has arrived.
• Ziwei, the Slaying Immortal Holy Lord, initially appears to be offering support, but his real priority is avoiding war. Once he sees the Mortal Domain’s power, he becomes terrified and orders even more urgent, sincere apologies.
• The First Elder serves as Ziwei’s skeptical foil, questioning his odd behavior and later suggesting they search the ruins; he ultimately recognizes the danger of treating the Mortal Domain’s property as fair game.
• The Gongyang Clan’s head moves from guilt and concern over the cost of the expedition to hope that the clan’s ties with the Mortal Domain may strengthen its future standing. The apparent closeness between Big Fish and Gongyang Yiyue fuels the clan’s hopes for another marriage alliance.

Significant themes

• Power reshapes political order: control of the skies renders the region’s established defenses and military assumptions obsolete.
• Deterrence through spectacle: Chen Fan’s destruction of the city is as much a public warning as a military victory.
• Pragmatism and self-preservation: factions quickly abandon old rivalries once they realize the balance of power has changed.
• Comedic contrasts: Ziwei’s exaggerated apologies and the crowd’s social ambitions sit beside the overwhelming violence of the bombardment.

Chapter Summary — Early July, Year 380

Key plot points and events

• The Slaying Immortal Holy Land accepts reconciliation with the Mortal Domain, and its Holy Lord admits that fear of Chen Fan’s power made peace the sensible choice.
• Back in the Mortal Domain, Chen Fan reviews its resources and sees that the Northbank Defense Line is complete but still lacks the weapons and support buildings needed to defend effectively. With two and a half years until the Undersea Strange Tide Landing, time remains tight.
• Chen Fan uses a Heavenly Dao Stone on the Mortal Domain’s vital Eerie Fire. Of the three blessings offered, he chooses Lord Over All Nations, which lets Eerie Fires within the camp’s territory upgrade without Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures. This could eventually make it possible to cover the New Continent with Eerie Fires and claim the major reward, Heavenly Dominion. The reward also stirs a painful memory of the model car he longed for as an impoverished orphan.
• Chen Fan spends roughly a month and a half laying High-Speed Rail tracks and signal towers across the West Pass Plains. The Mortal Domain’s reputation—and the destruction of the Hate Heaven Sect—keeps local factions from interfering. The new network also disrupts the region’s long-standing factional conflicts and reduces reliance on skeleton horses.
• At Wraith-Suppressing Pass, Chen learns from Shao Qiu that Defense Line Seven in the Guandong Plains nearly fell during the previous rainy season. Its defenders are strained, and some Strange Entities can now move there during daylight. Chen extends the rail and signal network through the Guandong Plains so he can monitor the region and respond to danger.
• Chen sees the devastation firsthand: ruined cities, dead farmland, and Strange Entities moving in daylight. He inspects the immense, Level-6 Defense Line Seven but avoids meeting its leadership, wary that Eternal Night Hall might exploit the Mortal Domain’s help. He takes Shao Qiu and the other Shadow Pavilion members home instead.
• At Defense Line Seven, a disabled middle-aged defender, Uncle Liu, realizes Shao Qiu has left. A young man tries to comfort him and promises to stay and fight. As the next Strange Tide attacks, he reports for duty, embodying the many ordinary people whose collective sacrifice keeps the defense line standing.
• Back at the Mortal Domain, Chen begins equipping the Northbank Defense Line with cannons, Eerie Fires, and other defenses. Exhausted from months of work, he plans to take a day off.
• A new Maid awkwardly tries to sow suspicion about Wang Kui’s influence. Chen recognizes the clumsy attempt, orders an investigation, and learns she is unaffiliated and simply hoped to become his partner. He dismisses the matter and returns to work.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Fan remains ambitious and strategic, but his choices reveal both emotional vulnerability and caution. His childhood longing gives the Heavenly Dominion objective personal meaning, while his refusal to become a resource for Eternal Night Hall shows firm boundaries around his willingness to help.
• Shao Qiu has grown older and more weathered after six months near the dangerous Defense Line Seven. Though he has made friends there, he follows Chen back to the Mortal Domain.
• Uncle Liu feels hurt that Shao Qiu leaves without saying goodbye, despite understanding why people flee. His exchange with the young defender shows his affection and concern for those still risking their lives.
• The young defender is determined to stay because his family and friends died in the Eastern Pass. His loyalty contrasts with the many people fleeing the threatened region.
• The Slaying Immortal Holy Lord moves from hostility to pragmatic respect—and fear—of Chen Fan.
• Chen and the Maid have a brief, comic interaction: he sees through her attempt to influence him, investigates rather than reacting impulsively, and then dismisses her romantic motive.

