Chapter Summaries

Qin Feng watched the Judgment Grounds punish players for their sins, and the Blade of Judgment grew stronger from their torment. He returned to the Evil Spirit Academy to work on its defenses while rumors about him continued spreading ahead of the approaching Desolation Spread.

• Qin Feng watched five Simps repeatedly rush toward Qingqing, who transformed into a worm and devoured them in each cycle.
• The Judgment Grounds subjected players to punishments reflecting their sins, including boiling oil, a mountain of blades, and repeated horrifying illusions.
• Qin Feng wondered why Chen Dadan received a different punishment, then saw the Blade of Judgment's Divinity Limit rise from 51 to 59 and its base attribute boost from 41% to 49%.
• Qin Feng returned to the Evil Spirit Academy to continue upgrading its defensive barrier and considered how foreign factions spreading rumors might strengthen the Blade of Judgment if judged.
• Players on Great Xia's forums complained that Dark Shadow had trapped their relatives in Nightmares, while a reply revealed that the Rocket Group had tried to seize an Epic Grade boss and all sixty members were affected.

Fuxi defended Dark Shadow online and took responsibility for the guild members who had fallen into Nightmare, while Lao Zhangtou planned to reclaim guild resources from him. Qin Feng upgraded the Evil Spirit Academy and prepared to build Teleportation Arrays, then learned that Sea City still had not decided what to do with the Phoenix Egg; the chapter ended with Yunjianyue refusing to let anyone abandon it as it neared hatching.

• Fuxi published a long apology and defense of Dark Shadow, blaming himself for leading people into danger and threatening to fight anyone who kept smearing Dark Shadow.
• Zhang Jinxuan suggested taking Fuxi back into the Sky Dome Guild, but Lao Zhangtou said the guild would recover its invested resources and sent people to retrieve them.
• Qin Feng upgraded the Evil Spirit Academy from Platinum Tier to Jadeite Tier, then planned to build Teleportation Arrays and raise his level before Desolation Spread.
• Qin Feng asked Late Night, Light Rain about the Phoenix Egg in Sea City and learned the factions there still had not reached a decision.
• Yunjianyue guarded the core area of the Blazing Fountain Hideout and insisted that the Phoenix Egg would hatch within two days, refusing to give it up.

Yunjianyue persuaded Sea City’s authorities and Great Xia’s higher-ups to let her continue hatching the Phoenix Egg under a two-day deadline and a twenty-kilometer evacuation cordon. Qin Feng judged the precautions insufficient but decided to wait for events to unfold, and he finished building the Teleportation Array at the Evil Spirit Academy Hideout.

• Yunjianyue refused to abandon the Phoenix Egg, and Shan Shang Xue proposed evacuating nearby civilian players before it hatched.
• Sea City’s authorities and Great Xia’s higher-ups allowed Yunjianyue two days to hatch the egg, with only her team staying at the Blazing Fountain Hideout and officials evacuating players within twenty kilometers.
• Qin Feng learned of the decision from Late Night, Light Rain and realized the level 45 Epic Grade phoenix would arrive in one day, before the two-day deadline ended.
• Qin Feng decided not to interfere unless events went badly, when he planned to take the egg and bring it to the Evil Spirit Academy Hideout.
• Qin Feng finished building the Teleportation Array at the Evil Spirit Academy Hideout.

Qin Feng finished the Teleportation Array at the Evil Spirit Academy, then traveled to the River-Sea City Ruins to build another at the Soul-Cleansing Grounds. There, he found Qin Xiaoyou waiting outside and ignored her plea for help, leaving her to face Chen Wuming through the guild.

• Qin Feng completed the Teleportation Array and agreed that the Sky Dome Guild would cover its daily maintenance cost.
• Zhang Jinxuan told Qin Feng about Fuxi, while a Sky Dome Guild officer asked Fuxi to return the equipment and wait to see whether his injured guildmates survived.
• Qin Feng teleported to the River-Sea City Ruins and heard players criticize Qin Xiaoyou for asking the Knight's Sanctuary Guild to carry her through levels.
• Qin Feng found Qin Xiaoyou dozing outside the Soul-Cleansing Grounds and closed the door after she said her legs were gone.
• Qin Feng messaged Chen Wuming to ask whether Qin Xiaoyou had lost her mind by calling him her brother.

