Chapter Summaries

Lu Xiao convened the others through the Summoning Ritual, and they exchanged updates on Antie's Eden Project and Lu Xiao's affairs in Hell. Lu Xiao outlined his plan to use a staged defeat by Ding Dan to purge opposition in Hell, while Gambler suggested letting the succubi be captured to reduce their losses.

• Lu Xiao summoned Calamity, Doctor, Warden, Gambler, and Antie to the meeting, where they greeted one another and exchanged information.
• Antie said his Eden Project had produced one Deity-level subject and another was close to hatching, and Doctor offered to send him the 'Emperor' trait for a Deification Ritual.
• Warden reminded Antie that Angel could wake if the experimental subject lost control, prompting Antie to consider proceeding with the ritual sooner.
• Lu Xiao recounted the raven, the thicket, and the indistinct human figure he had encountered in Hell, then explained his plan to let Hell's forces fight among themselves before staging a crushing defeat by Ding Dan.
• Lu Xiao said Ding Dan's apparent defeat and severe injuries would help purge his opponents, and Gambler proposed moving the resources away and allowing the succubi to be captured.

Lu Xiao discussed giving Antie the 'Flame' Authority, and Antie revealed his plan to combine it with 'Water' to create a powerful attack. After the meeting, Calamity learned the truth behind Lu Xiao's statue and apologized to it.

• Lu Xiao said he would give Antie the 'Flame' Authority after Antie explained what he intended to do with it.
• Antie proposed merging 'Water' and 'Flame' to make a nuclear bomb by hand, and the Doctor and Warden encouraged him to pursue the idea.
• Calamity shared methods and cautions for merging Authorities, while refusing to attempt the risky process himself.
• The group finished discussing how to contact Lu Xiao through a ritual, and the Doctor and the others left.
• Lu Xiao showed Calamity text on the statue's base, prompting Calamity to bow and apologize for his earlier remarks.

Lu Xiao promised to find a way to wake the person he had replaced, while Calamity confronted him about lying that his name was Liu Guang. In Hell, Ding Dan arrived in the Holy City to help carry out Lu Xiao's plan, but Yi Hao's meeting with a Neutral Faction envoy ended without advancing negotiations.

• Lu Xiao firmly told Calamity that he would find a way to wake the person he was living in place of, and Calamity questioned him about claiming his name was Liu Guang.
• Ding Dan arrived in the Holy City, where Yi Hao explained that he had been summoned to help Mr. Shadow stage an act that would lead to Hell's unification.
• Ding Dan approved Lu Xiao's plan and told Yi Hao to spread news of his arrival, predicting that someone would soon come to negotiate.
• The next day, Yi Hao received Modeganqing, a representative of the Neutral Faction, and served him tea while Modeganqing waited to meet Ding Dan.
• Yi Hao told Modeganqing that Ding Dan was resting and arranged for him to wait at his accommodations, then admitted that events were not going as smoothly as expected.

Yi Hao learned that Eden and Great Brahma were preparing for major upheavals, while Ding Dan cryptically said the farmer tending their civilization was dead. The next day, Yi Hao used an attendant’s display of Deity-level power to unsettle Lord Mordegan and hint at the strength of his sovereign.

• Ding Dan told Yi Hao that Eden had withdrawn, a Deity might have been born there, Great Brahma seemed to have produced a Bodhisattva, and their believers had been relocated.
• Ding Dan compared their civilization to vegetables that needed careful tending, then said the vegetable farmer was already dead, leaving Yi Hao puzzled.
• Yi Hao and Lord Mordegan again avoided discussing the main issue until Mordegan asked what their sovereign thought of the situation.
• Yi Hao scolded an attendant over the stale tea and ordered him to fetch reserved tea; as the attendant left, he accidentally revealed a Deity’s aura.
• Lord Mordegan recognized the aura, grew fearful, and asked Yi Hao who the attendant was.

Yi Hao used his divine attendant to make Modeganqing believe the Holy City possessed hidden divine strength, then gave him tea while warning him to keep the exchange secret. Modeganqing left intending to report what he had witnessed to his leader.

• Yi Hao told Modeganqing that the attendant was responsible for his daily affairs, leading Modeganqing to suspect the attendant was a deity and the Holy City was revealing its strength.
• Modeganqing decided to leave before meeting His Majesty, saying he needed rest to prepare for the summons.
• Yi Hao persuaded Modeganqing to stay for tea, and the attendant’s genuine deference to Yi Hao intensified Modeganqing’s unease.
• Yi Hao took over brewing the tea, then offered to arrange treatment for Modeganqing through the Succubus Clan priests when he claimed to feel unwell.
• Yi Hao gave Modeganqing a box of tea and warned him to drink it secretly and not share it with anyone.