Significant themes

• Preparation against looming catastrophe: Railways, signal towers, and upgraded defenses are part of Chen’s effort to gain warning and strength before the next major Strange Tide.
• The cost of survival: Defense Line Seven depends not just on towering walls and cannons but on countless ordinary defenders who keep serving despite fear and loss.
• Power tempered by boundaries: Chen is willing to protect his region and support others, but refuses to let larger institutions drain his resources.
• Regret and delayed fulfillment: The Heavenly Dao blessing recalls how receiving something later cannot fully replace having it when it mattered most.
• Progress reshapes society: The rail network expands the Mortal Domain’s influence while weakening old economic and political patterns, including factional warfare.

Plot points and events

• Chen Fan wakes from a nightmare in which a massive Undersea Strange Tide destroys the Northbank Defense Line and Jiangbei. The vision intensifies his resolve to prepare for the approaching Four-Year Pact.
• He resumes fortifying the 170-kilometer Northbank Defense Line, using a Flying Boat to move the wall beneath him while he installs Godslayer Cannons and other defenses at carefully marked intervals.
• Shao Qiu reports what he learned during his half-year at Defense Line Seven: it faces enormous Strange Tides, consumes millions of eerie stones daily, and nearly fell during the last rainy season because supplies were scarce.
• The Eternal Night Hall is a broad alliance defending the continent, but it is compromised by human traitors who aid the Strange Entity Clan. A relief shipment was intercepted, and seven Celestial Masters later died from human-inflicted wounds.
• Learning that Defense Line Seven remains short of supplies, Chen Fan decides to help discreetly. He sends Shao Qiu with 1,000 Soul-Devouring Sculptures, which can reduce nearby cannon towers’ ammunition consumption by 40%.
• Shao Qiu’s train reaches Defense Line Seven. He reunites emotionally with Uncle Liu and presents the aid to Elder Seven, asking that its source remain secret. The defenders are overwhelmed with hope and immediately prepare to install the sculptures before nightfall.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Fan shifts from anxiety about his own defenses to a cautious willingness to help others. He remains wary of exposing the Mortal Domain, but believes supporting Defense Line Seven can save lives and strengthen the wider defense.
• Shao Qiu reveals both his practical knowledge and personal attachment to Defense Line Seven. Though he had left without saying goodbye, he returns willingly as Chen Fan’s trusted envoy.
• Uncle Liu misses Shao Qiu and welcomes his return with affection, relief, and pride.
• Elder Seven receives the aid with gratitude and accepts the request to conceal its source. He emphasizes that simply holding the line is the best repayment.
• Chen Fan recognizes Shao Qiu’s lingering feelings about leaving his friends, explaining that survival and protecting the Mortal Domain must come first.

Significant themes

• Preparation and survival: A strong wall alone is not enough; defenses require sustained resources and careful planning.
• Sacrifice and solidarity: Even a beleaguered faction can help others, and cooperation may keep entire regions alive.
• Trust and betrayal: The Eternal Night Hall’s efforts are undermined by traitors, making secrecy and caution essential.
• Hope under pressure: The train’s arrival and the promised savings give Defense Line Seven renewed hope before another rainy season.
• Duty versus personal attachment: Shao Qiu’s affection for his friends conflicts with his obligation to the Mortal Domain, but he finds a way to serve both.

Key events

• The author reports that Eternal Night has reached 10,000 average subscriptions.
• The book grew from 2,300 subscriptions at its first chapter to 10,000 just 44 days after paid chapters began, making it the author’s fastest-growing book.
• The author reminds readers that the monthly ticket raffle ends at 11:59 p.m. on January 7, and the double-ticket event is also ending.

Character development and interactions

• There are no fictional characters or plot developments. The author thanks readers and encourages them to use any remaining monthly tickets.

Themes

• Rapid success, reader support, and appreciation for the audience.

