Chapter Summaries

Xianyu rejected Fuli’s demand to leave Lan’s fate unchanged and wagered with the Aeon, but Fuli’s deal coincided with Xianyu conquering the Xianzhou Alliance and becoming its Marshal. As his subordinates celebrated, the system gave Xianyu the mara-struck debuff, and he realized he now had to manage seven dissatisfied Xianzhou.

• Xianyu refused Fuli’s request not to change Lan’s fate and agreed to wager over whether he would become Marshal of the Xianzhou.
• Fuli promised an Emanator would fulfill their agreement and offered Xianyu one reasonable request, which Xianyu accepted.
• The system announced that Xianyu had obtained the Xianzhou Luofu and Zhuming, then made him Marshal of the Xianzhou Alliance.
• Fuli left an Ice Lotus and a wish-granting token before vanishing with the traitor who had concealed the Luofu’s news.
• Aha and Xianyu’s subordinates celebrated their conquest and urged him to save the Crown Prince, while the system replaced Xianyu’s mental illness buff with the mara-struck debuff.
• Xianyu hid the blood and Ginkgo Leaf from his tongue, congratulated his subordinates, and saw that resident satisfaction was low across the Xianzhou he now had to manage.

After being promoted to Marshal, Xianyu worked with his subordinates to overhaul the Xianzhou ships and improve residents’ lives, earning enormous prestige. During an online meeting, he learned his subordinates had executed nobles’ families to nine degrees of kinship and only objected because they had killed potential workers.

• Xianyu sent his subordinates to govern the conquered Xianzhou ships, promised to back them, and returned to face mountains of paperwork with the exhausted Chief Strategist.
• Xianyu planned reforms across the ships, including better access to necessities, education, jobs, and resources, while directing his subordinates to deal with corrupt nobles and officials.
• After three months of overtime, Xianyu and his subordinates raised satisfaction on every Xianzhou ship to 50%, and residents saw improved living conditions and expanded employment.
• Xianyu noticed huge, recurring prestige gains during an online meeting and asked his subordinates whether they had been stirring up trouble.
• Xianyu’s subordinates admitted they had executed nobles’ extended families to nine degrees of kinship, and Xianyu told them to kill only three degrees next time so more people would remain available for work.

Xianyu paused a meeting so his exhausted subordinates could eat and rest, then discussed Lan’s situation and assigned priorities across the Xianzhou Alliance. He ordered the generals to prepare the Colossus and strike first against the Swarm Disaster and the Golems.

• Xianyu checked his subordinates’ conditions, postponed the meeting, and let them eat and rest before continuing over a meal.
• The Chief Strategist warned Xianyu against spoiling his subordinates and asked what he planned to do about Lan.
• Xianyu found agents of Erudition and Remembrance on the Luofu and Zhuming, and decided to wait until his star-system-destroying weapon was complete before confronting them.
• Xianyu proposed taking responsibility for Lan’s mother, and the Chief Strategist offered to imitate Lan’s handwriting and write to her instead.
• Xianyu told the generals to prioritize building the Colossus, except on the Luofu and Zhuming, and promised the two generals they could visit the Yaoqing.
• Xianyu identified the Swarm Disaster and the Golems as threats and urged his subordinates to strike first.

Xianyu’s subordinates used the Colossi to conquer planets and eliminate the Swarm and rogue Intellitrons, overwhelming him with new territory and resources to manage. After one subordinate was captured, Xianyu arranged negotiations through the Interastral Peace Corporation and prepared to meet the other side in IPC territory.

• The Xianzhou ships sent their Colossi to hunt the Swarm and rogue Intellitrons, competing over planets until Xianyu intervened to prevent them from fighting one another.
• Xianyu found himself responsible for more than a hundred conquered planets, and his subordinates ignored his order to stop by using the Earth-Blasting Star to turn planets into ore.
• A subordinate was captured, so Xianyu asked the Chief Strategist to use the Interastral Peace Corporation to arrange contact and secure the subordinate’s return.
• The two sides negotiated through the Interastral Peace Corporation and agreed to meet in its territory.
• Xianyu decided to accompany the Sky-Faring Commission negotiators, and his subordinates sent him dragon-themed clothes and accessories to wear.

