Chapter Summaries

After Ma Lou’s nighttime exploration earned him a hidden achievement and revealed that Ash Apostles could unlock skills, the players prepared to grind together in the Wasteland World. Under Ji Luo’s cautious plan, the five followers headed for the Black Forest outskirts while Lin En watched and hoped they would gather resources and clear monsters.

• Ma Lou shared a screenshot of the Night Survivor achievement, which revealed physical-immune spectral monsters and the possibility of unlocking Ash Apostle skills through leveling and territory prosperity.
• Ma Lou posted his achievement on Lu Ziye’s forum thread, prompting gaming enthusiasts to react excitedly and offer money for a closed-beta key.
• Lu Ziye rushed to log in at seven the next morning and playfully punished Ma Lou for secretly grinding overnight.
• Ji Luo outlined a plan to avoid the abandoned village, collect materials, craft weapons, and hunt only isolated Corrupted Villagers.
• Lin En saw that his Faith Points had risen to 135 and watched the five followers leave the church to explore the Black Forest outskirts.

Ji Luo’s squad hunted Corrupted Villagers on the outskirts of the Black Forest, using coordinated attacks to help Ma Lou gain experience. Ma Lou reached First Tier as an Ash Apostle, and the group watched him undergo a fiery transformation.

• The squad crafted crude weapons and followed Ji Luo through the dead grass along the Black Forest.
• They spotted two Zero Tier Corrupted Villagers, and Lu led the attack while the others pinned and wounded the monsters.
• Ma Lou used his barbed Stone Spear to deliver the finishing blows and earn the experience from their kills.
• The five-man squad continued hunting together until Ma Lou reached 100 experience and advanced to First Tier · Ash Apostles (Lv.1).
• Pale gray flames and ash particles enveloped Ma Lou, leaving him with a subtle change in bearing.

Ma Lou unlocked [Ashen Missile] and [Ashen Shaping], then learned that using his new skills quickly depleted his mental energy. Under Ji Luo’s direction, the five players spent the day fighting Corrupted Villagers and leveling up, while Lin En watched their Faith Points rise.

• Ma Lou showed Ji Luo, Bossy Guy, and the others his new skills, [Ashen Missile] and [Ashen Shaping].
• Ma Lou blasted a Blackwood Tree with [Ashen Missile], then formed an ash sword that quickly fell apart and left him with empty mental energy.
• Ji Luo concluded that level 1 players could use only a few skills before needing time to recover, and the group continued grinding mobs.
• The five players worked together to defeat Corrupted Villagers, with Ma Lou using [Ashen Missile] to blind enemies and Jiahao searching corpses for materials.
• At evening, four players besides [Even Monkeys Have Dignity] reached First Tier, level 1, while Lin En watched the Faith Points increase.

After reaching level 1, Ji Luo and his party encountered the Cave Stalker that had killed them the day before and fought it using their new skills. Ji Luo killed the blinded monster with an Ashen Spiral Spear, leaving the party victorious.

• Passing Pure-Love Warrior tested [Ashen Missile], while Jiahao used [Ashen Shaping] to make an ash monocle that promptly fell apart.
• Ji Luo spotted the rising crimson moon and urged the party to return before nightfall, but they heard a monster eating a corpse near the abandoned village.
• The party recognized the Cave Stalker that had killed them yesterday, and Ji Luo chose to fight it for its loot.
• Ma Lou, Jiahao, and Ji Luo blinded the charging Cave Stalker with three [Ashen Missiles], while Bossy Guy shielded Passing Pure-Love Warrior from its counterattack.
• Ji Luo coated his stone spear with ash and drove it through the Cave Stalker's eye socket into its brain, killing it.

The five players defeated the Cave Stalker, triggered a regional quest to save Fog Town, and returned to the Church with the monster’s shell. Lin En realized that Fog Town’s failing patron deity could grant him new power, but the journey there was too dangerous for the current party.

• The five players killed the Cave Stalker, earning a server-wide first-kill reward and raising Lin En’s Faith Points to 786.
• Ma Lou found glowing carapace pieces and a cleric’s corpse, while Jiahao retrieved a bloodstained letter that triggered the Fog Town quest.
• Passing Pure-Love Warrior and Ji Luo concluded the quest hint signaled a second beta and a large-scale raid, so the players hauled the Cave Stalker’s shell back to the Church.
• Sivir saw the players return with the Cave Stalker’s shell and was so awed that she prayed to Lin En, earning him five more Faith Points.
• Lin En considered devouring the Weeping Madonna’s failing divine core in Fog Town, but recognized that the distance, monsters, and cultists made the trip too dangerous for five players.

