Recaps

Kairils ordered his force to march toward Fog Town after Viel assured him that he had compensated the church and followed his rules. At the Black Forest Branch, reports of repeated squad wipeouts led the priests to suspect Winterhold and consider sealing the headquarters.

• Viel told Kairils that he had visited the church before dawn and compensated the priest with refined ore.
• Kairils reminded the knights to uphold their principles and ordered them to reach Fog Town before nightfall.
• At the Black Forest Branch's morning meeting, squad leaders reported that patrol teams had been wiped out and stripped of their belongings.
• The short priest blamed the casualties on a covert Winterhold operation and warned against attacking Fog Town without knowing the enemy's strength.
• The short priest recommended recalling patrols, sealing the headquarters, and keeping all branch members inside.

[Give Me Your Phone] saw the Cultists accept a plan to hide underground for six months or a year, which threatened his chance to lead them into a fight with Winterhold. He publicly denounced the strategy, and the short priest turned on him in fury.

• The short priest proposed that the Cultists hide underground, build their strength, and wait for Winterhold's forces to leave the Black Forest.
• The Cultist leaders approved the retreat, while [Give Me Your Phone] and [You've Cried Already] grew alarmed that the plan would ruin their mission.
• [Give Me Your Phone] decided to provoke the Cultists into fighting and slammed the table, shouting that the proposal was utterly absurd.
• The short priest erupted with a second-tier aura and berated [Give Me Your Phone] for speaking out of turn.

Lin Shen confronted the Black Forest Branch’s leaders for planning to hide from Winterhold’s Knights, using his own victory over a Knight to shame them into reconsidering. Several Squad Leaders pushed back, accusing him of arrogance and asking who he was to tell them what to do.

• The tall Priest stopped the Second Tier Priest from silencing Lin Shen and let him speak while the High Priest watched.
• Lin Shen declared his loyalty to the Holy Church and condemned the Branch for planning to seal itself underground out of fear.
• Lin Shen reminded the Squad Leaders that his squad had killed a Winterhold Knight, shaming them for wanting to hide.
• A scarred Squad Leader accused Lin Shen of getting lucky, and other Squad Leaders joined in to defend the leaders’ caution and challenge his authority.

Lin Shen answered the squad leaders’ accusations by exposing their failures and challenging their cowardice. He then asked the High Priest for a squad, pledging to return with Winterhold knights’ corpses within one day or pay with his life.

• The squad leaders condemned Lin Shen, while the short priest blamed the tall priest for encouraging him and the High Priest silently watched.
• Lin Shen accused the squad leaders of failing to bring back a lone enemy and reminded them that their squads had been wiped out while he had brought back a Winterhold knight’s corpse.
• Lin Shen challenged the squad leaders’ claims that they were hiding for the Holy Church’s safety, calling them cowards who had shamed the Abyss.
• Lin Shen knelt before the High Priest and volunteered to lead a sortie, asking for a squad and pledging to return with Winterhold knights’ corpses within one day or answer with his head.
• The squad leaders were stunned by Lin Shen’s pledge, and the short priest was left speechless.

At a Black Forest Branch meeting, Lin Shen pledged to risk his life to fight Winterhold, impressing the High Priest. Ovid then seized the chance to attach himself to Lin Shen’s mission and position himself to claim the credit.

• Lin Shen knelt and declared that he would bring back his own head if he failed to defeat Winterhold’s knights.
• Ovid, fearing Lin Shen would win the High Priest’s favor and become Divine Child, loudly praised his vow and helped him up.
• Ovid praised Lin Shen’s loyalty but argued that the newly baptized squad leader lacked combat experience.
• Ovid volunteered to lead Lin Shen into battle, and the short priest endorsed the plan.
• The tall priest recognized that Ovid was maneuvering to take command and claim most of the mission’s credit.

Enkai and the short priest competed to join the expedition, but the High Priest stopped their quarrel and appointed Ovid to lead a force into the Black Forest. Lin Shen and Lin Qian were named deputy squad leaders with authority over tracking, while Enkai was ordered to provide support against any Second-Tier Knight from Winterhold.