Xianyu used a peace meeting with the Swarm and the Corporation to unveil the Colossus as a supposed protective technology, then challenged an NPC who condemned the Xianzhou Alliance. The chapter ended with Xianyu asking the NPC why he would not kill himself to atone for humanity’s original sin.

• Xianyu dressed in the Round-Collar Robe, struggled to style his hair, and finally left the starter village with the Chief Strategist.
• Xianyu met the Swarm and the Corporation, and the peace talks went smoothly as the Swarm released the detained subordinate.
• Xianyu revealed the Colossus poised above a neighboring planet and called it the Angel of Mercy, claiming it could form an impenetrable planetary barrier in service of Preservation.
• Xianyu unnerved the Corporation representative and the Swarm by inviting them to admire the weapon, then asked the Chief Strategist whether that was enough Preservation.
• An NPC condemned the Xianzhou Alliance, and Xianyu argued that humanity shared original sin before challenging the NPC to kill himself to atone.

Xianyu clashed with an influential NPC, then hinted that he would manipulate the man’s family and future in revenge. Back on the Yaoqing, he and the Chief Strategist visited Lan’s mother, delivered a forged letter, and took the food and supplies she had prepared for her son; Xianyu ended by planning to reunite them and considering the grinding needed to unlock a powerful weapon.

• Xianyu and the NPC exchanged angry words before the Chief Strategist and Sky-Faring Commission staff smoothed things over, and Xianyu dismissed his subordinate for seven days.
• The Chief Strategist scolded Xianyu for provoking a man whose parents were major Interastral Peace Corporation shareholders, but Xianyu hinted he could make the man an heir and then let his fortunes rise or fall.
• The Chief Strategist brought Xianyu to Lan’s mother and gave her a forged letter claiming Lan had been transferred to another Xianzhou ship.
• Lan’s mother asked Xianyu to take food and other supplies to Lan, and Xianyu and the Chief Strategist carried eight bags back to the General’s Residence.
• Xianyu told the Chief Strategist that Lan and his mother would be reunited, then checked the Heaven-Burning Divine Weapon and realized he needed to grind his Deterrence stat.

Xianyu used the Xianzhou Alliance’s Colossi and military power to intimidate the Swarm and other factions while prioritizing his forces’ safety and raising deterrence. After his subordinates received the Aeon of Abundance’s blessings, they invited him to a gathering, and he gave the Chief Strategist pieces of the Fruit of Abundance for Lan’s mother.

• Xianyu learned the Swarm had staged a ruse near the Yaoqing and ordered nearby planets destroyed before declaring war and placing them under Xianzhou protection.
• At a meeting with his subordinates, Xianyu heard that they had found traces of the Aeon of Abundance and chose to keep prioritizing the Swarm Disasters and Emperor Rupert while handling the Aeon along the way.
• Xianyu urged his generals to proceed slowly and protect their forces, as the Xianzhou Alliance’s Colossi and growing deterrence brought more planets under its influence.
• Xianyu accepted his subordinates’ invitation to a gathering after they staged an emotional appeal, while the Chief Strategist declined to attend because he was visiting Lan’s mother.
• Xianyu gave the Chief Strategist pieces of the Fruit of Abundance to pass on to Lan’s mother, then sent him on his way after failing to find another suitable gift.

Xianyu attended a gathering with his subordinates on Yaoqing, where their disastrous cooking and drunken gossip gave way to repeated social gatherings. The chapter ended with his subordinates urging him to find a mistress for his harem.