Chapter Summary

Key plot points and events

• As Eternal Night descends, Defense Line Seven battles a massive Strange Tide. Its newly installed Soul-Devouring Sculptures reduce the Sword Rain Cannon Towers’ Eerie Stone consumption by 40%, greatly easing the defense line’s burden.
• Shao Qiu asks Elder Seven how a Night Watcher could reach nearly Martial Saint strength. Elder Seven explains that Night Watchers are born with bodies capable of sealing enormous energy. Repeated injections of liquefied Eerie Stones increase their power, but cause unbearable suffering; their ultimate activation is a self-sacrificial release capable of devastating a Strange Tide.
• After a night on the wall, Shao Qiu realizes the Shadow Pavilion’s strength lies not in fighting the tide directly, but in uncovering traitors. He leaves Defense Line Seven, while Uncle Liu refuses to go with him, choosing to remain where his family and fellow survivors lived and died.
• Back in the Mortal Domain, Chen Fan completes the 170-kilometer Northbank Defense Line. It costs roughly 800 million Eerie Stones and is equipped with advanced walls, cannons, Soul-Devouring Sculptures, and support infrastructure.
• Months later, Chen Fan learns that covering the New Continent in max-level Eerie Fire would cost 3.39 billion Eerie Stones—far more than the Mortal Domain’s current reserves. A Heaven-Questioning Incense answer warns that the investment is worthwhile only if no major crisis occurs within a year.
• Chen consults his core group. Wang Kui advises conserving resources and developing steadily; Qi Yue argues that the Eternal Night Continent may not have time to wait and needs a miracle. Chen recognizes that he wants to take the risk and chooses to pursue the opportunity.
• As the rainy season approaches, Chen Fan invites everyone to a Hot Pot gathering. He also plans to travel with Crippled Monkey to Defense Line Seven to provide practical support, including copper pipes and altars.

Character developments and interactions

• Shao Qiu finds a clear purpose for himself and the Shadow Pavilion: rooting out traitors rather than trying to affect a battlefield where their direct strength is limited. His farewell to Uncle Liu is affectionate but restrained.
• Elder Seven reveals his guilt over the deaths of seven Builders and his compassion for Night Watchers. He sees Shao Qiu’s aid as proof that goodness still makes the continent worth defending.
• Uncle Liu refuses rescue, feeling bound to Defense Line Seven by family history and the community he calls home. Though he dismisses Shao Qiu casually, he watches him leave with visible sorrow.
• Chen Fan moves from uncertainty over a massive, risky investment to accepting that he wants to raise the Mortal Domain’s future potential. His decision reflects both ambition and a desire to offer hope beyond Jiangbei.
• Wang Kui and Qi Yue present contrasting priorities—caution and resource security versus urgent, high-stakes action. Their discussion helps Chen Fan recognize his own preference.
• Chen Fan and Crippled Monkey share warm banter and renewed companionship. Crippled Monkey is pleased to accompany him, and their trip will extend the Mortal Domain’s aid to Defense Line Seven.
• The Hot Pot reunion rekindles memories of the group’s early struggles. Zhou Mo’s thoughts of Er Gou reveal lingering grief beneath the celebration.

Significant themes

• Sacrifice and purpose: Night Watchers endure horrific suffering and accept death so their sacrifice can protect others.
• Hope amid despair: Elder Seven believes that acts of kindness make the continent worth defending, while Qi Yue calls for a miracle to revive hope.
• Duty and belonging: Uncle Liu’s refusal to leave shows how home can be defined by shared history and community, even in a place with little hope of survival.
• Risk versus security: Chen Fan must choose between strengthening defenses with known benefits and spending nearly everything on an uncertain opportunity that could raise the Mortal Domain’s long-term potential.
• Memory and companionship: The gathering recalls the group’s beginnings, celebrates how far they have come, and acknowledges those they have lost.

Chapter summary

Key plot points and events

• After a night of celebration, Chen Fan travels by High-Speed Rail to Defense Line Seven in the Guandong Plains. He plans to strengthen its defenses, inspect how it handles Strange Entity remains, and establish a trade route. He is also preparing a much larger project: covering the New Continent with Eerie Fire, an undertaking costing 3.39 billion Eerie Stones.
• Chen Fan personally spends three days upgrading Defense Line Seven. He installs altars and copper pipes so the wall can repair itself, connects its Cannon Towers directly to Eerie Fire, and extends the rail network along the 97-kilometer defense line.
• Elder Seven explains that the line discards most Strange Entity corpses because former trading partners have disappeared. Chen Fan arranges regular High-Speed Rail shipments of hides, bones, and corpses to the Mortal Domain. He promises payment, though Elder Seven offers the materials freely as a gesture of gratitude.
• Chen Fan returns to the Mortal Domain just as the rainy season begins. The rain and strange tides intensify, but the 170-kilometer Northbank Defense Line fully protects the region. Northbank City’s residents realize they can endure the season without fearing an attack.
• In the West Pass Plains, the Slaying Immortal Holy Land’s Sacred Lord receives alarming news: Jiangbei’s Sea-Calming Node shattered long ago, and the aura left behind by a mysterious protector is expected to fade in about two years. When it does, the Northbank Undersea Strange Tide will reach land.
• The Sacred Lord realizes the Mortal Domain likely knew of the danger and built its massive defense line in response. He is stunned that Chen Fan chose to prepare rather than flee, and wonders why he accepted such a burden.