• Enkai offered to accompany Ovid's vanguard, and the short priest immediately volunteered to join him.
• The High Priest silenced Enkai and the short priest, rebuked their infighting, and warned that their failures had cost the Church at Fog Town.
• The High Priest appointed Ovid captain and ordered him to select thirty members of his squad for the operation.
• The High Priest named Lin Shen and Lin Qian deputy squad leaders, giving them authority over decisions while tracking the enemy.
• The High Priest ordered Enkai to support the team and kill any Second-Tier Knight from Winterhold, but cautioned him not to act rashly.

Lin Shen secured the Black Forest High Priest’s support for an expedition against Winterhold, while Lin En watched the players’ scheme unfold and prepared a class change for God Never Laughs. The players gathered outside the Ash Church for battle, but an eerie chill interrupted their preparations.

• The High Priest assigned Ovid, Enkai, and Lin Shen to work together, then promised Lin Shen a place before the Holy Lord if he returned with Winterhold knights’ heads.
• Lin En realized that [Give Me Your Phone] had persuaded Enkai to join the expedition and recognized that the players’ plan was going well.
• [God Never Laughs] brought Lin En a miniature Golem, and Lin En began the ritual to change his class.
• [Ji Luo] briefed more than two hundred players on their battle plan, while [God Never Cries] revealed that he had reached the second tier.
• Lu Ziye waited impatiently for [God Never Laughs] to emerge so they could become the twin terrors of Blood-Weeping Ridge, but an unnatural chill spread through the air.

God Never Laughs emerged from the Ash Church with an ominous presence and announced that the group was ready to depart. As Kairils led the convoy through the Wilderness, the riders encountered a pack of Mutant Blood Wolves blocking their path.

• A chilling force swept through the players at the Ash Church, and God Never Laughs stepped out of the shadows.
• God Never Laughs declared that he was ready and urged everyone to head out.
• I'm Not Jiahao struggled to control his horse while Ma Lou clung to him, leading to an embarrassed argument between them.
• Kairils halted the convoy when Mosquitoes Faint at the Sight of Blood warned that something was ahead.
• More than a dozen Mutant Blood Wolves emerged from a thick blood-colored fog and blocked the convoy's route.

Kairils annihilated a pack of mutants, including a second-tier Blood Wolf King, while leading the group toward Fog Town. As the Black Forest came into view, Ma Lou and the other players braced for the ambush they had arranged to begin.

• Kairils ordered Knight Viel and the other knights to stand down, then charged alone into the mutant wolf pack.
• Kairils froze and shattered the attacking hounds before defeating the Blood Wolf King and taking its head as a trophy.
• Ma Lou and Jiahao realized Kairils’s power and combat skill made confronting him head-on nearly suicidal.
• Kairils dispatched more mutant groups along the road as the party continued toward Fog Town.
• Ma Lou, Jiahao, and the two newbies recognized the Black Forest and prepared for their planned ambush to unfold.

Lin Shen guided Ovid’s Cultist squad through the wilderness northeast of Fog Town, hoping to bring them into contact with Kairils’s approaching squad. When Ovid grew tired of finding nothing, Lin Shen tried to send him back, but Ovid suspected a trap and insisted on continuing the search.

• Ovid’s Cultists searched the Black Forest outskirts and Fog Town’s barrier but found no Winterhold Knights.
• Lin Shen persuaded Ovid to change course northeast of Fog Town, claiming they might find tracks and useful intelligence.
• After hours of searching empty wilderness, Ovid complained that the squad had found no clues.
• Lin Shen offered to let Ovid return with tired men while he and Lin Qian continued patrolling.
• Ovid suspected Lin Shen wanted him to abandon the mission and refused to leave, insisting the squad keep searching.

Lin Shen spotted a lone Winterhold knight and led the Cultists in pursuit, while Kairils’s squad advanced toward Fog Town and sensed an unusual presence in the forest. The chapter ended with Kairils halting his knights and fixing on the source of the magical fluctuation.