Lin En launched a server-wide crowdfunding event to gather the faith points needed for fifty new players, prompting a huge rush of interest in the game. The first five players agreed to grind monsters for the new beta slots, while Lin En waited to see how quickly they could earn enough points.

• Lin En realized he lacked the 5,000 faith points required to recruit fifty players and decided to make the existing players fund the expansion by grinding monsters.
• Lu Ziye posted the first-beta players’ account of defeating an Elite Monster, drawing intense forum interest and pleas for access.
• The official website released a cinematic and announced the server-wide event Reforge the Ashen Portal, which would unlock fifty second-beta slots once progress reached 100%.
• Players urged Lu Ziye and the others to keep killing monsters, and Lu Ziye resolved to grind without sleep for the exclusive title and new companions.
• Lin En watched second-beta signups exceed one hundred thousand and expected the five players to earn the 5,000 faith points within a few days.

Ji Luo and the other first-test players built a concealed pit trap beside the Church to kill monsters more efficiently. Their trap wiped out a pack of Corrupted Villagers and a First-Tier Mutant Hound, earning them experience and Ash Coins.

• Ji Luo directed the group as they dug a pit and lined it with sharpened stakes beside the Church.
• Jiahao explained their plan to lure monsters into the pit and kill them as an assembly line.
• Ma Lou lured seven or eight Corrupted Villagers and a First-Tier Mutant Hound out of the Black Forest.
• Jiahao tripped the hound with Ashen Shaping, sending it into the concealed pit, and the villagers fell in after it.
• Ji Luo and the others attacked the trapped monsters until they all died, earning experience and Ash Coins.

Five players swept the outskirts of the Black Forest by luring monsters into a killing pit, earning Faith Points for Lin En and advancing the Ashen Portal’s construction. By nightfall, they had nearly wiped out the local monsters and all reached level 3.

• Ji Luo organized the five players into an assembly line that lured monsters into a pit and killed them for rewards.
• Sister Sivir watched the players’ slaughter from the Church and became even more awestruck and devoted to Lin En.
• Lin En’s Faith Points passed 2,000, and he used 15 points to make a visible Ashen Portal take shape outside the Church.
• Passing Pure-Love Warrior spotted the portal, and Ma Lou rushed back into the Black Forest to lure in more monsters.
• The players continued farming until they had nearly cleared the outskirts, killing 214 Zero Tier Corrupted Villagers and 12 First Tier Mutant Hounds.
• Ji Luo reported that the five players had all reached level 3 and each had earned more than 100 Ash Coins.

After the five veterans stopped grinding for the night, Ji Luo logged out and told his sister Ji Li about the game’s extraordinary realism. The chapter left Ji Luo anticipating the second beta and his chance to train the fifty new players.

• [Passing Pure-Love Warrior] urged the five veterans to keep hunting, but [Ji Luo] stopped him as night fell and warned about dangerous monsters and sanity loss.
• The five players logged out to rest and agreed to return at seven the next morning to finish the Portal and welcome the second-beta players.
• Ji Luo woke in his gaming pod, went downstairs hungry, and found Ji Li eating instant noodles while reading the game's forum.
• Ji Luo saw that registrations had passed three hundred thousand and the game's progress had exceeded fifty percent, then proudly told Ji Li how the veterans had built traps and fought monsters.
• Ji Li questioned whether the game was truly as realistic as people claimed, and Ji Luo insisted it was before boasting that he would instruct the fifty newcomers.

Ji Li tried to borrow Ji Luo’s gaming pod, while Wang begged Lu Ziye for access to Awakening of the Old Gods and learned the helmet might be bound to Lu Ziye. In the game world, Lin En planned for the second test as Sivir prayed to him and recounted the losses that had left her alone.

• Ji Li offered Ji Luo five thousand yuan to borrow his gaming pod, but he refused to risk losing his Ash Coins.
• Wang discovered Lu Ziye was the forum user Passing Pure-Love Warrior and begged to try the game, but Lu Ziye refused and directed him to register for the second-test lottery.
• Wang rushed to register for the lottery while Lu Ziye planned to repair the Portal and welcome fifty new players the next day.
• Lin En counted 3,634 Faith Points and planned a beginner’s guide and fees for weapons, resurrection, and titles when the second test began.
• Sivir prayed to Lin En, praised the summoned emissaries, and told him that Cultists had killed her parents and a monster had killed the old priest who protected her.

