Chapter Summaries

Lin Mo and Zhao Gang took their companions by subway from Tianshu Underground City to Tiankui City, where Thorin became interested in building railways on Terra. The group arrived in Tiankui to the smell of Sichuan peppercorns and chili peppers.

• Lin Mo declined Lin Shigong’s offer to stay longer and returned with the others through a Portal to Tianshu Underground City.
• Zhao Gang suggested taking the subway so they could see how ordinary people traveled, and Thorin, Fendona, and Grom joined the trip.
• Thorin said the dwarves were professionals at digging tunnels and considered building railways across Terra, while Lin Mo explained the costs and risks.
• The group rode the maglev train at speeds of up to 1,020 kilometers per hour, and Wu Suowei and Wu Jiandao kept passengers orderly as they asked Lin Mo for photos.
• The train arrived at Tiankui Underground City, where Fendona noticed a wave of hot air smelling of Sichuan peppercorns and chili peppers.

Lin Mo and the Terra representatives toured Tiankui City, sampled its local food, and saw how World Trees were restoring the Arctic environment. Months later, after Great Xia had eliminated the Demon Clan across Blue Star, Terra, and nearly all of the Kona Satellite, the Kona Civilization sent a message.

• Lin Mo’s group explored Tiankui City, where residents, restaurants, and decorations reflected the city’s Sichuan heritage.
• Fendona and Thorin sampled local dishes as the group toured the city.
• Fendona examined Tiankui City’s World Tree, and Zhao Gang showed the group an ecological map with a first-phase Arctic World Tree ring due to close in about a month.
• Great Xia developed peacefully over the following months, while the Demon Clan was wiped out across Blue Star and Terra and nearly cleared from the Kona Satellite.
• After the Lantern Festival, the Kona Civilization sent a message.

Great Xia considered the Kona Civilization Watcher’s demand to complete the satellite handover and decide whether to join future missions. Its leadership approved completing the third stage and returning the satellite while keeping Great Xia’s base and defenses isolated from Kona forces.

• The Watcher asked Great Xia whether it would hand over Kona Satellite and continue the agreed missions, warning that Kona would reclaim its colonial planets if Great Xia declined.
• Zheng Jinren and his staff concluded that Great Xia should complete the third-stage mission, claim its technology reward, and seek cooperation on the fifth stage, while giving up the fourth stage.
• Zheng Jinren ordered the garrison to clear the wormhole entrances, send Nuclear Bombs through them, close the wormholes, and prepare to return control of the satellite.
• Zheng Jinren sent his proposal to the Tianshu Command Center and waited for approval.
• The Tianshu Command Center approved the handover in exchange for one technology of Great Xia’s choosing, while requiring Kona units to stay out of Great Xia’s independent base and routing all exchanges through physically isolated One-Way Gateways.

Great Xia agreed with the Watcher to skip the unnecessary fourth-stage mission and prepare for attacks on Kona Civilization’s enemies. On Blue Star, Lin Mo discovered research suggesting that some fetuses and newborns exposed to the World Tree’s environment had an unusual affinity for magic elements, though its effects remained uncertain.

• Zheng Jinren told the Watcher that Great Xia would finish clearing Kona Satellite, accepted the cancellation of the fourth-stage mission, and requested information about the fifth-stage targets.
• The Watcher confirmed the fourth-stage mission was unnecessary, kept the fifth-stage rewards unchanged, and said target information would arrive within forty-seven minutes.
• Zheng Jinren ordered Great Xia’s forces to assemble, prepare for battle, and coordinate with Lin Mo and the Holy Human Race’s mages to open a portal.
• Lin Mo read a report about unusual elemental affinity in fetuses and newborns and retrieved Great Xia’s research on forty-three anomalous subjects.
• The research team cautioned that the changes had not produced confirmed abilities and prohibited unverified labels and experiments beyond routine medical care.

Lin Mo received orders to coordinate the Holy Human Race for a new offensive against the Kona Civilization, while Great Xia’s command center tracked the arrival of a formidable Kona fleet at the satellite. The fleet took up orbit without approaching Great Xia’s independent defense zone.

• Lin Mo reviewed a report on possible adaptations in Blue Star’s children and flagged the project for long-term monitoring.
• Lin Mo received orders to travel to Terra, coordinate high-rank mages from the Holy Human Race, and open an interplanetary portal at the Kona Satellite Base.
• Lin Mo told his guards that a new offensive against the Kona Civilization was beginning and set out for Terra.
• Zheng Jinren and the Kona Base command staff observed the Kona fleet arrive, noting its 1,111 vessels and the five-kilometer flagship.
• The reconnaissance station reported that the Kona fleet had changed course to orbit the far side of the satellite, keeping its closest approach 12,000 kilometers from Great Xia’s defense zone.

