Recaps

After Song Yunzhong exposed the camp leadership’s abuse, a high-ranking officer tried to placate him and recruit Lu Heng. Lu Heng rejected the officer and prepared to attack, while deciding that he could not take Song Yunzhong and his sister back to Moonview Valley.

• Lu Heng prepared to clear the soldiers blocking the passage, but Song Yunzhong stepped forward and asked them not to shoot.
• Song Yunzhong revealed his mutilated hand and told the soldiers that the camp leadership had imprisoned, tortured, and deceived him to seize his Corpse-Control Ring.
• A high-ranking officer silenced the soldiers, called the abuse a misunderstanding, promised Song Yunzhong compensation, and invited Lu Heng to join the organization.
• Lu Heng unleashed his Mycelium and accused the officer of exploiting soldiers and persecuting those who had helped the camp.
• Song Yunzhong identified the officer as the man behind his imprisonment and mutilation, and Lu Heng decided not to shelter Song Yunzhong and his sister at Moonview Valley.
• Lu Heng rejected the officer’s appeal to humanity and readied his Mycelium to strike.

Song Zhi admitted that he had tacitly approved the persecution of Song Yunzhong, then tried to persuade Lu Heng to spare the camp’s innocent survivors. Lu Heng rejected his appeal, and after Song Zhi ordered his soldiers to fire, Lu Heng used Blood Taisui mycelium to immobilize the entire force.

• Song Zhi approached Song Yunzhong and confessed that he had tacitly approved the research that led to Song Yunzhong’s imprisonment, torture, and maimed hand.
• Song Zhi appealed to Lu Heng to spare the camp’s innocent survivors and offered him resources, weapons, and authority as compensation.
• Lu Heng demanded to know where the people who ordered and carried out the persecution were, and condemned Song Zhi for enjoying its benefits while blaming those beneath him.
• Song Zhi dropped his conciliatory manner and ordered his soldiers to open fire on Lu Heng.
• Lu Heng’s mycelium absorbed the bullets and spread through the passage, binding more than a hundred soldiers and leaving them unable to move.

Lu Heng killed Song Zhi and the officer after Song Yunzhong tried to spare the soldiers who had followed their orders. Lu Heng left the Fortress alone, leaving Song Yunzhong to face the camp and the approaching corpse tide.

• Lu Heng restrained the soldiers at the Fortress entrance with mycelium, but Song Yunzhong stepped between them and Lu Heng, asking him to spare the rank and file.
• Song Yunzhong argued that the soldiers were only following orders, while Lu Heng called his intervention a betrayal.
• Lu Heng redirected the mycelium around Song Yunzhong and killed Song Zhi and the officer.
• Lu Heng withdrew the mycelium and left the Fortress without looking back, while Song Yunjing stayed beside Song Yunzhong.
• Song Yunzhong watched Lu Heng go, and the soldiers remained at the gate amid the threat of the corpse tide and the camp's uncertain future.

Lu Heng left the military camp after Song Yunzhong stopped him from killing the soldiers, frustrated that the camp’s research leads had vanished and convinced that a Silver Tier mutant zombie would eventually destroy the place. Back at the Moonview Valley Shelter, he found that everyone he had contacted was offline, then meditated until dawn and prepared to work.

• Lu Heng rode away from the military camp, angry that Song Yunzhong had saved the soldiers and disrupted his plans to find the Corpse-Control Ring research.
• The Blood Taisui alerted Lu Heng to a Silver Tier mutant zombie hiding near the camp and waiting for its defenses to weaken.
• Lu Heng returned to the Lakeside Base and saw that all the avatars on his Public Chat Terminal were gray.
• Lu Heng used the Portal to reach the Moonview Valley Shelter and meditated through the night.
• At dawn, Lu Heng opened his eyes, stretched his stiff shoulders, and decided it was time to get to work.

Lu Heng learned that a silver Zombie had inherited a world fragment’s fortune and was trying to advance to gold tier, which could trigger the fragment to collide with and devour others. To stop the threat and fulfill his debt to the forest will, he set out with the Bone Demon to kill it before it advanced.

• The forest will contacted Lu Heng, cleared up its suspicion that he had fled with borrowed goods, and marked an agreement to let him settle his debt by severing a fragment’s fortune.
• Lu Heng realized the Blood Taisui was the fragment’s former apex monster, but the fortune had passed to the silver Zombie near the Military District camp.
• The forest will warned that the Zombie was devouring the fragment’s remaining life to advance and that its success could cause fragments to collide and merge.
• Lu Heng decided to stop the Zombie before it reached gold tier, opened a Portal, and traveled with the Bone Demon to the Lakeside Base.
• Lu Heng and the Bone Demon headed toward the Military District camp as the Zombie’s roars grew denser in the distance.