Lin En comforted Sivir and appointed her as the guide for the Ash Apostles who would arrive with the second beta. Sivir accepted the sacred duty and went to sleep hopeful, while Lin En planned to upgrade her and the ruined Church once he had enough faith points.

• Lin En answered Sivir’s prayers, acknowledged her suffering, and reassured her that the darkness would pass.
• Sivir praised the Ash Apostles’ fearlessness, and Lin En explained their strange behavior as a consequence of their damaged memories and immense power.
• Lin En told Sivir to guide new apostles, help them build a camp, and reward them with praise; he also instructed her to remain dignified and rebuke disrespectful players.
• Sivir accepted her role, practiced the greeting “May the ash bless you, undying warrior,” and fell asleep in the hut the players had built.
• Lin En watched Sivir embrace her new position and imagined using faith points to upgrade her and turn the Church into a fortress.

Winterhold’s archbishop refused to aid Fog Town and ordered trainee knights to wait until its barrier fell before claiming the survivors as slaves. The players returned to the Black Forest expecting another day of grinding, but discovered they had killed every nearby Corrupted Villager and that the world had no respawns.

• A knight reported that Fog Town was besieged and its Guardian Deity, [Weeping Madonna], was nearly out of divine power.
• The archbishop dismissed Fog Town’s plea and ordered trainee knights to wait for its fall, then seize the survivors as mine slaves.
• [Ji Luo], Ma Lou, and the other players logged in at seven and prepared to farm mobs at their slaughter trap.
• Ma Lou returned from the forest with no mobs, reporting that he could not find a single Corrupted Villager.
• [I'm Not Jiahao] explained that the creatures were real and did not respawn, and [Ji Luo] realized the group had exterminated them.

After exhausting the monsters around the Black Forest, Ji Luo and the other players entered the abandoned village to keep advancing the Portal’s progress. They discovered cultists preparing to attack the Lord of Ashes, and the chapter ended as a second-tier calamity entity began hatching.

• The five players realized they had killed or gathered every monster and herb near the Black Forest, leaving the Portal’s progress stalled.
• Ji Luo persuaded the group to enter the abandoned village, where they found bloodstained runes and followed the smell of blood to a priest’s residence.
• Ma Lou and the others spied on robed cultists performing a sacrifice around a mass of flesh.
• The cultist leader said they planned to summon a Devouring horror, destroy the Lord of Ashes’s Barrier, and corrupt him.
• The flesh mass began pulsing, and the players’ warning panels identified it as the hatching second-tier calamity entity Flesh Fusion.

Ji Luo and the other four players stormed the Priest's Residence to destroy the incubating second-tier Flesh Cocoon before it hatched. Their attack ruptured the cocoon, triggering a soul-piercing shriek and violent shaking as something began to emerge.

• Ji Luo rejected retreat and led the group to attack the Flesh Cocoon while it was still incubating.
• Passing Pure-Love Warrior killed a guarding Cultist, and the five players charged into the ritual hall.
• Ji Luo, Ma Lou, and Jiahao blasted the Cultists with Ashen Missiles while Ji Luo and Kindergarten Boss pushed toward the altar.
• Passing Pure-Love Warrior engaged the red-robed leader as Bossy Guy struck the Flesh Cocoon with his Stone Axe.
• The damaged cocoon shrieked, the Cultists fell to their knees, and the Priest's Residence began to shake violently.

Flesh Fusion emerged prematurely at peak first tier, devoured the cultists, and instantly wiped out the five players. After they respawned at the Ash Church, Lin En received a warning that the monster was leading a beast tide toward the Church, and the players watched the horde approach its barrier.

• Flesh Fusion burst from the damaged cocoon, and the players learned it had emerged at peak first tier.
• Flesh Fusion devoured the cultists, strengthening itself, then killed all five players with a storm of blood spikes.
• The five players respawned at the Ash Church, where Lin En received an emergency warning that Flesh Fusion was gathering monsters to attack the Church.
• The players saw a vast beast tide, led by Flesh Fusion, charging toward the Church's blue barrier.
• Ji Luo watched the approaching horde and let out a long breath despite his shock.

Lin En spent his Faith Points to give players unlimited free revivals during the defense of the Church, turning their desperate stand against the beast tide into a reckless counterattack. The barrier broke, and the players began fighting the monsters at the breach, with Lu Ziye already reviving to charge back into battle.