Yi Hao and Ding Dan discussed how they had persuaded Modeganqing to consider betraying his leader, while Ding Dan revealed that his King's Authority was changing the way he thought. After Modeganqing appeared to make his choice, Yi Hao expected the Neutral Faction to shift its attitude toward them and wondered how Ding Dan and Mr. Shadow would manipulate Hell.

• Modeganqing accepted Yi Hao's tea and left, apparently understanding the offer behind it.
• Ding Dan explained to Yi Hao how the tea, his promise, and a display of strength were meant to make Modeganqing question his loyalty.
• Ding Dan told Yi Hao that mastering King's Authority was drawing his thoughts closer to its former owner, and that he might eventually go mad or become Him.
• A deity attendant reported that Modeganqing had taken a Succubus woman into his quarters, and Yi Hao concluded that he had made his choice.
• Yi Hao predicted that Ding Dan would summon Modeganqing the next day and wondered how Mr. Shadow would cooperate in their plans for Hell.

Lu Xiao and Calamity visited Gentleman's Paradise, where they learned that Xinxiya had married a Succubus and become the settlement’s security chief. Xinxiya refused to leave despite Lu Xiao warning of an impending disaster, and Lu Xiao rejected Calamity’s suggestion to take him along as a future vessel before continuing inside.

• Lu Xiao and Calamity arrived at Gentleman's Paradise and encountered Xinxiya, who had become its chief of security.
• Xinxiya explained that Ruiqi had arranged his marriage to the Succubus woman he loved and given him a home and career.
• Lu Xiao warned Xinxiya that disaster would soon strike and advised him to leave, but Xinxiya refused because of his loyalty and his wife's wishes.
• Calamity suggested taking Xinxiya to Lu Xiao’s world as a vessel for future Advent, but Lu Xiao refused because Xinxiya was not an enemy.
• Lu Xiao and Calamity entered Gentleman's Paradise to experience the Authority of desire, with Calamity teasing Lu Xiao along the way.

Lu Xiao entered the Sixth Layer of Gentleman's Paradise, where a survival trial placed him in a war-torn ruin with no supplies and overwhelming hunger. As he faced starvation, a giant cockroach appeared, and Lu Xiao grinned at it with green-glowing eyes.

• Lu Xiao chose the Sixth Layer’s survival desire and entered an empty room, where the trial transported him to a smoking battlefield and gave him the objective to survive.
• A soldier mistook Lu Xiao for a civilian and told him to seek shelter before rejoining his squad.
• Lu Xiao discovered he was nearly naked and starving, then vomited a lump of dirt he had apparently eaten.
• With his vision fading from hunger, Lu Xiao slapped himself to regain focus and searched the deserted ruins.
• Lu Xiao heard rustling and faced a water-buffalo-sized cockroach, then grinned as his eyes began to glow green.

Lu Xiao used the giant cockroach’s slow reflexes to impale it on rebar, but could not break its tough leg joint before soldiers arrived. The soldiers offered him food in exchange for the trapped cockroach, and Lu Xiao ate a ration bar as their leader ordered extra protein bars for him.

• Lu Xiao observed that the giant cockroach took ten seconds to react and planned to exploit the delay.
• Lu Xiao dodged the cockroach into exposed rebar, impaling it, then struck its leg joint with a brick without breaking it.
• Lu Xiao retreated from the cockroach’s flailing leg as a squad of soldiers arrived and surrounded it.
• The squad leader asked Lu Xiao to hand over the cockroach in exchange for something, and Lu Xiao said he was hungry.
• A soldier gave Lu Xiao a ration bar, and the squad leader ordered extra protein bars for him.

Lu Xiao watched Dan Guofeng’s mess squad turn a mutated cockroach into protein bars and accepted an offer to join the army. Dan Guofeng brought him back to camp, where Lu Xiao prepared to collect supplies and join the next mission.

• Four soldiers from the mess unit severed the cockroach’s legs and collected its white liquid while Lu Xiao recognized it as the source of his protein bar.
• The soldiers cooked the liquid and ground cockroach shell into powder to make more protein bars, and Lu Xiao praised the smell.
• Dan Guofeng offered Lu Xiao a choice between joining the unit and receiving food to leave, and Lu Xiao accepted the steaming protein bar and enlisted.
• Dan Guofeng introduced himself as Lu Xiao’s immediate captain and told him he had to follow orders during missions.
• Dan Guofeng took Lu Xiao to the military camp to collect his allotted supplies and prepare for their next mission.

