Chapter Summaries

Players slaughtered Mutants in the Black Forest, and Kuang Shao established the Undying Stars guild while Lin En watched players grind through the night. In Graycliff Town, Feias grew increasingly worried about the Winterhold knights sent to aid besieged Fog Town.

• A new player repeatedly died in the Black Forest but bought an Ash Spear and charged back to fight a Poison Spider.
• Players used monster parts and corpse fluids as weapons, killing Mutants until nightfall slowed their hunt.
• Immortal Star Crazy Young Master announced the creation of the Undying Stars guild and filled its first twenty slots.
• Lin En saw that some players kept hunting Mutants through the night using the Lord of Ashes' Blessing.
• In Graycliff Town, Feias watched Winterhold knights mock the settlement and its tavern as he recalled his deadly journey for help.
• Feias grew more troubled after traveling for two days with the knights sent to aid Fog Town.

Feias discovered that the Winterhold knights sent to Fog Town planned to arrive after the Cultists had destroyed it, then enslave any survivors they found. On Blue Star, version 2.0 information flooded the Ninth Art forum, where a hidden class guide by Ji Luo became the biggest sensation.

• Feias pleaded with the knight captain to leave for Fog Town at first light, but the captain told him to wait until tomorrow.
• After Feias retreated, the Winterhold knights mocked him and revealed they intended to let Fog Town fall, then capture survivors for the northern mines.
• The Ninth Art forum surged with activity as Cloud Gamers shared guides, recruitment posts, and analyses of Awakening of the Old Gods version 2.0.
• Undying Stars and Embers Kindling posted contrasting guild recruitment offers, drawing thousands of replies from players.
• Ji Luo's hardcore hidden class guide became the news that set the internet ablaze.

Ji Luo revealed how players could advance to second-tier classes and how Road God unlocked the hidden Devouring Apostle class, while Ma Lou showcased powerful Ash Apostle skills that spurred players to grind. As the forum filled with exploration reports and arguments, a startling post announced that players had infiltrated a Cultists' Black Forest Branch base and faced an initiation ceremony the next morning.

• Ji Luo explained the level 19 advancement process, its 100 Ash Coin cost, and the deity-token sacrifice that had unlocked Road God's Devouring Apostle class.
• Ma Lou reported that he and Boss Jia had advanced to second-tier Ash Apostles and shared the Ashen Mist and Ashen Clone skills.
• Players reacted to the new skills by discussing their uses and urging one another to reach the second tier.
• Players posted reports about an Abyss-corrupted ruined town north of Fog Town and a new player's first day gathering pigskin, while commenters debated the game's authenticity.
• Near eleven at night, a player posted that their group had infiltrated a Cultists' Black Forest Branch base and would undergo an initiation ceremony the next morning.

Give Me Your Phone and You've Cried Already infiltrated a cultist branch in the Black Forest, and Lin En used their shared vision to investigate the stronghold. He discovered an army of at least a thousand cultists and a terrifying third-tier high priest, leaving the Ash Church facing a serious threat.

• Give Me Your Phone posted that he and You've Cried Already had fooled a cultist patrol and been taken to a Black Forest branch, where they were scheduled for an abyssal baptism.
• Players reacted to the post and urged the two undercover agents to gather intelligence and alert them to any cultist plans.
• Lin En read the post and asked the system to connect to the players' shared vision, paying 100 Faith Points despite the cost.
• Through the players' eyes, Lin En saw a vast underground camp filled with at least a thousand cultists, mutants, and grisly activity.
• Lin En spotted a withered figure atop a bone altar and recognized the cultist high priest as a powerful third-tier being.
• Lin En saw Give Me Your Phone and You've Cried Already confined in a cell alongside captured or converted refugees.

Lin En turned two captured players’ plan to infiltrate the Abyssal Cultists into a hidden quest, hoping they would gather intelligence from inside the Black Forest Branch. With a free resurrection and Ash Coins as encouragement, the players prepared to fake devotion during the next day’s baptism.

• Give Me Your Phone and You've Cried Already decided to pursue the Cultists’ baptism instead of trying to escape.
• Lin En recognized that the players’ blank-slate bodies could withstand Abyssal corruption and saw their infiltration as a chance to spy on the Cultists.
• Lin En used the system to give the players the hidden quest “Infiltrators in the Abyss,” with uncapped rewards and ten Ash Coins for a free resurrection.
• Give Me Your Phone and You've Cried Already took the quest as approval and planned to act especially devout during the baptism.

[Give Me Your Phone] and [You've Cried Already] waited eagerly to be baptized into the Abyss while other players wondered what had happened to the undercover pair. At the Cultists' baptism ceremony, a priest preached the Abyss's promise of lawless freedom, and the chapter ended as someone in the crowd erupted in applause.