• Lin Shen spotted a silver-armored figure behind a dead tree and rallied the Cultists to attack.
• The figure fled at remarkable speed as Lin Shen, [You've Cried Already], and more than fifty Cultists chased him; Ovid followed to avoid losing the kill.
• Kairils led his Winterhold squad through the corrupted forest toward Fog Town, with Ma Lou and Jiahao riding at the rear and worrying that they had seen no Cultists.
• Kairils sensed an unusual magical fluctuation ahead, stopped the squad, and pointed out that someone was hiding in the undergrowth.

Kairils spotted Lu Ziye disguised as an Abyss cultist and charged after him, leading the Winterhold knights into the forest. Jiahao and Ma Lou realized the fleeing figure was bait meant to lure the knights toward Phone Bro’s group, while Lu Ziye struggled to stay ahead of Kairils’s warhorse.

• Kairils spotted a red-robed figure in the woods, mistook him for an Abyss cultist, and charged after him on his warhorse.
• Knight Viel rallied the Winterhold knights, who followed Kairils into the forest as Ma Lou, Jiahao, and the two newbies rode behind them.
• Jiahao and Ma Lou recognized the fleeing figure’s movements and realized Lao Lu or Xiaozi was posing as a cultist to lure the knights toward Phone Bro’s group.
• Jiahao told the players to prepare for a possible clash, and the group continued into the forest after the knights.
• Lu Ziye fled through the trees, using the terrain to slow Kairils’s pursuit and avoid being caught by his Long Halberd.

Lu Ziye and Ji Luo prepared to ambush Winterhold’s forces and provoke a bloody clash with the Cultists. Kairils halted in a silent clearing as the trap was about to begin.

• Lu Ziye and Ji Luo escaped into the bushes as the Cultists and Winterhold knights converged in the woods.
• Ji Luo removed the stolen knight armor and asked Lu Ziye whether he had drawn the Winterhold forces in.
• Ji Luo told Lu Ziye to meet Xiaozi and ambush first-tier knights in Cultist robes once the armies clashed.
• Lu Ziye agreed to follow the plan, and he and Ji Luo split up to reach their targets.
• Kairils charged into a woodland clearing and stopped to scan the silent surroundings.

Kairils and his knights were lured into a forest ambush by a scout, where they faced a force of more than fifty cultists led by Enkai and [Give Me Your Phone]. Kairils recognized the trap and challenged the cultists as they prepared to attack.

• Kairils lost the fleeing cultist scout, then agreed with Knight Viel that the squad should leave the forest.
• Before Kairils could order a withdrawal, he sensed danger and drew his White Long Halberd as Knight Viel shouted that they were under attack.
• Ma Lou and Jiahao pretended to be terrified while secretly celebrating the cultists' arrival.
• [Give Me Your Phone] led more than fifty armed cultists out of the woods and recognized Kairils and the Winterhold knights.
• Enkai sensed Kairils's peak second-tier strength and grew alarmed, while Kairils realized the scout had lured his squad into an ambush and taunted the cultists.

When Captain Ovid recognized Kairils as Winterhold’s celebrated young prodigy, he prepared to attack and claim glory, but Priest Enkai realized killing him could bring Winterhold’s full force down on the Cultists. Enkai stopped Ovid and pleaded with Kairils to hear him out, leaving both armies stunned in the sudden silence.

• Ovid recognized Kairils and grew eager to kill him for fame and advancement.
• Ovid began to rally the Cultists to attack Kairils.
• Priest Enkai yanked Ovid back and warned himself that Kairils’s death would provoke Winterhold into destroying the Black Forest Branch.
• Enkai politely asked Kairils to hold his attack, claiming the situation had been a terrible misunderstanding.
• The Cultists and Winterhold Knights stared in shock, while [Give Me Your Phone] and [You've Cried Already] were left stunned.

Priest Enkai unexpectedly tried to avert a battle with Winterhold, throwing the players’ carefully arranged plan into chaos. Kairils’s response remained unknown as both sides waited for him to decide whether to fight or let the cultists pass.