• The Yaoqing General and the other subordinates cooked for Xianyu, who sampled their dishes and suffered a poison debuff before steering them toward the chef’s food.
• After drinking, Xianyu’s subordinates exposed one another’s embarrassing habits and secrets, including the burly subordinate’s nervous rehearsals and pre-battle tears.
• Xianyu shared a story about the Chief Strategist, and his subordinates laughed at their Marshal’s rare jokes and easygoing manner.
• The woman who had flirted with Xianyu arranged another gathering, and the subordinates continued meeting with him and bringing novel gifts and activities.
• Xianyu’s subordinates gave him advice on dating, and the burly subordinate declared that the harem could not go a day without its mistress.

Xianyu rebuked his unruly subordinates, reassured them that he would never abandon the Xianzhou, and watched them intensify their campaign against enemies. His progress toward reuniting his UR stalled when he discovered that the Chief Strategist had brought Lan’s elderly mother to the Alchemy Commission.

• Xianyu found that his subordinates had spent resources selecting a thousand potential romantic partners for him and angrily demanded to know what they were doing.
• Xianyu took the Burly Subordinate’s sheathed sword and smacked him, but his subordinates only became more excited and chased Xianyu around.
• The Sea Queen Subordinate asked whether Xianyu would grow tired of knowing the story ahead of time, and Xianyu promised to stay with the Xianzhou until the universe was destroyed.
• Xianyu rejoiced as the Xianzhou Alliance expanded its deterrence and moved closer to clearing the game and reuniting his UR with his family.
• Xianyu encountered the Chief Strategist with Lan’s elderly mother at the Alchemy Commission and realized the Chief Strategist was hindering his efforts to get Lan out sooner.

Xianyu tried to arrange longevity and other care for Lan’s frail mother despite her refusal, while the Chief Strategist urged him to respect her choices. After Xianyu’s arm sprouted leaves and he recognized the danger of his mara-struck emotions, he agreed to wait, and later found Lan’s mother at death’s door.

• Xianyu summoned physicians to examine Lan’s mother and offered her remarriage, travel, and the blessing of Abundance, but she refused longevity.
• Lan’s mother told Xianyu that she had asked the Chief Strategist to help her and that he could not refuse her.
• The Chief Strategist confronted Xianyu for forcing his wishes on others, and Xianyu’s arm sprouted Ginkgo Leaves that he tore out along with flesh.
• Xianyu realized mara-struck emotions could distort his judgment and decided to have the Research Department investigate while postponing any decision about Lan’s mother.
• The Cauldron Master examined Xianyu, and the Chief Strategist agreed to explain the situation to Lan when he returned.
• Xianyu saved his remaining immortality item for Lan and later found Lan’s mother at death’s door.

Xianyu honored Lan’s dying mother’s wishes and assured her that Lan’s work mattered, then spent centuries losing comrades to the Xianzhou’s crises and the curse of immortality. When one subordinate became mara-struck and impaled himself on a sword Xianyu held, the others mistook the death for proof that the Marshal could end immortality, while Xianyu was left staring at his bloodied hand and remembering the old woman’s question.

• Lan’s mother told Xianyu she wanted to choose her own fate, asked whether Lan had made him proud, and wondered if Lan’s actions mattered; Xianyu said Lan was his finest subordinate and had saved countless Xianzhou natives.
• Lan’s mother died peacefully, and Xianyu arranged for her burial on the Yaoqing beside her husband and son.
• Over the following centuries, Xianyu endured assassinations, unrest, and the deaths of longtime subordinates, while discovering that Tenseiga could not revive them and that mara-struck immortality had become an affliction they no longer wished to cure.
• A burly subordinate presented Xianyu with a sword, then suddenly grew ginkgo leaves as the mara-struck condition overtook him and threw himself onto the blade, fatally impaling his chest.
• Xianyu’s subordinates interpreted the death as proof that the Marshal could end immortality, while Xianyu froze in shock and recalled his answer to Lan’s mother: Lan’s actions had mattered.

Xianyu discovered the Luofu was under attack and rushed there, where he found Lan dying and watched him ascend as the Aeon of the Hunt. After receiving an arrow from Lan, Xianyu used it and later woke up feverish with Jingliu beside him.