• [Give Me Your Phone] and [You've Cried Already] stayed in their cell overnight, taking turns logging off for snacks as the refugees watched them in fear.
• Players including [Immortal Star Crazy Young Master] and [I'm Not Jiahao] discussed the missing undercover agents, who had not logged off to report back.
• Cultists brought the refugees to the bone Altar for the baptism ceremony, while [Give Me Your Phone] and [You've Cried Already] swaggered to the front of the line.
• A second-tier Cultist priest denounced the Righteous Gods' Church and urged the refugees to embrace the Abyss's promise of plunder and unrestricted freedom.
• Someone in the square burst into loud applause just as the priest was about to continue his speech.

[Give Me Your Phone] and [You've Cried Already] disrupted a Priest’s sermon with enthusiastic praise, but the Priest’s claims about the Abyss’s twelve authorities drove the refugees toward despair. The two players instead saw the authorities as potential hidden-class materials, and Lin Shen urged them to use the upcoming baptism to obtain a trial pass for the blood authority.

• [Give Me Your Phone] and [You've Cried Already] loudly applauded the Priest and praised the Holy Lord, stunning the crowd and disrupting the sermon.
• The Second Tier Priest recovered and claimed that the Holy Lord possessed twelve supreme deity authorities and that the Abyss would defeat the Righteous Gods.
• The refugees grew terrified and gave up resisting, believing that joining the Abyss was their only hope.
• [Give Me Your Phone] and [You've Cried Already] whispered excitedly about obtaining hidden classes from the Holy Lord’s authorities and wondered whether the Priests would drop useful materials.
• Lin Shen warned [You've Cried Already] not to expose them and said the upcoming baptism could give them a trial pass for the blood authority.

[Give Me Your Phone] volunteered for the Abyss baptism and survived the blood pool, discovering that he had unlocked the Hidden Class Fallen Cultist. The priest recognized his extraordinary compatibility with the Holy Lord’s blood authority, while the new abyss mark made him an ally of Abyss Mutants and cultists but an enemy of the Righteous Gods Faction.

• The priest began the abyss baptism and ordered refugees to be escorted to the blood pool.
• [Give Me Your Phone] volunteered to enter the pool first, and [You've Cried Already] watched from the edge.
• [Give Me Your Phone] dove into the blood pool, but instead of suffering, he described it as a pleasant bath.
• The priest realized [Give Me Your Phone] had shown no rejection or mutation and was exceptionally compatible with the Holy Lord’s blood authority.
• [Give Me Your Phone] completed the baptism, reached Lv.1, and changed to the Hidden Class Fallen Cultist, gaining an abyss mark that made the Righteous Gods Faction hostile to him.
• [You've Cried Already] watched [Give Me Your Phone] leap from the pool and became visibly envious.

[Give Me Your Phone] and [You've Cried Already] survived the Abyss Blood Pool without pain, convincing the cultists they had found two prodigies. After witnessing the agony inflicted on ordinary refugees, the players vowed to fight the Abyss when the fourth catastrophe began.

• [You've Cried Already] jumped into the blood pool after [Give Me Your Phone] and emerged unharmed, gaining a level and impressing the priests.
• [Give Me Your Phone] and [You've Cried Already] realized they had become Fallen Cultists, then joked that they were undercover spies.
• A burly refugee, inspired by the two players, leaped into the pool but screamed in pain and passed out; cultists dragged him ashore and ordered him brainwashed and recruited.
• [Give Me Your Phone] and [You've Cried Already] realized that the pool's agony was real for native refugees, unlike their own experience with pain protection.
• The players watched the remaining refugees suffer through baptism and vowed to scatter the Abyss's ashes when the fourth catastrophe began.

Lin En reflected on the Abyss and the divided righteous gods, then decided to teach players about the Wasteland through the official website. He began a deity archive honoring the fallen Weeping Madonna and her sacrifice for Fog Town.

• Lin En watched the Abyssal baptism through the undercover players and felt sympathy for the helpless refugees.
• Lin En resolved to strengthen his foothold by expanding his Ash Divine Kingdom and protecting Fog Town and Sivir.
• Lin En dismissed the Cultist priest’s claims about the Abyss’s superiority and recalled the power of the righteous gods’ major cities and deities.
• Lin En recognized that the righteous gods’ distrust and division let Cultists prey on the outlying wilderness.
• Lin En decided to add illustrated background lore to the Awakening of the Old Gods website, starting with the Weeping Madonna.
• Lin En wrote the first Wasteland deity archive entry, recounting the Weeping Madonna’s protection of Fog Town and her final sacrifice.