Lu Heng tracked a Silver Tier zombie to an abandoned building where it kept and fed on captive survivors, then prepared to attack before its unusual growth could continue. He sealed the floor’s exits and waited in the shadows for the right moment to strike.

• Lu Heng used the Blood Taisui’s mycelium to locate the Silver Tier zombie hiding among ordinary zombies near the Military District camp.
• Lu Heng avoided a confrontation by the camp and waited in the ruins until night, when the zombie left the horde and entered an abandoned high-rise alone.
• Lu Heng climbed into the building unnoticed and discovered that the Silver Tier zombie was keeping survivors captive and eating them while a Bronze Tier zombie dog guarded them.
• Lu Heng sensed that the zombie was secretly accumulating strength each time it fed and decided not to risk letting it transform further.
• Lu Heng had the Bone Demon stand ready and used mycelium to seal every exit on the floor before issuing a mental command to attack.

Lu Heng and the Bone Demon ambushed the Silver Zombie, but it escaped by summoning a horde to delay them. Lu Heng cleared the factory blockade and pursued it into tangled ruins, where he gambled on its overall direction and charged ahead along a predicted route.

• The Silver Zombie dodged the Bone Demon's ambush, summoned nearby Zombies to hold off Lu Heng, and fled from the factory.
• Lu Heng used the Blood Taisui's mycelium and the Bone Demon to defeat the Zombie horde and clear a path out of the factory.
• Lu Heng tracked the Silver Zombie's fading energy and followed it into the ruins with the Bone Demon.
• The Silver Zombie used the maze-like terrain and repeated changes of direction to slow its pursuers.
• Lu Heng abandoned the false trails, estimated the Zombie's overall direction, and charged straight ahead with the Bone Demon.

Lu Heng found the Silver Zombie feeding on captive survivors to heal its wounds and fought through its Bronze Tier Mutant guards. The Silver Zombie was still near the cage as two more Mutants rushed in, and Lu Heng stepped forward with the remaining captives still at risk.

• Lu Heng entered the building and found the Silver Zombie dragging captives from a cage and eating them to heal its wounds.
• Three Bronze Tier Mutants attacked Lu Heng, while the Zombie tiger guarded the cage and the Bone Demon fought the armored Zombie.
• Lu Heng used mycelium to kill the bone-bladed Zombie, and the Bone Demon pierced the armored Zombie's chest.
• Lu Heng killed the Zombie tiger with a mycelium spike through its eye socket and charged toward the cage with the Bone Demon.
• The Silver Zombie turned toward Lu Heng after eating more captives, as two new Bronze Tier Mutants rushed down the stairwell.

Lu Heng discovered that a Nightmare Eater had been feeding on the Silver Zombie’s killing intent and the survivors’ fear, disrupting the battle. After he exposed it, the Nightmare Eater and the Silver Zombie both turned on him, leaving him fighting two monsters while the captives lay incapacitated.

• Lu Heng’s charge ended with him accidentally killing a captive whom the Silver Zombie had used as a shield.
• The Bone Demon blocked the Silver Zombie’s attack while Lu Heng wounded it and noticed its movements were being disrupted.
• Lu Heng used mental perception to identify a Nightmare Eater above the cages, feeding on the Silver Zombie and the survivors.
• Lu Heng struck the Nightmare Eater with Mind Spike, breaking its hold and restoring the Silver Zombie’s awareness.
• The Nightmare Eater and the Silver Zombie both attacked Lu Heng, while hallucinations and the Silver Zombie’s renewed strength left him wounded and the survivors helpless.

Lu Heng and the Bone Demon fought the Silver Zombie while Lu Heng resisted the Nightmare Eater’s mental attacks. After killing the Silver Zombie, Lu Heng confirmed it was not the World Fragment’s chosen vessel and turned his attention to the Nightmare Eater.

• Lu Heng used Blood Taisui mycelia and his mental power to resist the Nightmare Eater’s illusions while fighting the Silver Zombie.
• The Bone Demon restrained the Silver Zombie, giving Lu Heng an opening to blast its chest with the Kiss of Nightmare and kill it.
• Lu Heng sensed that the Forest Will’s mark showed no resonance and realized the Silver Zombie was not the World Fragment’s vessel.
• The Nightmare Eater’s mental domain briefly shattered, then began to reform as it recognized Lu Heng as a threat.
• Lu Heng aimed the Kiss of Nightmare at the Nightmare Eater and used his mental power to block its escape.

