Chapter Summaries

Broken Star left Slaughter Tide to pursue his oath at Against the Tide, passed the reserve-soldier assessment, and arrived at Training Camp No. 323. There, he recognized the instructors from his previous life.

• Broken Star told Slaughter Tide that he would join Against the Tide Training Camp and appointed Meteor Hammer acting guild leader.
• Broken Star said farewell to his drunken guildmates, used Self-Dissolution, and traveled from Emperor Tomb Village to the Against the Tide Warriors' reception point.
• A burly Dusk Eagle Clan warrior tested the gathered players; Broken Star passed trials of fear, combat technique, and pain endurance alongside three other candidates.
• Broken Star boarded a shuttle with the other successful candidates and arrived at Against the Tide Training Camp No. 323, where the instructors looked familiar to him.

Broken Star reunited with Li Zheng and the other former recruits when he joined Training Camp 323, where he impressed them by training seriously and never cheating. As the class neared graduation, Li Zheng decided to ask Elder You to approve an all-Player Warband in the Against the Tide Auxiliary.

• Broken Star recognized Li Zheng, Eat Dirt, Sha Xin, Family Sharing, and the other instructors, who noticed his resemblance to an old acquaintance.
• Li Zheng and the instructors agreed to enforce anti-cheating rules after reviewing the new recruits’ files, and they caught and punished several Player trainees for cheating.
• Broken Star endured physical training, tactics lessons, and medicinal baths without cheating, prompting the instructors to investigate him for weeks before Li Zheng accepted that he was genuinely working hard.
• Li Zheng considered how Players could fight more aggressively in an all-Player auxiliary Warband and wrote Elder You a request for approval to form one.

Elder You forwarded Bricklayer’s proposal for an all-Player auxiliary warband to Godguard, whose members discovered the Players’ connection to primordial power and unanimously approved the plan. Godguard ordered the 138th Legion to prioritize supplies, the 137th Legion to assist, and Elder You to oversee the warband while keeping the Players’ secret origins confidential.

• Elder You received Bricklayer’s proposal to form a Player Auxiliary Warband and considered whether the 138th Legion could support it.
• Elder You sent Bricklayer’s request and information about the Player Race to Godguard for review.
• Godguard members discovered that the Players’ abilities and rebirth were rooted in primordial power and debated whether the Four Gods were connected to their origins.
• Godguard agreed to keep the Players’ primordial power secret and unanimously approved Bricklayer’s proposal.
• Godguard ordered Bricklayer to lead the warband’s formation and training, the 138th Legion to prioritize its supplies, the 137th Legion to help allocate resources, and Elder You to oversee its progress.

Li Zheng received Elder You’s approval to establish the Against the Tide Auxiliary player warband, and the Hardcore Grinders Group selected a snowy valley and had a dedicated training camp built there. The chapter ended with Li Zheng announcing an elite recruitment drive on the Player Forum, opening a new route for players to join Against the Tide.

• Elder You approved Li Zheng’s application and appointed him the first legion commander of the auxiliary player warband.
• Li Zheng and the Hardcore Grinders Group chose a broad, snow-covered valley for their training camp after rejecting sites that were too comfortable, dangerous, or harsh.
• Elder You brought the group to the valley, where Against the Tide logistics workers quickly built the camp and installed its Recovery Room, Spirit Chef Center, and Tool Room.
• Li Zheng vowed to build a renowned player legion, while privately hoping the warband would protect his non-player comrades in battle.
• Li Zheng posted an elite recruitment announcement declaring that the Hardcore Grinders Group would control the Player Faction’s route into Against the Tide, and the Player Forum erupted.

Bricklayer announced open recruitment for the Against the Tide Player Warband, requiring applicants to pass an Ascension Reincarnation trial or five levels of the Ascension to Godhood Heart Refinement Trial. After players endured trials tailored to their weaknesses, Li Zheng screened applicants and selected a hundred elite players, leaving their new chat channel buzzing.