Character developments

• Chen Fan is shown as practical, tireless, and forward-looking. He prioritizes both immediate protection for Defense Line Seven and long-term plans for the Mortal Domain. Though others see him as an important leader, he rejects the idea that he is truly powerful until he can control his own fate and defeat the Strange Entities.
• Elder Seven shifts from anxious gratitude to renewed confidence. Chen Fan’s help gives Defense Line Seven security, a trade connection, and a meaningful way to contribute to the Mortal Domain.
• Family Head Li moves from dread during the first night of the rainy season to relief and joy once he sees that the Northbank Defense Line has kept the Strange Entities away.
• The Slaying Immortal Holy Land Sacred Lord is humbled by the scale of Chen Fan’s commitment. He recognizes the gap between his own cautious survival concerns and the Mortal Domain’s willingness to take responsibility for an entire region.
• The First Elder helps the Sacred Lord reframe that responsibility: by defending Jiangbei, the Mortal Domain may gain support and resources from others. He nevertheless concludes that the same undertaking would likely be fatal for their own faction.

Character interactions

• Chen Fan brushes aside Elder Seven’s formalities and works directly on the wall, earning the gratitude of the defense line’s people.
• Elder Seven offers the Strange Entity remains without charge, but Chen Fan insists that the Mortal Domain will pay something and treats the trade as a practical arrangement rather than a favor.
• Shao Qiu asks how Chen Fan survived the rainy season two years earlier. Chen Fan answers only that they were lucky.
• Family Head Li calls out his thanks toward the Mortal Domain after realizing its wall has protected Northbank City.
• The Sacred Lord and First Elder discuss Chen Fan’s decision, the Mortal Domain’s resources, and whether other factions will support it when Jiangbei faces the undersea tide.

Significant themes

• Responsibility and leadership: Chen Fan takes on the defense of places beyond the Mortal Domain, even when the danger may not immediately threaten his faction.
• Preparation and cooperation: Infrastructure, transport, trade, and shared resources make survival possible; the High-Speed Rail turns discarded corpses into useful materials and connects distant communities.
• Hope after despair: Defense Line Seven’s people, once resigned to death, regain confidence through protection and renewed economic ties.
• The cost of courage: The Sacred Lord admires Chen Fan’s resolve but recognizes that defending Jiangbei is an enormous burden no single faction should have to bear.
• Uncertainty and looming danger: The rainy season is survivable for now, but the revelation about the shattered node establishes a much greater threat arriving in roughly two years.

Chapter Summary

Plot and events

• The Slaying Immortal Holy Land’s Holy Lord admits that he knows little about the mysterious figure whose lingering aura has suppressed the Northbank Undersea Strange Tide for nearly two centuries. He accepts the risk of taking the figure’s abandoned Snow Lotus Flowers, arguing that no life offers absolute safety.
• During the Rainy Season, Chen Fan oversees the Mortal Domain’s vast Blazing Prairie Project on the New Continent. Members survey and mark locations, install level-ten Eerie Fires, and coordinate their work through signal towers, message talismans, and a shared sand table. The operation doubles as training for the Mortal Domain’s Logistics and Commerce Pavilions.
• The Rainy Season ends with Defense Line Seven intact and casualties unusually low, thanks in part to Chen Fan’s support, including Soul-Devouring Sculptures and improved defenses. Its commander, Elder Seven, prepares to thank Chen Fan and offer him stored Strange Entity corpses and two unopened Exotic Treasures.
• Before the season ends, however, the Eternal Night Hall informs Elder Seven that it cannot afford to defend Jiangbei. After losing two other defense lines, it plans to abandon the regions west of Yellow Springs Pass Canyon and orders Defense Line Seven’s core members to withdraw. Elder Seven refuses, choosing to remain with the people he protects.
• Chen Fan travels to collect Defense Line Seven’s accumulated corpses. Elder Seven warns him that Jiangbei will be abandoned and urges him to leave. Chen Fan assures him that a 170-kilometer Northbank Defense Line already exists in Jiangbei. Elder Seven begins to suspect that Chen Fan himself is the mysterious benefactor behind it.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Fan remains calm and practical, balancing large-scale projects with everyday concerns such as dumplings and repairing damaged railway pipes. He is pleased by the Mortal Domain’s growing competence and arrives at Defense Line Seven optimistic—unaware of its impending abandonment.
• Elder Seven moves from relief and gratitude after surviving the Rainy Season to despair when ordered to abandon his territory. Though he understands the Eternal Night Hall’s resource crisis, he refuses to desert his people. Chen Fan’s reassurance offers him a sudden possibility of hope.
• Little Qiu and Qi Chong show how responsibility has changed them: the exhausted Little Qiu has become a seasoned manager, while Qi Chong adopts a more confident, official manner. Their joking exchange over meals reveals their enduring friendship.
• The Eternal Night Hall’s representative delivers grim orders with clinical detachment, while Elder Seven responds with anger, grief, and ultimately defiance.
• The passage also contrasts the vast organization behind Chen Fan’s project with the human cost of the coming crisis: the New Continent campaign is safe and orderly, while Jiangbei faces abandonment and mass death.