Lu Xiao collected supplies and standard tactical equipment after declining Dan Guofeng’s offer of a new officer’s set. As the squad headed out on a mission to hunt two giant cockroaches, Dan Guofeng began training Lu Xiao and warned him to avoid contact with civilians.

• Dan Guofeng helped Lu Xiao receive three protein bars and offered him a new set of tactical gear, but Lu Xiao declined and joined the equipment line.
• Lu Xiao received an assault rifle, spare magazines, and a lightly damaged protective suit whose previous owner had been killed in action.
• Dan Guofeng explained that Lu Xiao would train on missions for a week before officially joining them, then received an assignment to hunt two giant cockroaches for food supplies.
• Dan Guofeng helped Lu Xiao put on his gear and told him to conserve ammunition for frontline soldiers.
• As the squad set out, Dan Guofeng began Lu Xiao’s special training and warned him to avoid interacting with civilians during missions.

Lu Xiao exposed a man who was pretending to be a baby's father and had been suffocating the child, then left the baby where its real mother could reach him. The woman found the baby safe along with two protein bars and bowed in gratitude toward Lu Xiao's departing squad.

• Dan Guofeng warned Lu Xiao not to risk the mission by helping civilians, but the squad soon encountered a man begging them to save the baby in his arms.
• Lu Xiao offered the man protein bars and noticed his greedy reaction; when the man tried to take what Lu Xiao reached for, Lu Xiao killed him.
• Lu Xiao picked up the baby, whose color returned after he was no longer being squeezed, and explained that the dead man was not the child's father.
• Lu Xiao spotted the baby's real mother hiding in the ruins, left the baby and two protein bars for her, and continued on with the squad.
• The woman carried her baby to safety, found the protein bars, and bowed toward Lu Xiao and the others.

As the squad continued its mission through the ruins, Lu Xiao recognized Dan Guofeng as Dan Qingrong’s son and improvised an identity to explain how he knew the family’s secrets. Dan Guofeng accepted him as Shadow and asked where his good-for-nothing father had gone.

• Lu Xiao gave away part of his ration to save a life, and Dan Guofeng ordered the squad to continue its mission.
• Lu Xiao asked Dan Guofeng about Dan Qingrong, prompting Dan Guofeng to point his gun at him when Lu Xiao revealed he knew she was his mother.
• Lu Xiao claimed his real name was Liu Guang and his codename was Shadow, then revealed Dan Guofeng’s parents were Dan Qingrong and Zhang Chu.
• Dan Guofeng lowered his gun, accepted that Lu Xiao was the person he claimed to be, and asked where his father had gone.

Lu Xiao questioned Dan Guofeng about his past and learned that he had spent most of his life on Mount Kunlun before coming down to find his father, Zhang Chu. Dan Guofeng revealed that General Bai had promised to bring Zhang Chu to him when he earned a decoration, leaving Lu Xiao suspicious of Bai’s intentions.

• Lu Xiao told Dan Guofeng that his father was carrying out an important mission, then the squad defeated a giant cockroach.
• Lu Xiao learned that Dan Guofeng had come down from the mountain nearly three years earlier, after spending his first thirty-odd years there.
• Dan Guofeng said he had come down to drag his father, Zhang Chu, back to the mountain, and described the insults his elders had used for him.
• Dan Guofeng explained that his mother had called Zhang Chu merely a disappointment and asked Lu Xiao where he was.
• Lu Xiao said Zhang Chu’s mission was classified, and Dan Guofeng revealed that General Bai had promised to bring his father to him when he was decorated.
• Lu Xiao doubted Bai Xuedong would give up Zhang Chu and suspected he intended to keep both Zhang Chu and Dan Guofeng.

Lu Xiao received a transfer order from Bai Xuedong recalling him to the frontline headquarters, but he could not end the superdream experience and tried to get Dan Guofeng to kill him. Dan Guofeng stopped him and suspected Lu Xiao was faking an injury to avoid returning to the front.

• Lu Xiao spent over a month with Dan Guofeng in the rear without facing a life-or-death crisis.
• A messenger addressed Lu Xiao as Mr. Shadow and delivered a handwritten transfer order from Bai Xuedong.
• Lu Xiao tried to end the superdream experience, but remained in the cooking squad's tent.
• Lu Xiao asked Dan Guofeng to kill him, then pointed an assault rifle at his own forehead.
• Dan Guofeng used a spell to freeze Lu Xiao, took the gun, and read the transfer order.
• Dan Guofeng suspected Lu Xiao was trying to get injured so he could stay in the rear.