Qin Xiaoyou reconsidered whether Qin Feng was Dark Shadow and sought ways to prove her hazy memories, while an Epic Grade two-headed phoenix attacked the Sea City Ruins. Sea City's officials gave Qin Feng access to the Phoenix Egg, and he headed there with Osilio as Yunjianyue struggled to fill her Chaos Gauge.

• Chen Wuming scolded Qin Xiaoyou, and Knight's Sanctuary players dragged her away as her reputation and circumstances worsened.
• Qin Xiaoyou decided to investigate her memories and suspected that activating the Eyeless Stone Man statue could prove they were real.
• Qin Feng built a Teleportation Array in the Soul-Cleansing Grounds and continued leveling before Chaosborn · Twin Phoenixes in One · Luti Xier attacked players near the Blazing Fountain Hideout.
• Sea City's officials agreed to let Qin Feng take the Phoenix Egg in exchange for eliminating the boss.
• Qin Feng set out with Osilio, who joked about raising the phoenix egg, while Shan Shang Xue urged Yunjianyue to leave before her Chaos Gauge filled.

Yunjianyue and the players at Blazing Fountain Hideout were trapped by Lutixier’s affixes and attacks as Chaos drove players to slaughter one another. Qin Feng took the Phoenix Egg and escaped with Osilio, prompting Lutixier to chase the flying egg.

• Shan Shang Xue led Yunjianyue and their allies out of the core area as Lutixier’s Wither and Corruption gauges disabled their damage and buffs.
• Lutixier flew to Blazing Fountain Hideout, surrounded its barrier with black flames, and trapped players who tried to escape.
• Players overwhelmed by Chaos respawned and attacked one another, while most others logged out after Qin Feng’s warning.
• Qin Feng arrived with Osilio, entered Blazing Fountain Hideout, and took the Phoenix Egg from its core area.
• Qin Feng and Osilio flew away with the egg, and Lutixier pursued it.

Osilio stole the Phoenix Egg and lured the Epic Grade phoenix sisters, Luti and Xier, toward Qin Feng’s trap. In Sea City, the confusion caused by the failed hatching killed two powerful players, including Yunjianyue’s younger brother Shan Shang Xue.

• The Epic Grade phoenix chased Osilio but could not catch him, while Sea City officials sent crowd-control teams to restrain the confused players at the Hideout.
• Sea City officials learned that two confused players had died permanently: Yunjianyue’s admirer, a Formation Master, and her younger brother Shan Shang Xue.
• Osilio flew away with the Phoenix Egg as Luti and Xier followed, unable to understand how it had been stolen.
• Osilio taunted the sisters and claimed he would care for their child, then Qin Feng ordered him to come down.
• Luti and Xier followed Osilio through the dark clouds and recognized the Pure Sanctuary Stele below.

Qin Feng activated the Pure Sanctuary Stele to suppress the Two-Headed Phoenix’s greater affixes and prepare to fight it, but the cautious phoenixes chose to leave him their egg instead. After learning they would become his mounts if he brought Bell to the Black-Eyed Volcano at level 40, Qin Feng headed home to collect his reward and hatch the egg.

• Qin Feng activated the Pure Sanctuary Stele, creating a Pure Zone that disabled greater affixes within three kilometers.
• The Two-Headed Phoenix, Luti and Xier, stayed at a distance and discussed Qin Feng’s strength and their chances of recovering their child.
• Luti asked Qin Feng to care for Bell and bring the egg to the Black-Eyed Volcano when he reached level 40, offering for the phoenixes to become his mounts.
• Osilio joked about choosing one or both phoenix sisters as mates, while Qin Feng watched them fly away without a fight.
• Qin Feng received a message from Late Night, Light Rain in Magic City that Sea City was preparing to award him a Meritorious Service Medal, and decided to go home, collect the money, and hatch the egg.