• Bricklayer announced that players would join a dedicated training camp and enter the warband as active warriors, with Ascension trials or reincarnation required to apply.
• Players rushed to attempt the trials, but many struggled through reincarnation worlds that tested their specific flaws and repeatedly caused them to fail.
• Players came to understand that the trials tested character and resilience, not merely combat strength or wealth.
• Li Zheng reviewed applicants’ trial records, combat information, and forum histories, rejecting anyone with a record of misconduct.
• Li Zheng selected a hundred promising players and added them to a newly created chat channel, which immediately erupted with messages.

Li Zheng welcomed the newly selected players into the Against the Tide Player Warband and gave them three days to rest while he arranged support for the camp. Meanwhile, Qi Sheng discovered that the Blue Lantern Race was fighting the Dark Tide for the Purple Ember Continent while secretly establishing supply routes on the Pale Continent, and learned that the Dark Tide force there served the Lord of Rot.

• Li Zheng welcomed a hundred selected players into the Against the Tide Player Warband, assigned their rooms, and hosted a lavish banquet that drew a large livestream audience.
• The new members spent three days relaxing in the training camp, while Li Zheng arranged a Gold Coin Chamber of Commerce teleportation array on the Colorful Mist Coast for their return trips.
• Qi Sheng observed the Blue Lantern Race's 39,482 rift passages opening across the Pale Continent at rule-level resource nodes and investigated their sudden arrival.
• Qi Sheng learned that the Blue Lantern Race was locked in a decisive battle against the Dark Tide on the Purple Ember Continent and was using the Pale Continent as a resource network and possible retreat route.
• Qi Sheng identified the Dark Tide force on the Purple Ember Continent as the Tadu Legion, commanded by 18 King Level Evil Spirits under the Lord of Rot, who was nearing the Demon God ranks.

Qi Sheng investigated the Lord of Rot and learned about the Dark Tide’s brutal advancement trials, the Lord’s struggle to devour its Auxiliary Eye, and its Supreme Rule of Enslavement. He concluded that Earth would eventually face the Lord of Rot, while the Blue Lantern Race’s defeat on the Purple Ember Continent would drive it to expand across the Pale Continent.

• Qi Sheng traced the Tadu Legion’s connections to its domain and discovered its vast war network and the Lord of Rot at its center.
• Qi Sheng analyzed the Dark Tide’s three stages of advancement and learned that the Lord of Rot was delaying its final Demon God trial because it could not bear to devour its longtime companion, the Killing Eye.
• Qi Sheng deduced that the Lord of Rot’s Supreme Rule, Seed of Enslavement, rewrote targets’ thought processes and caused them to spread its influence to others.
• Qi Sheng withdrew his consciousness and determined that the Dark Tide would eventually threaten Earth after the Lord of Rot advanced to the Demon God Realm.
• Qi Sheng observed that the Blue Lantern Race was establishing a growing presence on the Pale Continent as its war against the Dark Tide on the Purple Ember Continent turned against it.

Qi Sheng reviewed the Player Faction’s new Role Selection and Ember rule nodes, then assessed the players’ expanding war against the Mechanical Overlord and Illusion on the Earthshaking Continent. Although both enemies had introduced tactics to slow the advance, the players continued capturing territory and resource nodes.

• Qi Sheng reviewed the faction’s nine rule territory nodes and found that players could choose among 329 roles, with Elegant Gentleman, Lucky One, and Collector among the most popular.
• Qi Sheng added like and scorn functions to Ember messages so players could judge their credibility.
• Qi Sheng observed that players had occupied 8.553% of the Earthshaking Continent after three months of fighting, while each captured resource node weakened the Mechanical Overlord and Illusion.
• The Mechanical Overlord deployed heavily armored Iron King Tortoises that shared energy, trapped players, and assaulted them with sonic force fields.
• Illusion used Virtual Barriers to trap players in mazes, leading Mage players to become the main force against the Virtual Legion.
• Qi Sheng finished reviewing the war and turned his attention to a battlefield where fierce fighting was underway.

Trapped behind Illusion’s barriers, Shi Xiu proposed overwhelming Illusion with simultaneous taunts by millions of damage-soaking players. Ye Xiao organized a continent-wide test, and the barrage of taunts caused Illusion to lose control of the Virtual Legion.