• Give Me Your Phone and You’ve Cried Already panicked when Enkai called the confrontation a misunderstanding, but Lin Shen stopped them from attacking.
• Ma Lou and Jiahao realized Enkai had backed down to avoid the risks of fighting Kairils, leaving their plan in danger.
• Enkai apologized to Kairils and offered to withdraw, while Ovid and the recruits could only watch.
• Winterhold’s young knights felt reassured by the cultists’ submission, but the second-tier knights stayed ready for battle.
• Viel expected Kairils to refuse mercy, but Kairils’s next move stunned everyone.

Kairils backed down and let Priest Enkai’s Cultists withdraw, but Lu Ziye sprang an ambush on Winterhold’s knights and killed one. He called on the Cultists to join the attack, leaving Enkai stunned.

• Kairils sheathed the White Long Halberd and ordered Priest Enkai and the Cultists to leave.
• Priest Enkai accepted Kairils’s mercy and began ordering his followers to withdraw.
• Lu Ziye leaped from a dead tree and unleashed blood-red tentacles on the Winterhold knights.
• Kairils froze and shattered most of the tentacles, but one pierced a First-Tier Knight and knocked him from his horse.
• Lu Ziye urged Priest Enkai and the Cultists to attack Winterhold, leaving Enkai dumbstruck.

Lu Ziye attacked the Winterhold knights, but Kairils quickly froze and grievously wounded him. Lin Shen claimed Lu Ziye was Black Forest’s hidden weapon, leaving Enkai desperately denying any connection as Kairils asked Viel about the injured knight.

• Enkai recognized Lu Ziye’s Abyssal power and assumed he was a survivor from Blood-Weeping Ridge seeking revenge.
• Kairils froze Lu Ziye’s feet and shattered his tentacle shield before striking him in the chest with his Long Halberd.
• Lu Ziye was hurled into the watching Cultists, where Lin Shen helped him up.
• Lin Shen praised Lu Ziye as Black Forest’s secret weapon and called his attack part of Enkai’s masterful plan.
• Enkai denied knowing Lu Ziye and pleaded with Kairils that the attack did not represent Black Forest.
• Kairils ignored Enkai and asked Viel about their injured companion.

Kairils and the Winterhold knights charged the Black Forest cultists after a knight died, while Priest Enkai prepared his people to fight back. [God Never Laughs] emerged with his newly advanced fear-based class and drained terror from everyone on the battlefield, rapidly increasing his level; four players watched from behind a tree.

• Viel reported that the wounded First-Tier Knight could not be saved, and Kairils ordered his knights to attack the cultists.
• Priest Enkai recognized that his Black Forest Branch had been blamed and ordered Ovid to target the mounted knights.
• Ovid led the cultists into a charge against the Winterhold knights as both sides prepared to clash.
• [God Never Laughs] appeared and spread fear across the battlefield, drawing it into himself and surging from level 21 to level 29.
• The four players watched the battlefield from behind a large tree.

[God Never Laughs] used the Fear Apostle’s power to attack Kairils, whose momentary disorientation let Lu Ziye and Priest Enkai launch a coordinated assault. Kairils remained calm and prepared to retaliate against his attackers.

• Ma Lou and Jiahao recognized that [God Never Laughs] grew stronger as nearby enemies feared him, while he knew his borrowed power would fade if the battle dragged on.
• [God Never Laughs] struck Kairils with a sonic attack, and its fear-inducing shriek disrupted Kairils despite his ice shield blocking the blast.
• Lu Ziye recovered enough to fight and sent blood-red tentacles around Kairils’s shield toward him.
• Priest Enkai seized the opening, conjured over a hundred Blood Spikes, and rained them down on Kairils and the knights.
• Kairils showed no fear as Lu Ziye’s tentacles and Priest Enkai’s Blood Spikes converged, and he vowed to grant them their wish to die.

Kairils fought off Lu Ziye, Priest Enkai, and [God Never Laughs] while his fellow Second-Tier Knights left him unsupported. As the battle wore him down, he awakened the Long Halberd’s ancient power and leaped toward his enemies.