Qin Feng left the Sea City Ruins and placed the Phoenix Egg in the Evil Spirit Academy’s magma chapel, where Outcast Fairy · Yuan watched over it while he leveled up. After two days of hunting monsters and learning more about the Sea City disaster, Qin Feng received Yuan’s message that the egg would hatch in about half an hour.

• Qin Feng brought the Phoenix Egg to the magma chapel and restarted its hatching progress in the flowing magma.
• Qin Feng asked Outcast Fairy · Yuan to watch the egg, and she explained that male Hell Phoenixes were combat-focused pets that could randomly learn their owner's class traits.
• Qin Feng found Osilio questioning Eye of Knowledge · Aristotle about the egg, then took Osilio out to level up.
• Qin Feng spent two days farming monsters, received a thousand years of tradable lifespan and a Guardian of Sea City medal, and learned that Shan Shang Xue had died during the Blazing Fountain Hideout disaster.
• Qin Feng reached level 28 and received Outcast Fairy · Yuan's message that the Phoenix Egg would hatch in about half an hour.

Qin Feng witnessed the male Hell Phoenix hatch, named the tiny chick Gray Chicken, and learned about its powerful pet abilities. He brought it to meet Osilio, who regarded the new hatchling with an eerie green stare.

• Qin Feng returned to the Magma Church and watched the Phoenix Egg hatch into a tiny male Hell Phoenix.
• The hatchling fell into the magma, and Qin Feng rescued it before naming it Gray Chicken.
• Gray Chicken addressed Qin Feng as Your Majesty and accepted its name after objecting to being called Black Chicken.
• Qin Feng received Outcast Fairy · Yuan’s baptism, then checked Gray Chicken’s powerful pet stats and abilities.
• Qin Feng placed Gray Chicken on his shoulder and introduced it to Osilio, whose gaze startled the hatchling.

Qin Feng helped Gray Chick level up in a lifespan-draining Demon zone, where the young Hell Phoenix gained powerful class passives and attack skills. Meanwhile, Yunjianyue and her surviving subordinates emerged from two days of confusion in the Sea City Ruins and learned what had happened.

• Osilio discovered that Gray Chick was male, but Gray Chick persuaded him that joining the Hell Phoenix Clan would leave him powerless, then asked Osilio to teach him how to become a king.
• Qin Feng and Osilio flew to a level 30 Demon spawning area, where Qin Feng killed Demons and Gray Chick rapidly gained levels and inherited several of Qin Feng's class passives.
• Gray Chick used his new Invisibility-based abilities to attack Demons, while Qin Feng observed his growing stats and considered training him in areas with even higher lifespan drain.
• Qin Feng noticed a desire for revenge in Gray Chick's eyes and suspected it stemmed from the mistreatment of his mother, Luti Xier.
• Yunjianyue and her surviving subordinates emerged from their confused state in the Sea City Ruins, and Yunjianyue reeled after learning what had happened during the previous two days.

After the Two-Headed Phoenix’s confusion affixes led to the deaths of Wang Shan Xue and Gao Liang Ying, the officials placed Yunjianyue under a Soul Reaper’s control and sent her to the capital. Meanwhile, Qin Feng continued hunting monsters with the newly hatched phoenix and found a promising stat while rerolling his cursed slate.

• Yunjianyue woke restrained in a Lightning Element cage and remembered that the confusion affix had prevented her team from logging out, even after death.
• Yunjianyue learned that her brother, Wang Shan Xue, and teammate, Gao Liang Ying, had died during the confusion, and she broke down in regret.
• Miss Luo, a Soul Reaper from the capital, linked to Yunjianyue and took custody of her Life Soul, giving the officials a way to control her.
• An official told Yunjianyue that she would join the capital’s Second Wilderness-Clearing Team, and she realized the officials had secured control over her through both Miss Luo and her parents.
• Qin Feng kept farming monsters with the newly hatched phoenix and found a promising stat while rerolling the Goddess of Love’s Cursed Slate.