The Kona Civilization deployed self-expanding industrial bases across the Kona Satellite and formally took control of its regions outside Great Xia’s defense zone. As the Kona fleet headed for the Third Planet, Great Xia prepared to enter first through a portal under conditions negotiated by Zheng Jinren.

• The Kona Civilization landed equipment at twelve sites, established security perimeters, and built industrial bases that began expanding through local resource production.
• Watcher confirmed the Kona Civilization’s takeover of the Kona Satellite and promised Great Xia its chosen technology after the third-stage mission was completed.
• The Kona fleet regrouped and headed back to the Kona Home Planet before setting course for the Third Planet, where the joint operation was due to begin in eighteen hours.
• Zheng Jinren agreed that Great Xia would use a portal to establish the first landing zone, provided the Kona fleet cleared nearby Demon Clan forces and supplied reconnaissance and fire support.
• Watcher accepted Great Xia’s conditions, including the right to close the portal and choose another entry point if the ground threat proved too great.

Great Xia assembled its unmanned expeditionary force and prepared to open a portal to the Demon-occupied Third Planet. Lin Mo and the mages agreed to open a hundred-meter portal within four hours as Zheng Jinren outlined the deployment plan and warned that the first wave could face an immediate attack.

• Great Xia assembled more than one million unmanned units at Kona Base while keeping its limited space fleet behind to defend the base.
• Lin Mo arrived with Kael and three other Sixth-Rank Grand Mages, and Zheng Jinren told them the transfer of control was nearly complete and the Kona fleet would reach the Third Planet's orbit in eighteen hours.
• Lin Mo and Zheng Jinren reviewed the Third Planet's harsh conditions and the Demon Clan's lairs, then chose an abandoned mining city as the portal's destination.
• Zheng Jinren described a first wave of one hundred thousand unmanned units that would establish a defensive line within forty minutes before the rest of the force deployed.
• Lin Mo said the mages could expand the portal to a hundred meters within four hours, and Zheng Jinren agreed to proceed.

Lin Mo and four Sixth Rank Grand Mages opened five portals from Kona Base to the Third Planet, where reconnaissance found no nearby life or demons but detected dangerous pressure and corrosive dust. Zheng Jinren ordered an advance engineering team to prepare for deployment and notified the Kona Civilization that Great Xia’s landing had begun.

• Lin Mo completed the eastern plain magic array and coordinated with Zheng Jinren, who scheduled the portals to open ten minutes later.
• Lin Mo and the four Grand Mages raised magic shields and agreed to send reconnaissance units first, stopping the expansion if they found demons of the Seventh Order or above.
• Lin Mo opened the first portal, and its expanding passage revealed the Third Planet’s hostile landscape and sent high-pressure, harmful air toward Kona Satellite.
• Pangu Mecha detected no nearby life or Demon Clan activity, while Lin Mo remained wary of threats beyond its scanning range.
• Kael and the other three Grand Mages opened four more portals to spread the landing zone across five locations.
• Zheng Jinren ordered the advance engineering team to prioritize tracked platforms, communications nodes, and Burrowing Robots, and told the Kona Civilization that Great Xia’s landing had begun.

Zheng Jinren oversaw Great Xia’s unmanned landing on the Third Planet, where reconnaissance revealed a hostile environment and nearby Demon Clan forces. After the army built a network of defenses, artillery and Pangu Mechas repelled the first horde, but another sixth-rank demon approached from the north.

• Zheng Jinren sent the Kona Civilization the five Portal exit coordinates and drone reconnaissance data.
• Reconnaissance drones reported extreme gravity, corrosive air, an approaching electromagnetic storm, and seven suspected Demon Clan positions.
• Zheng Jinren ordered the force to secure the Portal exits, inspect underground structures, and build defenses as Great Xia’s unmanned units deployed through the Portals.
• The five landing positions formed a connected network of fire, and the Demon Clan sounded an alarm before a horde of more than ten thousand attacked.
• Zheng Jinren ordered an artillery salvo, and the barrage broke up the horde’s formation and cleared a path for a sixth-rank demon.
• Three Pangu Mechas killed the sixth-rank demon, while reconnaissance detected another suspected sixth-rank unit approaching from the north.

Zheng Jinren’s forces secured the Third Planet landing zone and stabilized five portals, allowing the Kona Expeditionary Fleet to begin its descent. As tens of thousands of landing craft entered the atmosphere, the fleet bombarded Demon Clan forces across the region.