After Dan Guofeng restrained Lu Xiao and disarmed him, Lu Xiao questioned whether he was in a Dreamscape and tested whether he still had abilities. He decided to follow his transfer to the front lines for answers, while resolving to investigate the Taoist Temple and its unusual connection to trait holders.

• Dan Guofeng immobilized Lu Xiao, dismantled the Assault Rifle, removed its rounds, and then released him.
• Lu Xiao explained that he had tried to wake himself from a Dreamscape, but began to doubt that explanation when the situation seemed too comfortable and he had no abilities.
• Lu Xiao offered Dan Guofeng a rifle barrel as a bribe and asked him to striptease; Dan Guofeng recoiled, convincing Lu Xiao that he truly lacked abilities.
• Lu Xiao decided to follow his transfer order to the front lines and asked Dan Guofeng to explain the Immobility Spell he had used.
• Dan Guofeng said the spell was ordinary and known to everyone on the mountain, prompting Lu Xiao to resolve to revisit the Taoist Temple and investigate its secrets.

With Lu Xiao missing as the allied forces attacked the Succubus Settlement, Calamity and Ruiqi tried to carry out his defensive plan and contact him. Lu Xiao was elsewhere with Dan Guofeng, heading toward Bai Xuedong and guessing he had been summoned to help refine the Prison Plan and Spark Plan.

• A wounded Succubus reported that the allied forces had breached the Settlement’s first line of defense, and Calamity promised to intervene while Ruiqi went to display her power.
• Calamity investigated the room where Lu Xiao had vanished, then performed a summoning ritual with a Severed Finger, but Lu Xiao did not answer.
• Lu Xiao strolled through the ruins with Dan Guofeng following him and remarked that Bai Xuedong had arranged for Dan Guofeng to see a transfer order.
• Lu Xiao recalled that Bai Xuedong was nearing the end of his life and inferred that he had been summoned to help refine the Prison Plan and Spark Plan.
• Lu Xiao decided to take his time and thought of teasing Dan Guofeng, whom he regarded as an inexperienced young Taoist.

Lu Xiao deliberately stalled after he and Dan Guofeng stepped on concealed traps, waiting to see how Dan Guofeng would react. When a group of cannibalistic survivors approached, Lu Xiao fled to get backup and left Dan Guofeng behind.

• Lu Xiao spotted a suspicious piece of chocolate near the ruins and pretended to approach a trap, prompting Dan Guofeng to rush out and step on it.
• Lu Xiao kept Dan Guofeng talking and moved slowly, then stepped on another concealed trap disguised as a land mine.
• Lu Xiao recognized the traps as empty drinks cans but stayed quiet to buy time and test Dan Guofeng.
• A ragged group of survivors approached, and Lu Xiao ran off, telling Dan Guofeng he was going to get backup.
• Dan Guofeng realized Lu Xiao had left him trapped on purpose and wondered how he had offended him.

Lu Xiao watched as Dan Guofeng was surrounded by scavengers who revealed they had eaten a baby’s mother and threatened the infant. Dan Guofeng rescued the baby and slaughtered the attackers with inhuman speed, leaving Lu Xiao astonished by his strength.

• Lu Xiao watched Dan Guofeng prepare to fight as ragged scavengers surrounded him and one thrust a sharpened rebar at him.
• A scavenger exposed a bloodied baby and said that he and the others had eaten its mother.
• Dan Guofeng invoked the Patriarch, moved out of danger, and found that he had not stepped on a land mine.
• Dan Guofeng wrapped the baby in his clothes and set it down safely before turning on the scavengers.
• Dan Guofeng moved with blinding speed and brutally killed the fleeing scavengers as Lu Xiao watched in astonishment.

Lu Xiao joined Dan Guofeng after Dan nearly killed a group of attackers, and the two tortured the last survivor for information about where people like them gathered. They set off to deal with the remaining criminals, while Lu Xiao carried and fed the baby he had rescued.

• Dan Guofeng spared the last attacker after breaking his spine, and Lu Xiao emerged from hiding.
• Dan Guofeng told Lu Xiao to interrogate the survivor and find where the attackers gathered so he could wipe them out.
• Lu Xiao tortured the survivor until he died, extracting the information before he could answer without being asked.
• Lu Xiao and Dan Guofeng left the scene, and Lu Xiao carried the rescued baby and fed it pieces of a protein bar.
• As they walked, Lu Xiao recalled Dan Guofeng's ability and thought it resembled someone.