Qin Feng accepted a curse on his Assassination Hood, then learned that the Sky Serpent Organization had tried to lure Calamity Hades to his Hideout. He helped Late Night, Light Rain plan how to lure Shuddering Joker Erniros to Los Angeles, while warning that its true body, the Trembling Hut, could become more dangerous as it gathered corpses.

• Qin Feng kept a curse that shortened the Assassination Hood’s concealment effect but reset its cooldown whenever he killed a player during its effect.
• Late Night, Light Rain told Qin Feng that a Summoner had been paid by the Sky Serpent Organization to lure Calamity Hades to his Hideout, and that the government was considering luring an Epic Grade boss to Los Angeles in retaliation.
• Late Night, Light Rain asked Qin Feng whether Shuddering Joker Erniros could be lured to Los Angeles, and Qin Feng agreed to look into it.
• Qin Feng learned that Shuddering Joker Erniros’s true body was the immobile Trembling Hut, which could relocate by using nearby corpses to build a new hut and add the corpses’ skills to its skill pool.
• Qin Feng told Late Night, Light Rain that Demon corpses could lure the Trembling Hut toward Los Angeles, and he considered how the boss might devastate the ruins.

Qin Feng guided Great Xia’s officials in negotiating with Shuddering Joker Erniros and arranging to lure it to the Los Angeles Ruins while sparing listed guilds. As Qin Feng prepared to visit the rare merchant Qiyige, rumors spread in Los Angeles that Erniros was secretly killing players.

• Qin Feng told Late Night, Light Rain how to lure the Trembling Hut by timing and spacing Demon corpse drops.
• A Great Xia Puppeteer used Qin Feng’s advice to reveal the Trembling Hut as Erniros’s true body and secured its agreement not to kill members of specified guilds.
• Qin Feng neared level 30 and agreed to visit Qiyige, the fire-surrounded merchant outside the Dunhuang Ruins.
• Player violence and disorder continued throughout the Los Angeles Ruins, where Great Xia players banded together for protection.
• A rumor spread through the Los Angeles Ruins that Shuddering Joker Erniros was secretly slaughtering players.

The Shuddering Joker Erniros rampaged through the Los Angeles trading market, while Fuxiao and her guild escaped to safety. Qin Feng reached level 30 and strengthened his already formidable defenses as the Joker’s victims continued suffering from its Nightmare effect.

• Erniros killed players in the Los Angeles trading market, and Fuxiao spotted the Epic Grade boss with True Sight before it spared her and her team.
• Fuxiao led her team to the Withered Bone Crematorium, where her father said the boss would normally avoid their guild and ordered everyone to stay in the Hideout or log off.
• Qin Feng explained that Erniros’s victims were afflicted with unavoidable Nightmares, allowing the boss to harvest their lifespan again as they fled their Hideouts.
• Qin Feng spent his saved experience to rise from level 25 to level 30 and allocated all 75 free attribute points to Spirit.
• Qin Feng reviewed his stats and concluded that he needed even more fire resistance before buying items from Strange Bro.

Qin Feng increased his elemental resistance, upgraded Instant Annihilation to ancient grade, and set out for the Dunhuang Ruins to meet Qiyige. Back at the Evil Spirit Academy, he gave Gui Ling more Teleportation Stones before teleporting away, while she prepared to explore newly discovered ruins of the God of Bones.

• Qin Feng raised his elemental resistance by devouring evolved resistance skills, then planned to seek an Array Foundation Stone from Qiyige with his newly expanded lifespan reserves.
• Qin Feng upgraded Instant Annihilation to ancient grade, gaining increased damage and an effect that reduced targets' higher-order resistances when damage over time detonated.
• Qin Feng used a Teleportation Stone to return to the Evil Spirit Academy, where he encountered Gui Ling returning by grappling hook.
• Qin Feng gave Gui Ling ten more Teleportation Stones and teleported to the Dunhuang Ruins to find Qiyige and visit the Divine Authority Tower.
• Gui Ling kept the Teleportation Stones and set out to explore newly discovered Underground Ruins that seemed to belong to the God of Bones.