• Shi Xiu reasoned that taunting virtual troops could transmit emotional pressure directly to Illusion through their shared will.
• Shi Xiu posted his proposal on the forum, where it attracted attention and earned him 1.13 million sacrificial power.
• Ye Xiao rallied guild leaders and recruited damage-soaking players for a voluntary barrier-breakthrough test, gathering 6.42 million participants.
• Ye Xiao began a livestream and commanded the players across the Virtual Legion fronts to taunt at once.
• The flood of taunt signals filled Illusion’s consciousness with visions of Kongjie’s death, overwhelming its fury and disrupting its control of the Virtual Legion.

Ye Xiao’s taunt bombardments repeatedly disrupted Illusion’s control, allowing the players to launch a full-scale offensive that devastated the Virtual Legion. Just as the players expected victory within days, the Mechanical Overlord joined the battle and halted their advance.

• Ye Xiao and the players used repeated taunt attacks to enrage Illusion, shatter his barriers, and send the Virtual Legion into disorganized charges.
• Ye Xiao persuaded the major guilds to redirect their forces toward Illusion, and Di Nian Bully helped transport armies to the front.
• Over forty days of fighting, the players captured resource nodes, grew stronger, and pushed the Virtual Legion into a desperate retreat.
• Players predicted the war would end within ten days, but the Mechanical Overlord sent Spatial Beacon Spears and mechanical troops into the battle.
• The Mechanical Legion helped Illusion rebuild his defenses, and its Iron Turtle Legion halted the players’ advance by creating prisons across the battlefield.

The players fought the Mechanical Legion and Virtual Legion in a vast, escalating war, with specialized builds and veteran fighters holding the battlefield. On the fifty-second day, Grandpa Tie, Li Tie, became the Player Faction’s first voluntary godhood ascendant and entered the Demigod Realm, then another silver pillar announced a second player’s breakthrough.

• The Mechanical Legion and Virtual Legion joined forces against the players, whose different builds took on distinct roles across the battlefield.
• Xiang Weisha led the Arena Enthusiasts in breaking through the mechanical motherships’ defenses and destroying them with their bare hands.
• After three days of intense fighting, player contributions reshaped the honor leaderboard, with 11111 in first place, Throat of Defying Fate in second, and Tu Hu in third.
• On the fifty-second day, Grandpa Tie, Li Tie, broke through to the Demigod Realm, manifesting his Strength Savage Axe as his bonded Origin Primordial amid thunder, flames, and scarlet light.
• As players celebrated Li Tie’s ascension, a silver pillar of light rose elsewhere, signaling that another player had become a Demigod.

Fate Throat ascended to demigodhood after Li Tie, but Illusion ambushed them and trapped them in data cocoons before their transformations finished. As the battle continued, Li Zheng became the third orthodox player demigod, awakening an independent power of war that the Godguard believed could reshape the Against the Tide Legion, though they could not reach him.

• Fate Throat completed his demigod breakthrough, chose the Eagle-Headed Demon as his primary life soul, and unleashed a torrent of elemental power against the enemy forces.
• Illusion appeared and used Data Chains to bind Li Tie and Fate Throat, crushing their bodies while players discussed their deaths and respawns in the Region Channel.
• Illusion and the Mechanical Overlord continued targeting demigods and battle formations as the fighting shifted toward clashes between powerful formations and enemies.
• On the northern front, Li Zheng broke through to demigodhood, with the War Brand and his own will awakening an independent power of war.
• Millions of Godguard members sensed Li Zheng's power and believed he could rekindle the Against the Tide War Soul, but their attempts to contact him failed.

Godguard failed to locate Li Zheng before the Mechanical Overlord’s Everburn clone killed him during his ascension. Everburn then slaughtered players on the Earthshaking Battlefield, but players began stacking Plague Poem curses against it, launching a Godslaying Operation.