Significant themes

• Collective effort and logistics: The Mortal Domain’s progress depends on coordination, infrastructure, and trained people—not Chen Fan alone.
• Hope versus abandonment: Defense Line Seven’s survival initially seems like a triumph, but the wider strategic retreat threatens to render that success temporary.
• Duty and sacrifice: Elder Seven chooses solidarity with his people over personal survival.
• Unequal burdens of survival: The Eternal Night Hall’s retreat is presented as a desperate resource decision, yet its consequences fall on those left behind.
• Foreshadowing: The looming Undersea Strange Tide is only two years away, and Elder Seven’s realization hints that Chen Fan may have the means—and perhaps the identity—to change Jiangbei’s fate.

Key plot points and events

• Elder Seven learns that Chen Fan leads the Jiangbei Mortal Domain, the hidden force supplying Defense Line Seven with vast amounts of Eerie Stone. Chen Fan explains that, in two years, the Northbank Undersea Strange Tide will strike: Defense Line Seven will protect the east, while the Mortal Domain guards Jiangbei.
• Elder Seven offers Chen Fan two Exotic Treasures in gratitude. Chen Fan accepts them after discovering that one is a Heavenly Dao Stone, then returns to Mortal City. The other proves to be a Heaven-Commanding Banner that can generate rain and thunderstorms, though it must be operated manually.
• Shao Qiu tells Elder Seven how the Mortal Domain grew from Chen Fan’s small camp during the rainy season three years earlier. Hearing its history helps Elder Seven understand why the Domain conceals itself and avoids the potentially compromised Eternal Night Hall. He recognizes that being told the story is a sign of trust.
• Chen uses the Heavenly Dao Stone on the Copper Pipe and chooses Absolute Illusion, making installed pipes intangible and immune to attacks while allowing Eerie Fire and energy to pass through them. Experiments reveal that a pipe made solid, supported, and then turned illusory can remain suspended in midair. Chen builds a short aerial rail as a possible future innovation.
• Chen appraises the Heaven-Commanding Banner, then uses it to create a storm over a new cluster of Sky-Piercing Pillars. He hopes to charge the pillars faster someday by transporting them to the Thunderstorm Sea, though the logistics and risks remain unresolved.
• Elder Seven visits the Northbank Defense Line. Though initially concerned about its layout, he finds it extraordinarily well equipped: its walls are covered in Wraith Blood Patterns, and its Godslayer Cannons can handle both large groups and powerful individual enemies. He concludes that the defense line is far stronger than necessary for its expected threat.

Character developments

• Chen Fan shows both strategic ambition and caution. He accepts useful gifts, develops a powerful new use for the Copper Pipe, and continues preparing for threats beyond the coming tide. Despite Elder Seven’s reassurance, he remains convinced that the Mortal Domain must grow stronger.
• Elder Seven shifts from shock and uncertainty to admiration and trust. He recognizes the Mortal Domain’s rapid rise, understands why it must remain hidden, and becomes confident that Chen’s defenses can withstand the coming attack.
• Shao Qiu acts as a bridge between the two leaders, explaining the Mortal Domain’s origins and helping establish mutual understanding.