Qin Feng entered the blazing Dunhuang Ruins to find the Lonely Lava Giant Qiyige, using buffs and his extreme Fire Element Resistance to survive the flames. He reached the lonely NPC and discovered that Qiyige had brought out a Storage Bag of goods, whose contents stunned him.

• Dunhuang’s official players doubted Qin Feng could withstand the flames, but their captain arranged Fire Element Resistance and healing buffs for him and Gray Chicken.
• Qin Feng arrived on Osilio, greeted the players, received the buffs, and set off into the flames with Gray Chicken.
• Gray Chicken fell from Qin Feng’s shoulder when Qin Feng accelerated, so Qin Feng ran back, picked him up, and continued toward Qiyige.
• The players saw Qin Feng lose less than five percent of his HP per second and wondered how much Fire Element Resistance he had.
• Qin Feng reached Qiyige, who eagerly set out a Storage Bag, and Qin Feng was astonished by what he saw inside.

Qin Feng examined Strange Bro’s wares and considered buying a Weapon Ascension Scroll that could nullify shields and barriers, along with a Diamond Tier Array Foundation Stone and a strange Skill Book. He decided to stay with Strange Bro longer to increase his discount before making purchases.

• Qin Feng found a Legendary Tier Weapon Ascension Scroll that added the Order effect Shield Disintegration to a weapon, and he considered using it to defeat an Epic Grade boss near River-Sea City.
• Qin Feng inspected a Diamond Tier Array Foundation Stone that could reduce Hideout lifespan costs by 84% and decided it would be useful if he could get it at a discount.
• Qin Feng found no other useful equipment or Skill Books and planned to offer the authorities the chance to buy items from Strange Bro at their listed prices.
• Qin Feng spotted the Platinum Tier universal Skill Book Vanish Without a Trace, which made his corpse disappear upon death, and considered evolving it.
• Qin Feng postponed his purchases so he could spend more time beside Strange Bro and secure a larger discount.

Qin Feng stayed beside Strange Bro to build up a discount on the lava giant’s merchandise while enduring the surrounding fire damage. After the Spring Breeze Enchantment wore off, Qin Feng used Abyss Wither Curse on himself and Gray Chicken, leaving Gray Chicken panicked as Qin Feng urged him to attack.

• Qin Feng sent Late Night, Light Rain Strange Bro’s Jade Tier and Diamond Tier merchandise prices and told her to decide within ten minutes.
• Late Night, Light Rain calculated that Qin Feng had at least 97% Fire Element damage reduction and hurried to report the merchandise list to the higher-ups.
• Strange Bro asked Qin Feng what he wanted to buy, while Gray Chicken demanded to be treated as a customer and introduced himself as the King of Flames.
• Qin Feng tossed Gray Chicken into Strange Bro’s palm, where the giant’s intense flames burned him, then continued waiting beside Strange Bro as the discount increased.
• After Spring Breeze Enchantment expired and the surrounding fire damage rose, Qin Feng cast Abyss Wither Curse on himself and Gray Chicken, then told Gray Chicken to hit him.

Qin Feng and Gray Chicken endured escalating flames to buy the authorities’ requested goods and a legendary Skill Book before escaping, but Gray Chicken died after returning to the fire over losing his feathers. In Los Angeles, Sky Serpent’s leaders discussed how to stop the Shuddering Joker and considered persuading Dark Shadow to act.

• Qin Feng and Gray Chicken attacked and healed each other to survive the intensifying flames while the merchandise discount reached 50%.
• Late Night, Light Rain sent Qin Feng the authorities’ shopping list, and Qin Feng bought the requested items for over 35,000 years of lifespan.
• At the ten-minute mark, Qin Feng bought a legendary-tier universal Skill Book from Strange Bro’s list and carried Gray Chicken out of the flames.
• Gray Chicken ran back into the flames over his burned feathers and died, so Qin Feng summoned Osilio while Gray Chicken began a 60-minute resurrection wait.
• In Los Angeles, seven Sky Serpent leaders discussed the Shuddering Joker’s killings and concluded that Dark Shadow might be able to help them defeat the epic-grade boss.