Lu Heng used the Blood Taisui’s energy to injure the Nightmare Eater, but despair from the imprisoned people restored it. The Blood Taisui immobilized the creature, and Lu Heng realized he had to cut off its supply of despair to kill it.

• Lu Heng chose the Insect Armor Sword over the Kiss of Nightmare and gathered spiritual power behind the Bone Demon.
• Lu Heng combined his spiritual power with the Blood Taisui’s energy, striking the Nightmare Eater and severely weakening it.
• Negative emotions from the imprisoned people replenished the Nightmare Eater, undoing Lu Heng’s damage.
• The Blood Taisui overdrew its energy to bind the Nightmare Eater with spiritual chains while the Bone Demon guarded against nearby Zombies.
• Lu Heng recognized that he had to stop the people in the cages from feeding the Nightmare Eater if he was to kill it.

Lu Heng killed the people imprisoned in the iron cage, cutting off the emotions that sustained the Nightmare Eater. With the monster weakened and trapped, he infused the Insect Armor Sword with Greedy Wolf Star Power and prepared to destroy its origin core.

• Lu Heng realized the caged people’s despair was replenishing the Nightmare Eater and that Blood Taisui could not hold it indefinitely.
• Lu Heng opened the cage and killed every prisoner, ending the emotional supply sustaining the Nightmare Eater.
• The Nightmare Eater lost its ability to heal and endure, but Blood Taisui’s psychic chains kept it from escaping.
• Lu Heng awakened Greedy Wolf Star Power and transformed his psychic power into a force that could devour and annihilate the Nightmare Eater’s origin.
• Lu Heng channeled Greedy Wolf psychic power into the Insect Armor Sword and aimed at the Nightmare Eater’s hidden origin core.

Lu Heng killed the Nightmare Eater by pinning it down and piercing its origin core with a strike combining his Mind Spike and Greedy Wolf Power. After the kill, he collected its drops and gave the Dream Seed to Blood Taisui to restore the origin it had spent in battle.

• Lu Heng restrained the Nightmare Eater as it tried to scatter and escape, then repeatedly slashed its depleted black mist body.
• Lu Heng poured his Mind Spike and Greedy Wolf Power into the Insect Armor Sword and struck the Nightmare Eater's origin core.
• Greedy Wolf Power devoured the Nightmare Eater's origin, and the Wristband confirmed the Silver Tier Aberrant's death.
• Lu Heng collected the treasure chest and monster drops, including the Dream Seed, and decided its negative-emotion-based power did not suit him.
• Lu Heng gave the Dream Seed to Blood Taisui to absorb and replenish its depleted origin, leaving the abandoned building safe.

Lu Heng returned from the hidden World Fragment to Moonview Valley after the Forest Will explained how its inhabitants would be reborn and called him favored by starlight. Back at his Shelter, he opened a Silver Tier chest and added three machines to its defenses.

• The Forest Will found the hidden World Fragment and offered Lu Heng a card that would let him return to retrieve what he had left behind.
• The Forest Will told Lu Heng that the fragment's remaining humans would die physically, but their souls would be reborn as natives of its territory; Lu Heng declined to preserve any personal bonds.
• The Forest Will sent Lu Heng and the Bone Demon through a portal back to Moonview Valley, and Lu Heng wondered what it meant to be favored by starlight.
• Lu Heng opened the Nightmare Eater's Silver Tier treasure chest and found a Heavy Anvil Assault Mech, a Mechanism Hub Butler, and a Rotary Hub Automatic Crossbow Turret.
• Lu Heng powered and bound the two machines to his command roster, then deployed the turret outside his Shelter.

Lu Heng explored the Frost Forest and watched an Armored Crocodile Turtle ambush two wounded rivals by the river. After the turtle killed them, it approached Lu Heng, apparently seeking energy to advance, and charged at him.

• The Forest Will told Lu Heng that the Geothermal Talisman and Frostmoon Talisman would require no payment because the World Fragment held abundant essence.
• Lu Heng rested in Moonview Valley, then entered the Frost Forest to inspect the newly settled territories.
• Lu Heng identified a bee swarm and found a Frost-Ridged Scaled Serpent and Marsh-Shaking Croaking Toad contesting a river.
• The Frost-Ridged Scaled Serpent and Marsh-Shaking Croaking Toad fought until both were badly injured, and the Armored Crocodile Turtle burst from the silt and killed them.
• The Armored Crocodile Turtle approached Lu Heng, seemingly seeking energy to advance, then charged at him.