Lin En published a dramatic lore entry before the First Closed Beta Five-Person Group returned to challenge the Wailing Brain Tree. After their first attempt ended in a wipe, they used ash mist to weaken its mental attack and began burning and hacking at it, leaving the fight ongoing.

• Lin En added a high-definition illustration of the weeping Madonna to the lore entry and published it on the official website.
• Lu Ziye, Ma Lou, Ji Luo, and the others tried to kill the Wailing Brain Tree, but its mental contamination attack depleted their sanity and killed all five.
• After respawning, the group returned and planned to interrupt the tree's ultimate with ash mist.
• Even Monkeys Have Dignity and I'm Not Jiahao used Ash Mist to disrupt the tree's targeting, weakening its attack.
• Ma Lou and Jiahao struck the tree with enhanced fireballs while Lu Ziye used his Devouring Apostle abilities to heal and hacked at its burning trunk.

Lu Ziye and the others cornered the Wailing Brain Tree, stopping its escape and enduring its desperate attacks. Jiahao gathered their Ashen Shaping power to create an Ashen Spiral Spear, preparing to finish the boss.

• Lu Ziye held the Wailing Brain Tree's aggro while Ji Luo, Kindergarten Boss, I'm Not Jiahao, and Even Monkeys Have Dignity attacked from cover.
• After five minutes of fighting, the Wailing Brain Tree tried to burrow away, but Lu Ziye clung to its trunk and bound himself to it with tentacles.
• Ma Lou and Jiahao used Ash Shaping: Cemented Heart to harden the ground and block the tree's underground escape.
• The trapped Wailing Brain Tree attacked Lu Ziye with its mouths and unleashed a high-frequency psychic attack.
• Jiahao gathered the others' mental power and shaped a four-meter Ashen Spiral Spear, preparing to strike the boss.

Jiahao and his allies defeated the Second Tier Wailing Brain Tree, earning the server-wide first kill. They recovered rare wailing whitewood, and Ji Luo predicted it could be useful when the game introduced crafting professions.

• Jiahao pierced the Wailing Brain Tree with his Ashen Spiral Spear while Lu Ziye held it in place.
• Jiahao told Lu Ziye to retreat, then destroyed the monster's central brain with a point-blank Ashen Missile.
• The system announced the party's victory and Jiahao's server-wide first kill of a Second Tier Wailing Brain Tree.
• Ma Lou searched the charred trunk and pulled out a rare piece of wailing whitewood.
• Ji Luo analyzed the material and urged the group to stockpile it for future forging and alchemy professions.

After discovering that Wailing Whitewood passively restored mental energy, the five veterans pushed deeper into the Black Forest to hunt for more valuable materials. Meanwhile, [Immortal Star Crazy Young Master] decided his guild would challenge a second-tier monster, the Mutant Hound King, despite its deadly strength and hundred minions.

• [Kindergarten Boss] carried the Wailing Whitewood and found that it restored his mental energy and cleared his dizziness.
• Ma Lou, Lu Ziye, Jiahao, and [Ji Luo] realized the wood could be valuable for future equipment and planned to monopolize second-tier materials.
• [Ji Luo] led the five veterans farther into the Black Forest to search for another second-tier monster.
• [Immortal Star Crazy Young Master] and his guild killed their last First-Tier Mutant Hound and saw the Wailing Brain Tree first-kill announcement.
• Kuang Shao urged the Undying Stars Guild to stop falling behind and challenge the Mutant Hound King, a level 23 second-tier monster that had already killed one of their members.

After the first kill of a second-tier boss sparked a server-wide race to grind and grow stronger, the undercover agents [Give Me Your Phone] and [You've Cried Already] attended a cultist orientation while trying to pass as fanatics. A server-wide first-kill announcement stunned [You've Cried Already] and threatened to expose their cover.

• Kuang Shao rallied the Undying Stars to hunt the second-tier mutant hound king, despite an underling’s fears.
• [God Never Cries] and [God Never Laughs] decided to build their own guild and grind through the night after hearing of the first kill.
• Players across the Wasteland World began an unprecedented competitive grinding frenzy.
• [Give Me Your Phone] and [You've Cried Already] exaggerated their madness during a sermon at the Cultists' Black Forest branch.
• An announcement named I'm Not Jiahao and the other participants as the killers of the second-tier mutant Wailing Brain Tree, and [You've Cried Already] blurted out “Holy shit?!” in the silent chamber.

