Recaps

Ying Zheng revealed that the Seven Kingdoms had once held a far larger population, but a disease on their land had made ordinary people infertile and unable to conceive. He explained that the Three Great Powers kept fighting because the Seven Kingdoms needed to seize healthy territory so their children could escape the disease and their people could survive.

• Zeng Mu warned Ying Zheng that a future eunuch would forge imperial edicts, support a puppet crown prince, and help bring the Qin Dynasty into civil war.
• Zeng Mu urged Ying Zheng to choose a successor who valued survival and could act decisively, and Ying Zheng agreed that a ruler needed to be a wolf rather than a fool.
• Zeng Mu asked Ying Zheng for the true reason the Three Great Powers had fought for more than a century, arguing that resource shortages alone could not explain the wars.
• Ying Zheng said the Seven Kingdoms had suffered a disease that caused infertility, especially among ordinary people, while people who moved to other lands could escape it.
• Ying Zheng explained that the Seven Kingdoms fought to take territory from the Holy Temple and the Vikings so their children could grow up able to reproduce.

Ying Zheng told Zeng Mu that the Holy Temple and the Viking Dynasty were waging war because expanding curses threatened to destroy their lands and leave their peoples unable to survive. Zeng Mu connected the revelations to Yuan Su and left the Qin Kingdom, while Ying Zheng’s officers reported that the war had begun.

• Ying Zheng explained that the Holy Temple’s Old God Tomb and the Viking Dynasty’s Old God Island were linked to their secrets about the old gods.
• Ying Zheng showed Zeng Mu that a growing desert curse was consuming the Holy Temple’s land and rising seawater would reach the Viking capital within five years.
• Zeng Mu realized the Three Great Powers’ crises made the Hundred Years’ War impossible to stop and recognized Ying Zheng’s teacher as Yuan Su.
• Ying Zheng warned Zeng Mu to leave the Qin Kingdom that day, and Zeng Mu departed without looking back.
• Qin Mu questioned why Ying Zheng had let Zeng Mu go, and a Red Pattern General reported that the war had begun.

Orphdo prepared a six-hundred-thousand-strong Viking invasion while Zeng Mu hurried toward the Temple Capital as snow began to fall. In Ling City, Ma Linya decided to join her mother at the front, unaware that Madea had sinister intentions.

• Orphdo learned that his six hundred thousand warriors were ready to advance on Wolun Territory while a hundred thousand troops harassed the Knights' Order in Gewei Territory.
• Zeng Mu recalled Xuanzi, summoned Abyss, and rushed from the Qin Kingdom toward the Temple Capital, worrying about the war and his reunion with Yenaier as snow fell.
• Ma Linya told Madea that the Vikings' cold-weather experience made them a serious threat and that she feared for their mother in Ling City.
• Ma Linya decided to travel to the front with a thousand soldiers and Silver Pattern subordinates to fight beside her mother.
• Madea embraced Ma Linya, urged her to stay safe, and concealed a sinister smile.

Kanni, Aikimu, and their hidden knights ambushed Swinburne’s Viking force as it charged toward Ling City, crushing many Vikings with rocks rolled down the slopes. The battle continued as Kanni and Aikimu confronted Swinburne, who prepared a powerful axe attack.

• Kanni and Aikimu waited with fifteen hundred concealed knights while Viking forces repeatedly harassed Ling City before dawn.
• Swinburne led seventeen hundred soldiers toward Ling City and ordered them to charge through a valley.
• Kanni gave the signal, and soldiers on both slopes released vine nets full of granite rocks onto the Vikings.
• The surviving Vikings faced a charge from the knights, and Kanni attacked Swinburne with his sword.
• Aikimu joined the fight, and Swinburne blocked his spear thrust before gathering force for another axe strike.

Kanni and Aikimu pressed Swinburne through a brutal battle, forcing him to order his Viking Warriors to retreat. Swinburne fled on horseback with the pair pursuing him, but he planned to lure them toward his field camp and turn on them.

• Kanni and Aikimu fought Swinburne together while both armies suffered heavy losses in the valley.
• Swinburne tried to retreat behind his warriors, but Kanni and Aikimu cut through those guarding him and kept up their attack.
• Swinburne ordered his Viking Warriors to retreat, and the knights' morale rose as the warriors scattered.
• Aikimu took a horse and pursued Swinburne, while Kanni joined him with several elite knights following behind.
• Swinburne slowed his group to keep the pursuers close and planned to lure Kanni and Aikimu toward his field camp before counterattacking.

Yetos captured Swinburne and his escorts, then reunited with Zeng Mu in Ling City as they discussed the Viking Legion’s losses and the Temple Master Malena’s mysterious sleep. The chapter ended with Zeng Mu and the others entering her room and finding her sitting motionless by the window.

• Yetos bound Swinburne and his escorts with vines and took them back toward the city as prisoners.
• Zeng Mu rode to Ling City after learning that Yetos and the Temple Master were in Gewei Territory, then reunited with Yetos, Aikimu, and Kanni.
• Yetos told Zeng Mu that the Viking Legion had lost over thirty-eight thousand warriors, while the Temple Master had halted plans to bring in reinforcements.
• Yetos explained that Malena had fallen into a deep sleep after a stagnant elemental aura appeared around her room.
• Zeng Mu and the others entered Malena’s room and found her sitting motionless in a chair by the window.