Lu Heng traded two cores with an Armored Crocodile Turtle for access to its ore deposit and gathered Water Nurture Stones and Azure Tide Stones. He left the inlet planning to return and continued toward Moonview Valley as dusk fell.

• The Armored Crocodile Turtle gave Lu Heng several Water Nurture Stones and offered to lead him to an ore deposit in exchange for energy to advance.
• Lu Heng gave the Armored Crocodile Turtle an Energy Core and a Flesh Core, which it swallowed before leading him downstream.
• The Armored Crocodile Turtle brought Lu Heng to a shallow inlet containing Water Nurture Stones and Azure Tide Stones.
• Lu Heng collected the accessible ore for an hour while the Armored Crocodile Turtle rested nearby.
• Lu Heng told the Armored Crocodile Turtle he would return, then headed back toward Moonview Valley as dusk fell.

After the regional system announced that survivors from collapsing World Fragments would be relocated into stable planes, Lu Heng realized that the Frost Forest was the region’s resource-rich central arena. As outsiders arrived, the forest’s fragile balance was poised to break into conflict.

• Lu Heng inspected Moonview Valley Shelter, confirmed its defenses and equipment were secure, and rested after returning from the Frost Forest.
• The system announced that survivors from dying World Fragments would be randomly relocated across the Global Region while local terrain and ecosystems remained unchanged.
• Lu Heng connected the Frost Forest’s growing power and recent territorial upheaval to its likely merger with a failing fragment, and anticipated that incoming survivors would disrupt the region’s balance.
• Lu Heng checked the public chat and learned that the region comprised the Frost Forest, Mist Forest, Withered Reed Plain, Cracked Rock Hills, and Blackwater Swamp.
• Survivors in the chat worried about where they would land as Lu Heng concluded that the influx would bring brutal conflict to the fertile central forest.

After planar replacement brought hundreds of thousands of outsiders into the Main Plane, Lu Heng learned that the region had always held scattered native survivors and saw how the newcomers were cautiously settling across its five regions. The outer regions remained briefly calm, but outsiders were gathering at the Frost Forest’s borders, where its lords prepared to respond.

• The planar replacement brought outsiders into the stable Main Plane while leaving its native survivors in place, and Lu Heng realized that people had long lived throughout the vast region.
• Newcomers and previously silent native survivors flooded the public channel, where terse warnings outlined the resources and dangers of the Withered Reed Plain, Mist Forest, Cracked Rock Hills, Blackwater Swamp, and Frost Forest.
• The outsiders settled cautiously in the four outer regions, gathering supplies alone and avoiding the Frost Forest’s powerful lords.
• Lu Heng watched the public channel from the Fortress in Moonview Valley and recognized that the arrival of so many people had disrupted the region’s former resource balance.
• Lu Heng sensed unfamiliar people probing the edges of the Frost Forest as its old and new lords lurked in the shadows, ending the forest’s fragile peace.

Survivors from the four outer areas searched their borders for supplies, then began probing the resource-rich Frost Forest despite the beasts guarding it. Their expanding exploration reached the outskirts of Moonview Valley, where Lu Heng sensed the newcomers and the valley’s long isolation ended.

• Survivors gathered limited supplies along the borders of the Withered Reed Plain, the Misty Forest, the Cracked Rock Hills, and the Blackwater Swamp, but found the areas’ resources dwindling and their forbidden depths too dangerous to enter.
• Survivors from all four outer areas began cautiously exploring the Frost Forest, where beasts growled warnings from the woods.
• A beast killed a survivor who wandered too deep, and the death drove some explorers back to the outer borders while others continued probing the forest’s edge.
• The growing wave of exploration spread around the Frost Forest and reached the outskirts of Moonview Valley.
• Lu Heng sensed unfamiliar human traces outside the valley as growls echoed through the forest and newcomers continued advancing.

Survivors gathered at Moonview Valley’s entrance and learned that the valley was protected by a system-level access restriction. After Heavy Anvil killed two intruders, the survivors fled into a wolf pack’s territory, where the Wolf King restrained its pack because they carried Lu Heng’s scent, leaving the valley’s dangers and influence poised to spread.