• Ji Luo warned that the beast tide included about a hundred monsters and an overpowered boss, while Kindergarten Boss feared the players would run out of Ash Coins and lose their ability to revive.
• Lin En used the system to announce the limited-time Defense of the Deity Hall event and grant participating players unlimited free revivals.
• Passing Pure-Love Warrior, Ma Lou, I'm Not Jiahao, Ji Luo, and Bossy Guy rushed to meet the monsters, and the beast tide broke through the Church's barrier.
• Ji Luo ordered the players to hold the breach, and Passing Pure-Love Warrior grappled a Mutant Hound so Ji Luo could spear them both and kill it.
• Lu Ziye revived at the Church and charged back to the breach, smashing a Corrupted Villager with a rock.

Five players used repeated deaths to hold back the Beast Tide at the Church breach, but the Flesh Fusion smashed through their defenses and began attacking them. It impaled Ma Lou and Jiahao while Ji Luo narrowly dodged its tentacles.

• Bossy Guy, Ma Lou, and Jiahao repeatedly died and respawned to fight monsters and restore their mana.
• The five players held the Beast Tide at the Church breach for half an hour, building a wall from monster corpses.
• Lin En watched the Flesh Fusion unleash a roar that shattered the weakened barrier with cracks.
• Flesh Fusion charged through the breach, crushed the corpse wall, and killed Passing Pure-Love Warrior and Bossy Guy.
• Ji Luo dodged a tentacle, but Flesh Fusion impaled Ma Lou and Jiahao and lifted them into the air.

The players discovered that Flesh Fusion’s exposed chest tumor was vulnerable to Ashen Missiles and used repeated respawns to interrupt its attacks. As the fight dragged on, Ma Lou noticed the monster had shrunk and slowed, suggesting it was running out of energy.

• Flesh Fusion drained Ma Lou and another player, while Lin En’s barrier weakened as the monster neared his statue.
• Passing Pure-Love Warrior clung to Flesh Fusion and bit into its flesh, while Jiahao struck its open chest tumor with an Ashen Missile.
• The players repeatedly attacked the tumor and sacrificed themselves to distract Flesh Fusion, interrupting its attempts to strike Lin En’s statue.
• Flesh Fusion smashed Ma Lou, Jiahao, and Ji Luo behind the pillars, but Ji Luo saw that the monster remained strong despite their attacks.
• Ma Lou noticed Flesh Fusion had shrunk and slowed, and Jiahao realized it was burning through its own energy after running out of corpses to devour.

The five-man team pierced Flesh Fusion's chest tumor, but the wounded monster survived and began devouring lesser monsters to recover and evolve. As its level surged toward the nightmare tier, Ji Luo ordered the team to interrupt its feeding while Lin En watched helplessly from the Divine Statue.

• Ji Luo coordinated Pure-Love Warrior and Bossy Guy's attack with Ash Spears while he blocked Flesh Fusion's corrosive acid, allowing them to stab its tumor.
• Flesh Fusion unleashed a devastating roar that killed Pure-Love Warrior and Bossy Guy, then revealed tentacles emerging from its wounds.
• Flesh Fusion devoured nearby lesser monsters and rapidly strengthened, triggering a system warning that it was approaching second-tier evolution.
• Ji Luo ordered the team to cut the tentacles and eliminate the lesser monsters, while Lin En searched the system for a way to intervene but found his powers limited.
• Ma Lou and Jiahao attacked the lesser monsters and used Ashen Shaping to create stumbling blocks as the team tried to stop Flesh Fusion from feeding.

Ji Luo and the fourth catastrophe’s fighters stopped Flesh Fusion from advancing by repeatedly disrupting its energy absorption, then killed it while the backlash left it severely weakened. The group won, though Ji Luo and the others were exhausted and their weapons were damaged.

• Ma Lou and Jiahao cleared out the lesser monsters while Pure-Love Warrior and Bossy Guy repeatedly attacked Flesh Fusion’s tentacles, dying and reviving to disrupt its energy absorption.
• Ji Luo noticed Flesh Fusion weakening and led the fighters to intensify their attacks until its forced advancement failed and a backlash reduced it to Lv.19.
• The group attacked the weakened monster, with Pure-Love Warrior cracking its head, Bossy Guy breaking its knee, and Ma Lou and Jiahao striking its chest tumor with Ashen Missiles.
• Ji Luo climbed onto Flesh Fusion and drove his spear into its chest tumor as all four allies used Ashen Shaping to enhance the strike.
• Flesh Fusion collapsed into sludge, and the exhausted fighters celebrated their victory.