• Kairils used his winter power to freeze and shatter Lu Ziye’s tentacles and block the attacks raining down on him.
• Kairils noticed that Viel and the other two Second-Tier Knights were pretending to fight Cultists instead of helping him.
• [God Never Laughs] struck Kairils with a sonic attack, allowing Lu Ziye to hit him before Kairils knocked Lu Ziye away.
• Lu Ziye recovered by draining blood from nearby Cultists while Priest Enkai and [God Never Laughs] continued attacking Kairils.
• Kairils decided to end the battle quickly and awakened glowing ice-blue runes across his Long Halberd as Ma Lou and Jiahao watched from hiding.
• Kairils leaped from his warhorse at several times his usual speed.

Kairils killed [God Never Laughs] with a single halberd thrust and charged at Priest Enkai, who brought out a strange lump of flesh as a last resort. [God Never Laughs] resurrected in Fog Town and ran back toward the battle, deciding that everyone who knew about the Winterhold Knights had to die.

• Kairils impaled [God Never Laughs], kicked him into the grass, and announced that Priest Enkai was next.
• [God Never Laughs]'s corpse vanished in the grass, while Lu Ziye watched Kairils's sudden display of power in shock.
• [God Never Laughs] resurrected in Fog Town and raced toward the forest, resolving to kill every witness to the deaths of the Winterhold Knights and Cultists.
• Kairils charged Priest Enkai and shattered the Blood Shields he conjured.
• Priest Enkai abandoned his defenses, pulled a shriveled lump of flesh from his robe, and infused it with divine power, causing red strands to spread over his body.

Enkai absorbed a lump of flesh to reach an unstable third-tier level and fought Kairils, who matched his power. As the players and fighters retreated from their clash, Lu Ziye worried that Enkai’s temporary strength would not last.

• Enkai absorbed the flesh’s power, and blood threads formed a barrier that stopped Kairils’s halberd strike.
• Enkai transformed into a blood-thread-covered monster, and the system identified him as an unstable third-tier enemy whose power-up consumed his lifespan.
• Lu Ziye, Jiahao, and Ma Lou discussed the danger and hoped Kairils and Enkai would weaken each other while the players stayed clear.
• Enkai attacked with blood whips while Kairils countered with his Long Halberd, and their shock waves forced nearby fighters to retreat.
• The players realized Kairils could hold his own against Enkai, while Lu Ziye warned that Enkai’s temporary power would not last.

Lu Ziye staged a convincing retreat after Kairils struck him, luring two Winterhold Knights into pursuing him for the Calamity Token. As the Knights approached his motionless body in the woods, one warned that it might be a trap.

• Lu Ziye attacked Kairils, took a heavy blow, and pretended to flee while threatening revenge.
• Knight Viel sent two Second-Tier Knights after Lu Ziye, hoping to claim the reward for bringing back his corpse.
• Viel watched Kairils continue battling Priest Enkai and worried that Kairils would punish him for withholding help.
• The two Knights tracked Lu Ziye through the forest and saw him fall into the mud and stop moving.
• One Knight rushed toward Lu Ziye, while the other warned that the apparent corpse could be a trap.

Lu Ziye’s ambush trapped two Winterhold knights, but their Winter Frost Armor let them survive the attack and turn on him. [God Never Cries], [Immortal Star Crazy Young Master], and [Kindergarten Boss] emerged from the Ash Mist to attack as Lu Ziye called for Old Ji to save him.

• Lu Ziye sprang from his fake corpse as Ash Chains bound the two knights, and he and hidden allies attacked with tentacles and Ashen Missiles.
• The knights burned their divine power to break the chains and shield themselves with Winter Frost Armor, surviving the assault with only minor injuries.
• The knights charged Lu Ziye, whose movements were slowed by the cold, and he shouted for Old Ji to save him.
• An Ash Spear exploded into Ash Mist, obscuring the knights’ vision and allowing [God Never Cries] to attack one knight’s throat.
• [Immortal Star Crazy Young Master] and [Kindergarten Boss] charged from behind the knights through the Ash Mist.