• Survivors reaching Moonview Valley received a notification denying them permission to enter, and their attempts to find an explanation failed.
• Two stubborn survivors crossed the invisible barrier, and Heavy Anvil charged from a concealed shelter and killed them.
• Lu Heng watched the other survivors retreat and anticipated that outsiders would bring further trouble once they learned about his Shelter.
• The survivors encountered the wild wolf pack blocking their route, but the Wolf King recognized Lu Heng’s scent on them and stopped the wolves from attacking.
• The survivors carefully skirted the pack, carrying news of Moonview Valley’s restriction, its deadly defender, and the wolves’ deference beyond the forest.

Unaffiliated survivors fought beasts and competed over supplies across the wilderness while a group of twenty or thirty people headed toward the forbidden valley belonging to Lu Heng. Their leader promised them a safe place to settle, and the group continued toward it without knowing the full danger.

• Unaffiliated survivors formed temporary groups to fight beasts, seize supplies, and clear territory on the wilderness outskirts.
• After earlier fleeing the cliff-bound valley in the Frost Forest, a group of survivors avoided the fighting and gathered stragglers as they traveled toward it.
• When the stragglers grew uneasy about entering the silent wilderness, their leader promised that taking the protected valley would give them a safe place to settle.
• The leader concealed the valley's dangers and the deaths caused by its access restriction, and his group resumed its approach toward Lu Heng's forbidden ground.

Chen Yan led twenty-three desperate survivors to force their way into Moonview Valley, where Lu Heng’s machines attacked them. Chen Yan used the Illusory Moon Talisman to cover their retreat, while Lu Heng weighed whether to let them escape or eliminate the threat.

• Chen Yan and the survivors failed to break through the barrier at Moonview Valley’s entrance, and two machines emerged from the cliffs.
• The Heavy Anvil Assault Mech killed one survivor and injured others as the Inkstone Guard’s field hampered the crowd’s escape.
• Chen Yan used the Illusory Moon Talisman to confuse the survivors and machines, then shouted for everyone to run toward the woods.
• The survivors fled through the woods while the machines continued advancing, unaffected by the illusion.
• Lu Heng watched from inside the valley and considered ordering the machines to kill the survivors to prevent future trouble.

Lu Heng released Heavy Anvil and the Inkstone Guard to hunt down the intruders who had fled into the forest, killing all twenty-three. He then detected distant witnesses and returned to the valley as its barrier closed behind him.

• Lu Heng lifted the machines’ defensive restrictions and sent Heavy Anvil and the Inkstone Guard after the fleeing intruders.
• Chen Yan saw the machines pursuing and shouted for everyone to split up and run.
• The machines hunted down the fleeing group throughout the forest, while the two wounded intruders at the valley entrance were also killed.
• Heavy Anvil and the Inkstone Guard returned to Lu Heng after all twenty-three intruders had been eliminated.
• Lu Heng sensed several concealed survivors, then walked down the slope as the valley barrier closed.

After the battle at Moonview Valley, Lu Heng recharged Heavy Anvil and Inkstone Guard and learned from the Forest Will that wondrous items return to the Mist Forest when their holders die. The Forest Will warned that deepening regional fusion would bring energy tides and an unknown disaster, so Lu Heng began preparing for the coming upheaval.

• Lu Heng checked Heavy Anvil and Inkstone Guard’s depleted energy and replaced both of their Energy Cores.
• Lu Heng recalled that the Illusory Moon Talisman had vanished when Chen Yan died and wondered whether wondrous items disappeared with their owners.
• The Forest Will explained that wondrous items return to their origin when their holders die, except for items Lu Heng can retain through his special ability.
• The Forest Will warned that regional fusion would deepen, energy tides would erupt, and the plane would continue unsealing before a disaster arrived.
• Lu Heng entered the Shelter, spread out a beast-hide map, and began planning to reinforce defenses, stockpile resources, and prepare equipment.

A region-wide proclamation announced that the Green Demon Plane had connected with the native plane and begun its invasion, placing all living things in a planar calamity. Lu Heng resolved to defend Moonview Valley, while the new competition for powerful rewards threatened to make other survivors as dangerous as the invaders.

• Lu Heng inspected Moonview Valley and its combat machines after the previous night's battle.
• A vast will announced the planar connection with the Green Demon Plane, the invasion, and a defense contribution ranking offering origin wonders and permanent private territory.
• The proclamation stirred Aberrants and survivors across the region, while powerful presences from the Mist Forest assessed Moonview Valley before withdrawing.
• Lu Heng recognized that he had to defend his foothold against the invaders and the dangers posed by human greed.