Chapter Summaries

Ma Lou discovered that exotic beasts could mutate and develop new evolution branches by consuming different elemental ores, sending the players into a frenzy over the game's beast-taming system. At the Cultists' Main Base, [God Never Laughs] resumed his undercover role while searching the library, as the High Priest asked Short Priest whether the visitors from Blood-Weeping Ridge had acted suspiciously.

• Ma Lou read the exotic beast author's hypothesis that feeding beasts unfamiliar elemental ores could create unpredictable mutations and evolution branches.
• Players flooded the forum with excitement about taming beasts, rescuing the Dragon Egg, and getting access to the next beta test.
• [God Never Laughs] woke in the underground library, pretended to be exhausted, and joined Lu Ziye, [Give Me Your Phone], and [You've Cried Already] in searching ancient books.
• Short Priest entered the meeting chamber and knelt before the High Priest, who asked whether the two visitors from Blood-Weeping Ridge had done anything unusual in the library.

The High Priest believed Lu Ziye and his companions were becoming obsessed with the Dragon Egg and ordered his Short Priest to keep watching them. In the library, Lu Ziye found a history of the Black Forest that revealed it had once been the Emerald Forest.

• The Short Priest reported that Lu Ziye, Priest Jiang, and the others had searched the library for information about the Dragon Egg.
• The High Priest decided to let them keep reading so they would discover the egg's origins and become more devoted to the Black Forest Branch.
• Lu Ziye found a book titled "Emerald Elegy: Fallen Cradle of Ten Thousand Beasts" and sent Lin Shen and [You've Cried Already] out of the library to preserve their cover.
• Lu Ziye handed the book to [God Never Laughs], who read that the Black Forest had once been a beautiful place called the Emerald Forest before the Abyss Evil God invaded.

Lu Ziye and [God Never Laughs] discovered that the Dragon Egg in the underground Blood Pool might be protected by the Emerald Queen's dream divine authority, then left to share the information with their allies. Meanwhile, Ma Lou woke in Kairils's home and secretly watched Kairils being measured by a middle-aged man.

• Lu Ziye and [God Never Laughs] read that the Black Forest had once been the Emerald Forest, ruled by the dragon deity known as the Emerald Queen.
• Lu Ziye reasoned that the Emerald Queen had protected the Dragon Egg from corruption, and [God Never Laughs] realized it could lead to a major hidden quest.
• Lu Ziye and [God Never Laughs] hid their discovery, returned the book, and hurried out to log off and tell Old Ji and the others.
• Ma Lou woke on Kairils's sofa, found the room dark, and heard voices in the next room.
• Ma Lou secretly watched Kairils stand before a mirror while a middle-aged man in a dark tailcoat measured him.

Kairils reluctantly prepared for the celebratory banquet that Deity had made his punishment, while Ma Lou barged in and asked to attend. Kairils agreed to bring him and paid for a set of Ceremonial Attire for his friend.

• Lamuel assured Kairils that his shop would make him Ceremonial Attire for the banquet, but Kairils said a suitable uniform would be enough.
• Ma Lou entered wearing Kairils's oversized robe and declared that he wanted to attend the banquet.
• Kairils decided to invite Ma Lou so he could experience Winterhold and would not be left behind while Kairils attended.
• Kairils asked Lamuel to measure Ma Lou for ready-made Ceremonial Attire and charged both outfits to his account.
• Ma Lou rejoiced at the free formalwear and decided he had to buy a Game Pod.

Kairils endured Ma Lou’s accidental blow to his wound while Lamuel measured them for ceremonial clothes ahead of Winterhold’s banquet. As Kairils prepared a guest room for Ma Lou and planned to attend a meeting about the Cultists’ ambush, Church guards arrived with an order to report to the Divine Hall immediately.

• Ma Lou enthusiastically struck Kairils’s unhealed wound while thanking him, and Kairils forced him to let go.
• Lamuel measured Ma Lou and promised to deliver ceremonial outfits for both men the next afternoon.
• Kairils escorted Lamuel out and reflected on the banquet that would begin the next day.
• Kairils prepared a guest room for Ma Lou and said he had to attend a meeting about the Cultists’ ambush.
• Two Church guards arrived and told Kairils that the Archbishop had ordered him to the Divine Hall immediately.

Kairils left Ma Lou sleeping in the Wasteland and answered a summons to Winterhold’s Divine Hall, where the Lord of Winter and Contracts was expected to descend. The deity appeared before the gathered leaders, leaving Kairils kneeling among them.

• Kairils left Ma Lou asleep on a soft bed and went out into the freezing snow with the two men who had guided him.
• Kairils entered the Divine Hall, greeted Winterhold’s senior figures, and received the Red-Robed Archbishop’s concern about his injuries.
• Kairils took his place at the back of the hall as the leaders regarded him as a knight favored by the deity.
• The statue of the Lord of Winter and Contracts blazed with divine light, and everyone in the hall knelt in welcome.
• Wind and snow gathered on the Divine Throne and formed the Lord of Winter and Contracts, who surveyed the kneeling assembly.

The Lord of Winter and Contracts heard Kairils’s account of the Abyss branches’ ambush and considered Winterhold’s response. He ordered an attack on Black Forest first but chose a prolonged war of attrition against Bloodweeping Ridge rather than an overwhelming assault.

• Kairils recounted how the Black Forest and Blood-Weeping Ridge branches had ambushed his party and inflicted crippling losses.
• The Red-Robed Archbishop and the head of the Knight Order urged Winterhold to declare war and proposed attacking Blood-Weeping Ridge first, then Black Forest.
• The Lord of Winter and Contracts rejected their plan and ordered three Knight Order commanders to lead an attack that would uproot the Black Forest Branch.
• The deity ordered Winterhold to wage a prolonged war of attrition against the Bloodweeping Ridge Branch.