• Xianyu removed the mara-struck debuff, recalled meeting Erudition, and asked Fuli for help with his subordinates’ troubles.
• Xianyu learned that the Propagators were attacking the Luofu, gathered troops, and set out ahead of them.
• Xianyu found Lan gravely wounded, burned the last Abundance Fruit, and explained that Lan’s mother had died peacefully on Yaoqing.
• Lan’s life countdown reached zero, and he ascended as the Aeon of the Hunt, leaving Xianyu an arrow and choosing him as his first Emanator.
• Xianyu used Lan’s arrow, then woke to find Jingliu cooling his flushed face while he lay beneath three blankets.

Xianyu woke at the Alchemy Commission after being poisoned, and Dan Feng explained that tampered Thousand-Year Ginseng had sickened five people. Teng Xiao learned who the victims were and offered Ten-Lords Commission personnel to help investigate and punish those responsible.

• Jingliu stopped Xianyu from getting out of bed, and Dan Feng examined him and confirmed the remaining poison had cleared.
• Dan Feng recognized a resemblance between Xianyu and a man from the High Elders’ memories, but noted their eyes and personalities were very different.
• Xianyu asked what had poisoned him, and Dan Feng explained that someone had spliced poisonous pokeweed rootlets into Thousand-Year Ginseng stored in the Private Treasury.
• Dan Feng said he had treated all five poisoned people, then ordered an investigation and reported the incident to Teng Xiao.
• Teng Xiao first thought Dan Feng was overreacting, but changed his mind after hearing who had been poisoned and offered personnel from the Ten-Lords Commission.

Teng Xiao misread Jingliu’s concern for Xianyu as evidence that she was being bullied, while Xianyu learned the truth about the poisoned ginseng and remained unconcerned. Jingliu insisted on taking Xianyu home, and he found a cryptic message from Hua waiting on his Jade Abacus.

• Teng Xiao visited Xianyu in the Alchemy Commission ward, added a blanket, and later suspected Jingliu and Xianyu were romantically involved after seeing her pay his medical bill.
• Dan Feng told Xianyu that someone had tampered with the ginseng and promised the culprit would be punished, then left him alone with Jingliu.
• Xianyu explained that he did not care who had harmed him and preferred to focus on what came next.
• Jingliu wondered what Xianyu had endured to become so calm, then insisted on taking him home.
• Xianyu checked his Jade Abacus and found Hua’s message reminding him that the Xianzhou Alliance had a comprehensive legal system.

After Xianyu recovered from being poisoned, Jingliu walked him home and urged him to take his medicine and eat with her at the Cloud Knights’ mess hall. Xianyu wondered whether Jingliu liked him and resolved to avoid giving her misleading signals, while Jingliu tried to find a way to help him without making him accept charity.

• Xianyu muted his Jade Abacus and tried to persuade Jingliu not to walk him home, but she insisted and gave him the medicine Dan Feng had prescribed.
• Jingliu grew upset when Xianyu dismissed the poisoning as nothing serious, then changed the subject and reminded him to take three days’ worth of medicine.
• As they walked, Xianyu wondered whether Jingliu’s gifts, invitations, and attention meant she had feelings for him or was simply looking after him as a junior.
• Xianyu questioned whether he liked Jingliu and decided to be careful not to mislead her because of their age gap.
• At Xianyu’s home, Jingliu apologized for the damaged lock, said Dan Feng’s clansmen had replaced it and paid for his medicine, and invited him to lunch at the Cloud Knights’ mess hall starting Monday.

After piecing together his past and his failed attempt to escape the world, Xianyu accepted that he was stuck on the Luofu and wondered why the Aeons had ignored him. He began work at the Library, where he was assigned files about his former life and then sent to serve Teng Xiao tea.

• Xianyu concluded that Fuli had lied about fate, that his reincarnation had not let him escape, and that he would remain on the Luofu.
• Xianyu searched for information about Lan and wondered why none of the Aeons had acknowledged him in his previous life.
• Hua told Xianyu that his pension would arrive as a lump sum, that his belongings would be shipped to the Luofu, and that Hua would grant him one personal request within certain limits.
• Xianyu went to the Library on Monday expecting to read, but a coworker assigned him several boxes of files about the Former Marshal.
• Xiao Lin asked Xianyu to pour Teng Xiao a cup of tea, and Teng Xiao nervously watched him go.