[Give Me Your Phone] saved [You've Cried Already] from suspicion by turning his outburst into a fervent cultist chant, impressing the priest. The ceremony was interrupted by news that the Blood-Weeping Ridge army attacking Fog Town had gone missing, leaving the Black Forest Branch alarmed.

• [You've Cried Already] shouted during the priest's sermon, drawing the attention of the priest and the newly inducted cultists.
• [Give Me Your Phone] claimed his cousin had been overwhelmed by the Holy Lord's might, then led the recruits in chanting for the Abyss.
• The priest admired [Give Me Your Phone]'s leadership and considered promoting him to squad leader after training.
• A messenger told the priest that the High Priest had summoned him to the Altar Council Chamber over an incident at Fog Town.
• The messenger revealed that the Blood-Weeping Ridge vanguard had been unreachable for two days, shocking the priest, who knew it included hundreds of elite cultists and a second-tier priest carrying three Calamity Tokens.

A Black Forest priest learned that the cultist army sent to attack Fog Town had vanished and that the town’s barrier had grown stronger. [Give Me Your Phone] and [You've Cried Already], posing as Fog Town refugees, were summoned to answer questions before the High Priest.

• A messenger told the priest that the force sent to Fog Town had gone silent and that the town’s barrier had strengthened.
• The priest left the new recruits to attend an urgent meeting with the High Priest.
• New cultists tried to win [Give Me Your Phone]’s favor, and he played the part of an arrogant recruit while worrying that Fog Town had become a dangerous topic.
• A dark-robed cultist summoned [Give Me Your Phone] and [You've Cried Already] because they claimed to have escaped from Fog Town.
• The two followed the cultist to a chamber where the High Priest and other senior cultists awaited them.

[Give Me Your Phone] defended himself and [You've Cried Already] against a Black Forest Branch Priest’s suspicion that they were lying about escaping Fog Town. He blamed the Bloodweeping Ridge Branch for killing would-be converts and loudly pledged loyalty to the Black Forest Branch, leaving the chamber stunned.

• A short Priest questioned [Give Me Your Phone] and [You've Cried Already] about what happened in Fog Town and where the Bloodweeping Ridge Branch’s army went.
• [Give Me Your Phone] claimed they had left Fog Town before the Holy Church’s attack, but the Priest challenged why they had not joined the army outside the barrier.
• [Give Me Your Phone] knelt and accused Bloodweeping Ridge believers of killing Fog Town residents who wanted to join the Abyss.
• [Give Me Your Phone] praised the Black Forest Branch’s leaders and declared that he, Lin Shen, would serve them without hesitation.
• [You've Cried Already] knelt and joined the pledge as Lin Qian, leaving the stone chamber silent.

[Give Me Your Phone] and [You've Cried Already] escaped suspicion at the Black Forest Branch by directing the Cultists' blame toward Winterhold. Meanwhile, players kept grinding through the night, and the Ninth Art forum remained busy despite lower activity.

• [Give Me Your Phone] praised the Black Forest Branch while criticizing Blood-Weeping Ridge, winning the Cultists' approval and helping the pair avoid further questioning.
• The High Priest concluded that Winterhold had destroyed Blood-Weeping Ridge's force at Fog Town, and the Cultists discussed strengthening their defenses.
• The High Priest dismissed [Give Me Your Phone] and [You've Cried Already], who left with a Cultist guide to collect their robes.
• [You've Cried Already] thanked [Give Me Your Phone] for thinking quickly, and [Give Me Your Phone] suggested exploiting the Cultists' suspicion of Winterhold while sharing the story on the forum.
• As evening fell, many third closed beta players logged off, but numerous newcomers and veteran players continued grinding, while idle Cloud Gamers kept the Ninth Art forum active.

Players shared their Black Forest experiences, mourned the Weeping Madonna, and reacted to a guild offering a fortune for a hidden-class token. Give Me Your Phone reported that he and You've Cried Already had infiltrated the cultists and misdirected their investigation of the Fog Town Battle, then warned players to eliminate patrols.

• Death-Wish Daredevil posted advice about surviving the Black Forest, while players discussed the Weeping Madonna's sacrifice and the Lord of Ashes.
• Undying Stars Fortune offered at least 150,000 Renminbi for God Never Laughs's Evil God's Fear Statue, sparking competing bids.
• Give Me Your Phone reported that he and You've Cried Already passed the Cultists' Abyss Baptism and changed classes to Fallen Cultists.
• Give Me Your Phone said he had convinced the Black Forest Branch that Winterhold's Knight Order destroyed the cultists in Fog Town.
• Give Me Your Phone warned players to wipe out any Black Forest Branch patrols they encountered so the cultists would not discover the truth about the Ash Divine Kingdom.