Significant themes

• Preparation against uncertainty: Chen builds for worst-case scenarios, even when experienced defenders consider his precautions excessive.
• Trust and secrecy: The Mortal Domain’s hidden identity protects it from betrayal, while sharing its history with Elder Seven signals growing confidence in him.
• Ingenuity and adaptation: Chen turns the Heavenly Dao Stone into a defensive advantage and sees potential uses in discoveries whose value is not yet clear.
• Collective survival: The defense lines, infrastructure, and shared expertise are presented as efforts to protect communities, not merely expand power.
• Hope and destiny: Chen views the Mortal Domain’s unlikely success as more than luck, calling it “destiny.”

Character interactions

• Chen and Elder Seven exchange respect: Chen welcomes his practical expertise, while Elder Seven offers an honest assessment and ultimately praises Chen for choosing to protect others rather than flee.
• Chen accepts Elder Seven’s invitation to dinner after initially declining, sharing a warm, ordinary moment amid preparations for war.
• Shao Qiu’s account of the Mortal Domain’s past helps Elder Seven understand the group’s choices and deepens his sense of responsibility to keep their confidence.
• During the defense-line inspection, Elder Seven advises Chen on conventional defenses; Chen’s explanation of the Godslayer Cannons reveals that the Mortal Domain’s unconventional design already exceeds those recommendations.

Plot points and events

• Chen Fan realizes the phantom copper pipes cannot carry heavy loads, so his plan to transport a Sky-Piercing Pillar by air fails. He instead investigates the Thunderstorm Sea, hoping to harness its lightning.
• Tests show that most materials are shattered by the sea’s lightning, but earth gold survives. Chen Fan has a seven-kilometer earth-gold cable made and confirms that it can conduct the lightning into a Sky-Piercing Pillar.
• He orders large-scale earth-gold mining and cable production while building a phantom-copper-pipe route through the air. After two months, the completed lifeline connects the Thunderstorm Sea to the Mortal Domain’s Sky-Piercing Pillars.
• Connecting the system charges hundreds of pillars much faster than ordinary lightning: a max-level pillar’s charging time drops from three years to one, while a Level-6 pillar’s drops from ninety days to thirty.
• Chen Fan takes the Mortal Domain’s core personnel to Defense Line Seven to test a fully charged Level-6 pillar. He remotely launches it at the strange tide, where it detonates with immense force, clearing a huge area. He names the weapon “Heavenly Punishment” and offers Defense Line Seven three free strikes before charging for further support.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Fan’s ingenuity and ambition are central: when the first transport plan fails, he quickly finds another way to turn the Thunderstorm Sea into a strategic power source. He is tireless, proud of the completed lifeline, and eager to see what his weapons can do.
• Wang Mazi warns Chen Fan about the Thunderstorm Sea’s danger and explains previous attempts to cross it, but accompanies him on the expedition.
• Zhou Mo and the War Pavilion members assist with the experiments and construction. Their attempt to move the Sky-Piercing Pillar by strength fails, but their later work helps establish the cable system.
• Zhao Shengping, Crippled Monkey, Wang Kui, and other Mortal Domain leaders carry out Chen Fan’s orders, showing the faction’s efficient, centralized cooperation.
• Elder Seven is initially confused by the visit to Defense Line Seven, then stunned by the weapon’s destructive power. Chen Fan offers him practical support while framing the first strikes as free.

Significant themes

• Ingenuity through experimentation: Chen Fan adapts when his initial plan fails, testing materials and refining the design until it works.
• Collective effort and organization: The lifeline depends on coordinated labor across the Mortal Domain, while Chen Fan’s direct command structure enables rapid execution.
• Turning danger into advantage: The Thunderstorm Sea, previously an impassable hazard, becomes a power source.
• Strategic defense and escalation: Faster-charging Sky-Piercing Pillars transform a rare weapon into a more available form of long-range support, strengthening the Mortal Domain and its allies.

• The announcement lists 50 winning ticket numbers for the January 1–7 monthly ticket raffle. Each winner receives 24 cans of 330 ml Coca-Cola, valued at 49.50 yuan.
• Winners can find their ticket numbers in the “Monthly Ticket Album,” accessible from the monthly-ticket voting screen or through Me → Monthly Tickets.
• To claim a prize, winners must add the organizer’s wife on QQ (1131418797) and send a screenshot of their ticket album. Prizes must be claimed within seven days or they are forfeited; winners are asked to wait if their friend request has not yet been accepted.
• The announcement thanks participants for their support.