• Zheng Jinren’s troops destroyed the attacking demon hordes, then secured the landing zone and expanded reconnaissance without pursuing the survivors.
• Lin Mo and the other mages completed and stabilized the five portals to the Third Planet.
• Zheng Jinren received confirmation that no sizable Demon Clan concentrations were detected within a hundred-kilometer radius and authorized the Kona fleet to enter deployment orbit.
• The Kona Expeditionary Fleet launched tens of thousands of landing craft and opened fire on Winged Demons, Gargoyles, underground nests, and other Demon Clan forces.
• The fleet’s orbital strikes wiped out exposed demon concentrations and Sixth-Rank commanders across a radius of more than a thousand kilometers, clearing the way for the landing formation to descend.

The Kona Civilization landed its forces on the Third Planet and rapidly established twelve industrial bases while Great Xia recorded the display of its superior technology. As both unmanned legions expanded their territory without meeting serious resistance, Zheng Jinren investigated the Demon Clan’s absence and wondered why the enemy had become so easy to fight.

• Zheng Jinren ordered the Kona fleet’s weapons, landing footage, and performance data sent to Great Xia’s Academy of Sciences and military research institute for analysis.
• Kona landing craft were dismantled into twelve basic industrial bases, while engineering spaceships unloaded equipment and returned to orbit.
• Great Xia’s Unmanned Legion cleared remaining Demon Clan groups and recovered corpses as both civilizations’ forces expanded their controlled territory.
• Reports showed Demon Clan forces withdrawing or abandoning lairs, with no Seventh-Order Demon Venerables or Eighth-Order Demon Gods appearing to lead a counterattack.
• Zheng Jinren examined footage of emptied lairs and old drag marks, then questioned why the Demon Clan had become so easy to fight.

After Great Xia and the Kona Civilization crushed the Demon Clan’s resistance on the Third Planet, Lin Mo returned to Celestial Pivot City, exhausted from opening the portal. There, he noticed people burning paper beside the street and went to investigate.

• Zheng Jinren and Lin Mo watched Great Xia and Kona forces sweep across the Third Planet, with the Demon Clan unable to resist without its powerful leaders.
• Lin Mo warned Zheng Jinren to keep the portal supplied with energy crystals before leaving Kona Base with Kael and the other Grand Mages.
• Lin Mo stayed behind at Celestial Pivot City to rest and switch bodies, while Kael and the others returned to Terra.
• Lin Mo emerged onto the surface beneath the World Tree and smelled smoke from burning paper.
• Lin Mo followed the smell to several people squatting beside small fires, and the sight made his mood sink.

On the Ghost Festival, Lin Mo witnessed a grieving mother and daughter honor the father who had died saving them during the disaster. He comforted them with magic and left with a renewed resolve to protect Great Xia’s peaceful future.

• Lin Mo saw people burning offerings on the fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month and stopped near a mother and daughter.
• The mother mourned her husband, recalling how he died pushing his family to safety before they could fulfill their plans for a life together.
• Yaya wondered whether her father could use the paper phone and car in the Netherworld without power plants, charging piles, or gas stations.
• Lin Mo approached the pair and used magic to turn the ashes into drifting white sparks, telling Yaya that Great Xia’s light could reach her father wherever he was.
• The mother watched the sparks with a trace of release as Yaya cheered, and Lin Mo walked into the night, resolved to preserve the life the martyrs had hoped for.

Great Xia received the Kona Civilization’s interstellar engine technology as the reward for completing the third-stage mission, and Zheng Jinren learned it could greatly improve both starships and Blue Star’s planetary engines. Back on the Terra Continent, Lin Mo toured the thriving Great Xia Fief and admired its massive coastal expansion.

• Zheng Jinren heard that the Academy of Sciences’ preliminary analysis found the Kona engine could raise Great Xia’s warship speed to eight percent of the speed of light, potentially reaching ten percent once mastered.
• A staff officer told Zheng Jinren that the technology could also improve Blue Star’s planetary engines, and Zheng Jinren looked forward to further rewards after helping the Kona Civilization reclaim its colonial planet.
• Lin Mo switched back into his fourth-order peak body on the Terra Continent, washed, and walked through the busy trade district of the Great Xia Fief.
• Lin Mo reached the coast and saw that Great Xia’s combat engineers had pushed the shoreline more than ten kilometers out to sea through land reclamation.
• Lin Mo watched the distant aircraft carrier fleet and noted that Terra’s races tolerated Great Xia’s expansion despite its imposing coastal missile silos and military strength.

Lin Mo heard how trade and employment between Great Xia and Terra had expanded, then learned that young people from both worlds were beginning to date and apply for cross-world marriages. He halted the marriage applications and ordered research into whether humans and Terra’s magical races could safely have children together.