• Godguard members used Divine Sense Deduction to search for Li Zheng, but could not reach him or pinpoint his location.
• Godguard traced Li Zheng’s weakening aura to north of the Azure Star Sea, then watched the connection fade and believed their hoped-for successor had died.
• Everburn emerged from the smoke after its attack had annihilated Li Zheng and the nearby fighters, then began cutting through players with its weapons and energy attacks.
• Players ignored the option of advancing elsewhere and converged on Everburn, hoping to claim the Rule Inscription it carried.
• Players formed curse warbands and repeatedly cast Plague Poem on Everburn, whose movements slowed as the curse stacks grew into the millions.
• Everburn targeted the Cursemancers with missiles, but respawning players replaced those killed as the Godslaying Operation began.

Players used Plague Poem to cripple Everburn, the Mechanical Overlord's demigod clone, but the Mechanical Legion's other two clones arrived to rescue him. Just as the players' god-slaying operation seemed doomed, reinforcements from the Bully Alliance appeared and renewed their fight.

• Players coordinated curse-casting and Star Shift relays to stack Plague Poem on Everburn, driving him through its first four phases and breaking down his mechanical body.
• Plague Poem reached its fifth phase, leaving Everburn collapsed and barely able to move as players continued stacking curses toward the final phase.
• The Mechanical Overlord sent its Mechanical Legion to attack the players and rescue Everburn, then deployed its other two clones, Youzhe and Flow Derivation.
• The Mechanical Legion's advance overwhelmed the players' defenses, and an energy barrier protected Everburn as the players feared their attack had failed.
• A vast rift opened above the battlefield, releasing Dark Tide Particles and Evil Spirit projections as Bully Alliance reinforcements arrived.
• The players' morale returned, and they charged back into battle to try to slay a god.

Di Nian Bully’s Dark Tide Alliance joined the players’ battle against the Mechanical Overlord and Illusion, turning the fighting into a massive counterattack. Despite their combined staying power, the players and Evil Spirits were driven back by the enemy’s superior top-tier forces until a huge spatial rift opened overhead, heralding the arrival of another faction.

• Divine King had expected Di Nian Bully to join the battle once Illusion and the Mechanical Overlord’s three clones made the fight worth the risk, and Di Nian Bully unleashed its Dark Tide Legion against the machines.
• Di Nian Evil Spirit approved applications from Evil Spirits whose home nodes were stable, rejected those that would leave their nodes vulnerable, and organized 1,293 Evil Spirits into a coordinated war command center.
• The players and the Dark Tide launched a joint counterattack, but the Mechanical Overlord and Illusion poured in reinforcements and their top-tier combatants forced the allied forces back.
• Players and Evil Spirits kept returning to the fight after defeat, but Youzhe, Flow Derivation, Illusion, and Everburn maintained the enemy’s advantage and inflicted heavy casualties.
• A vast rift split open the sky, and players and Evil Spirit projections raised their middle fingers as they recognized the signs of Wonder Butterfly’s approaching army.

The Insect Race joined the players and Dark Tide in a massive counterattack, using its swarming troops and demigods to wear down the Mechanical and Virtual Legions. Just as the Three Factions began turning the battle through their resurrection and attrition advantages, the strongest boss emerged from a spatial rift.

• The Insect Race poured through the sky rift, and its sonic attack disintegrated many Virtual Legion warriors as its troops overwhelmed the battlefield.
• Sui Jing and the Di Nian Evil Spirit coordinated the Dark Tide through the Mental Network while the evil spirits fought and argued over their contributions.
• The demigods of the players, Dark Tide, and Insect Race attacked Youzhe, Flow Derivation, Everburn, and Illusion, repeatedly resurrecting as they inflicted accumulating damage.
• The Three Factions' attacks clogged Youzhe's energy circuits, depleted Flow Derivation's materials, drained Everburn, and disrupted Illusion with the Insect Race's Sonic Rule.
• A vast spatial rift tore open above the battlefield, and an object comparable in size to the moon began emerging as the strongest boss entered the fray.

The players and the Evil Spirit Alliance fought the Mechanical Overlord as the battlefield turned toward battle formations and a new rule-fused unit. Di Nian and the other Evil Spirits brought Wan Ji to the battlefield, where an enormous new Insect Race unit appeared and left Di Nian stunned.