Teng Xiao struggled to conceal his fear while Xianyu worked at the Divination Commission’s Library, hoping to protect the former marshal from unwanted attention. When Xianyu was assigned to catalog a box of books, he found a hastily produced volume celebrating his own legendary past.

• Teng Xiao panicked upon finding Xianyu at the Library and tried to treat him like an ordinary Diviner.
• Teng Xiao recalled rumors about the Former Marshal and nervously accepted tea from Xianyu.
• Teng Xiao hoped Xianyu would rest before seeing the book he and Xiao Lin had secretly prepared about him.
• Xiao Lin asked Xianyu to enter the information for a box of books, forcing him back to work.
• Xianyu opened the box and read the title, "The Xianzhou Alliance's 5,000 Years Alongside the Uncrowned Emperor," and its extravagant promotional claims.

Xianyu tried to ask Teng Xiao about Hua, but Teng Xiao repeatedly misread his words as orders about the poisoned Vidyadhara incident and the Xianzhou Alliance’s leadership. After learning Hua was a woman, Xianyu discovered Teng Xiao was also concerned about Jingliu and wondered why everyone was watching him.

• Xianyu entered book information while Teng Xiao anxiously watched his expression and worried about the book’s title and promotional band.
• Xianyu followed Teng Xiao out of the Library and said he had something to ask, but Teng Xiao assumed he meant the poisoned Vidyadhara incident.
• Xianyu told Teng Xiao to handle the incident as it should be handled, and Teng Xiao interpreted this as a potentially extreme order and promised to comply.
• Xianyu asked whether Hua was a man or a woman, and Teng Xiao answered that she was a woman.
• Teng Xiao asked Xianyu about Jingliu, leaving Xianyu to wonder why people were monitoring him despite his lack of interest in returning to work.

Xianyu read through a book about his past actions and wondered how Lan’s ruthlessness compared with his own. After clocking out early, he went to the Cloud Knights’ camp, where he found Jing Yuan and Dan Feng waiting at the entrance.

• Xianyu read about the Emperor’s War, the Swarm Disaster, Tenseiga, and the Colossus, concluding that his past decisions had been shaped by deterrence and the need to limit his subordinates’ access to the weapon.
• Hua told Xianyu to stop teasing Teng Xiao, and Xianyu guessed that Teng Xiao feared him because he was his subordinate.
• Xianyu complained to Hua that Lan was more ruthless than he had been, and Hua suggested that Xianyu might be becoming Mara-Struck.
• Xianyu clocked out early, bought drinks for Jingliu and Jing Yuan, and headed to the Cloud Knights’ camp.
• Xianyu met Jing Yuan and Dan Feng at the camp entrance, where Dan Feng said he had come to enjoy the show after dealing with the Dragon Preceptors and their followers.

After Dan Feng discovered that pokeweed had poisoned the group, Jing Yuan and the others learned Xianyu was safe and later joined Dan Feng in watching Jingliu demonstrate her swordsmanship. Jingliu’s performance seemed aimed at impressing Xianyu, leaving Jing Yuan uneasy and Dan Feng privately accusing her of hypocrisy.

• Dan Feng found pokeweed among the ginseng root fibers and promised to make those responsible pay.
• Jing Yuan, Baiheng, and Yingxing learned that Xianyu was safe in the Alchemy Commission and left Jingliu alone with him.
• Jing Yuan accompanied Xianyu and Dan Feng toward Jingliu’s training ground, where Cloud Knights had gathered to watch her new move.
• Jingliu spotted Xianyu in the crowd and twirled the Shattered Blade while demonstrating her swordsmanship.
• Jing Yuan worried that Jingliu was trying to impress Xianyu, while Dan Feng privately criticized her flashy display and double standards.