• Lin Mo told Zhao Gang that the situation in Kona had gone smoothly without High-Ranking Demon Clan members.
• Zhao Gang reported that cross-world merchants, Terran shops, and Terran employees in Great Xia had grown rapidly, with many working in livestreaming, entertainment, healthcare, and industry.
• Zhao Gang told Lin Mo that young people from Great Xia and Terra were dating, and that some had submitted cross-world marriage applications.
• Lin Mo ordered the marriage applications put on hold and dismissed legal differences as less serious than the risks of mixed-race reproduction.
• Lin Mo instructed Zhao Gang to contact Academician Liu Chengen and investigate whether Blue Star Humans and Terra’s magical races had reproductive isolation.

Lin Mo and Zhao Gang confirmed that Blue Star Humans could not reproduce with Terra’s races and set conditions for approving cross-world marriages. The chapter then shifted to a resource planet where Cho'Gath surveyed the Demon Clan Army and celebrated inheriting Aker’s forces and territory.

• Zhao Gang called Liu Chengen, who confirmed that experiments found reproductive isolation between Blue Star Humans and Terra’s races.
• Liu Chengen explained that the races had independently evolved and warned that cross-species pathogens, allergies, and elemental reactions still posed medical risks.
• Lin Mo and Zhao Gang decided to allow cross-world marriages with risk disclosures, medical screening, and property agreements.
• Cho'Gath hovered over a resource planet’s vast Demon Clan Army and delighted in inheriting Aker’s territory and hundreds of millions of troops.

Cho'Gath forced the Demon Clan on the planet to accept him as their new king, then learned that the Kona Civilization and Blue Star Civilization were rapidly reclaiming occupied worlds. He realized he had been wise to flee the Kona Star System before facing their advancing armies.

• Yaxes reported that all remaining Demon Clan forces on the planet had gathered, and Cho'Gath announced Aker's death and demanded their submission.
• A Sixth-Rank Commander questioned Cho'Gath's claim, so Cho'Gath killed and ate it to silence any further dissent.
• The demons submitted to Cho'Gath, who declared himself their new king and ordered his forces to gather valuables and prepare to conquer another planet.
• Yaxes informed Cho'Gath that the Kona Civilization and Blue Star Civilization had allied and were quickly retaking the planets the Demon Clan occupied.
• Cho'Gath learned that their forces were close to taking the Third Planet and privately felt relieved that he had left the Kona Star System.

Cho'Gath accepted Yaxes's plan to sell the Blue Star Civilization's coordinates to reckless Demon Gods before it cleared the Kona Star System, then returned to the Demon Clan's Home Planet to prepare. He arrived at his trading mountain and was greeted by Kalu.

• Yaxes convinced Cho'Gath to sell the Blue Star Civilization's coordinates before the allied civilizations destroyed the Demon Clan's footholds in the Kona Star System.
• Cho'Gath ordered his forces to return to the Home Planet, planning to profit from selling the coordinates and later seize the territories of defeated Demon Gods.
• Cho'Gath and Yaxes arrived at Cho'Gath's territory in the Demon Clan's Home Planet Galaxy, where the demon creatures prostrated themselves before their king.
• Cho'Gath passed through a wormhole to the Demon Emperor's public trading planet and reached his mountain of bones, where rare resources were stored.
• Kalu, the Seventh-Order Demon Venerable guarding Cho'Gath's trading mountain, came out to greet him.

Cho'Gath returned to the Trading Planet and learned that Demon Gods were accusing him of hoarding Aker's territory, but he used their disdain as cover for his plan to sell the Blue Star coordinates. He offered the coordinates to Herok, who stopped him as he was leaving and asked what he wanted.

• Kalu reported that Demon Gods had divided up much of Brett's territory and were spreading rumors that Cho'Gath had greedily kept Aker's spoils.
• Cho'Gath laughed off the rumors and set out with Yaxes and three other Demon Venerables to visit his wealthy old friends.
• Cho'Gath offered Herok the coordinates of a technological civilization and said he would sell them to the Obsidian Demon God if Herok did not want them.
• Herok suspected the civilization was responsible for Brett's death, and Cho'Gath said Brett had died because it was useless.
• Herok called Cho'Gath back as he was leaving and asked what he wanted; Cho'Gath demanded dark marrow ore, star core crystals, and Plasma Bug Hatcheries.

Cho'Gath sold Herok the coordinates to Blue Star Civilization, then approached Sah to offer the coordinates to the magic civilization Terra. Sah challenged Cho'Gath over Aker's death and asked why he would not conquer Terra himself.

• Herok hesitated over Cho'Gath's price but agreed to trade supplies for the coordinates to Blue Star Civilization.
• Yaxes confirmed that Herok's supplies had arrived, and Cho'Gath handed Herok the coordinates in exchange.
• Cho'Gath left Herok's territory and went to Sah's palace to offer him the coordinates to an intelligent civilization.
• Sah accused Cho'Gath of involvement in Aker's death, then asked why Cho'Gath would not conquer Terra himself.
• Cho'Gath explained that Terra was allied with the technological civilization Blue Star Civilization.