• The Mechanical Overlord entered the battlefield, unleashed a devastating energy beam, and prompted the players to gather into warbands and form giant battle-formation dharma forms.
• The Evil Spirit Alliance decided to build a new unit by fusing demigod Rule Inscriptions into Wan Ji, with Di Nian directing the work and Evil Eye calculating compatibility.
• The Evil Spirits completed the rule fusion, created a stable unit with a Hunting Level of 732, and collectively took control of Wan Ji.
• Di Nian and the other Evil Spirits transported Wan Ji to the Diming battlefield, where it faced the Mechanical Overlord.
• A colossal purple Insect Race unit emerged from a Spatial Rift, and Di Nian recognized it as another newly assembled troop type.

The Wan Ji Aggregate and Insect Prison · Demon Lord joined the ten-million-player Battle Formation Dharma Form to resist the level-802 Mechanical Overlord, but their combined defenses failed. The Mechanical Overlord absorbed three Rule Inscriptions and began evolving beyond its current limits.

• Insect Prison · Demon Lord appeared as a level-732 Demigod, and Di Nian Evil Spirit led Wan Ji into battle against it before they turned to face the Mechanical Overlord.
• Wan Ji and Demon Lord attacked the Mechanical Overlord together, but its defenses repelled them and its silver-blue beams repeatedly battered both Demigods.
• Star Network brought the ten-million-player Battle Formation Dharma Form into the fight, and it shielded Wan Ji and Demon Lord from the Mechanical Overlord’s beam.
• Wan Ji and Demon Lord recovered and joined the Battle Formation Dharma Form in holding back the Mechanical Overlord’s beam, but the three forces still could not overpower it.
• Everburn, Flow Derivation, and Youzhe became Rule Inscriptions and merged into the Mechanical Overlord, whose enhanced beam destroyed Wan Ji, Demon Lord, and the Battle Formation Dharma Form.
• The Mechanical Overlord continued fusing the three Rule Inscriptions with its Divine Metal Rule as new Spirit Rune patterns formed across its body.

The Mechanical Overlord reached level 843 and repeatedly crushed the players, Dark Tide, and Insect Race forces, but Divine King rallied the players to keep attacking head-on. As the three factions prepared another sortie, Star Network proposed a shared Demigod body, and Di Nian Evil Spirit refused until Star Network challenged him to reconsider what he had to lose in a life certain to end in death.

• The Mechanical Overlord absorbed the Mechanical Legion, reached level 843, and devastated all three battle lines with a barrage of rule-powered projectiles.
• Players revived and repeatedly charged the Mechanical Overlord, while Wan Ji and the Demon Lord re-formed and fought alongside them.
• Divine King posted an appeal urging players to face the final boss head-on, and many players returned to the battlefield and organized into coordinated battle formations.
• After another sortie ended in the three Demigods' swift defeat, Star Network proposed splicing their powers into one entity, with the players providing its core, the Dark Tide its skeleton, and the Insect Race its flesh.
• Di Nian Evil Spirit rejected the plan because of the risks of conflicting powers, loss of control, and the players' ability to plunder Dark Tide power.
• Star Network challenged Di Nian Evil Spirit to reconsider, asking what he was hesitating over when his journey through Monster World was already a one-way trip.

Di Nian Evil Spirit accepted Star Network's fusion plan and joined the Players and Insect Race in building a shared giant body. After they stabilized its powers and tested its coordinated control, the fused giant prepared to set off.

• Di Nian Evil Spirit confronted his fear of inevitable death and agreed to attempt fusion with the Players and Insect Race.
• Star Network assigned the Mechanical Overlord's Rules and outlined a plan to combine Dark Tide particles, Insect Race biomass, and the Players' Battle Formation core.
• The three demigods dismantled their forms and assembled a five-hundred-meter giant, but the powers began violently repelling one another.
• Star Network used its particles and Reflection to buffer the powers, while Di Nian Evil Spirit supplied Auxiliary Eye's calculations and the Zerg Master Brain adjusted the giant's flesh.
• The fused giant passed fist-clenching and jumping tests with a 97.37% control coordination rate, and Star Network said it was time to set off.