Recaps

Ed and Willow operated on Gray, using her psionic magic to stabilize him while Ed replaced the rebellious metal components in his body with copies made from mutated wood. As the procedure continued, Willow reconsidered how much she understood about Ed’s power.

• Ed persuaded Willow to help save Gray, then cleared the study to make an operating area.
• Ed injected Gray with Paralysis Flower extract, and Willow carefully cast a psionic spell into his forehead.
• Ed sensed Gray’s metal components begin to vibrate and used vines to dismantle and replace them with wooden copies.
• Willow watched Ed work and realized his abilities might make him more formidable than she had assumed.

Ed replaced Gray’s remaining machinery with wooden parts and began rebuilding his body with organs grown from Gray’s own genes. Gray woke after surgery, discovered his voice and body had changed, and learned that he had not quite been born yet.

• Willow confirmed that her spell had left Gray with one-third of his affinity for machinery, then left Ed to continue the surgery.
• Ed replaced Gray’s brass components with wooden parts and began growing Gray’s missing human organs from his genes.
• Ed realized the organs would take days to grow, much longer than Gray’s anesthesia would last, and devised another way to make Gray human again.
• Gray woke in bed, questioned Ed about his changed voice and wooden hand, and asked to see what his body looked like.
• Ed raised Gray’s bed so he could see his bark-covered lower body and told him that he had not quite been born yet.

Ed learned that Gray’s recovery had left him part human, part treant, and part cyborg, and asked about his chance to become Grand Foundry Master. Gray accepted Ed’s offer of support, hoping to enter the selection despite his changed body.

• Gray woke and questioned Ed about the wooden body Ed had created to save him.
• Ed explained that Gray’s body was still being reshaped and that he would need about three days for his lower body to become fully human.
• Gray said his condition might affect his chances in the selection for Grand Foundry Master, a position the Graycast Corridor had unexpectedly opened to candidates.
• Ed offered to support Gray’s bid, explaining that he wanted to learn more about the Grand Foundry Master and that Gray’s success could make things easier.
• Gray agreed that he wanted Ed’s support.

Ed discussed Gray's candidacy for Grand Foundry Master and offered to help him secure food and recover his mobile fortress, Antasia. After leaving, Ed admitted to Little Green that he also hoped Gray would repay his support with a property deed.

• Gray explained that the first selection round judged candidates' contributions to the Graycast Corridor and said he needed to recover Antasia, which required at least fifty Blood Corpses for power.
• Ed suggested that supplying the Corridor with large quantities of food could count as a major achievement and said he would send warriors to recover Antasia when an opportunity arose.
• Ed told Gray that he did not need to hide their partnership and could seek campaign investment from the Corridor.
• Little Green asked Ed why he had not told Gray his real objective, and Ed confessed that he wanted Gray's property deed as repayment for helping him become Grand Foundry Master.
• Ed justified the plan as a peaceful way to gain Territory Secret Pacts for Little Green, and Little Green praised his methods sarcastically.

[Noncompliant Nickname 1214] celebrated buying a house by sharing the grinding and odd-job strategy that had earned him enough money, then revealed the username that got him forcibly renamed. After [Zhongde] watched him log out and reflected on his construction crew, he received a quest that could unlock a large-scale storyline.

• [Noncompliant Nickname 1214] celebrated his new house while [Zhong Lele] interviewed him about how he had earned the money to buy it.
• [Noncompliant Nickname 1214] explained how he maximized event contributions and took on jobs across several locations, prompting players to study his methods.
• [Noncompliant Nickname 1214] revealed that his original username was “Ed's Workplace Is So Warm” and immediately collapsed after saying it, leading [Zhong Lele] to confirm that he had logged out.
• [Zhongde] reflected on how his [Be Yourself in the Concrete] construction crew had become a popular way for newcomers to earn money.
• [Zhongde] received a quest directing him to find Duolin at the White Wax Town Adventurers' Guild, with a reward that unlocked a large-scale, long-term quest storyline.

Zhongde accepted a quest to build a fake city wall after learning that Holy Crusaders would soon arrive in White Wax Town and might expose the Second Holy See. He promised Duolin he would seek help from the other Soul Returners to reduce casualties.

• Zhongde and the Concrete Pouring Club players identified the hidden quest as a city-wall construction assignment, and Zhongde accepted it.
• Duolin explained that Holy Crusaders from Fir City were coming to help defend White Wax Town against the Blood Corpses.
• Zhongde realized the Crusaders might discover the Second Holy See and its Fallen Ones, putting the town and its people at risk.
• Duolin revealed the plan to lure the Crusaders behind a fake wall, capture them, and screen them, despite the likelihood of casualties.
• Zhongde accepted the construction job on behalf of Be Yourself in the Concrete and vowed to ask the other souls for help reducing casualties.

Duolin followed Ed’s instructions to send a letter to a senior member of the Holy City’s Holy See, while [Zhongde] worked with the souls to devise a plan for White Wax Town’s defenses and screening the Holy Crusaders. The chapter ended with [Zhongde] asking Duolin whether the Fallen Ones used code phrases.

• Duolin reported his conversation with [Zhongde] to Ed, who told him to let the Soul Returners pursue reasonable plans and send a letter requesting that the Holy City’s contingent consist entirely of Pure Ones.
• Ed told Duolin that the special hoofbeast carrying the letter would test Gray’s new external bio-armor.
• [Zhongde] recounted his conversation with Duolin in the [Concrete Pouring Club] group chat, then consulted the souls to refine a plan.
• Residents of White Wax Town joined the construction team and began building walls using the Tree Worship Church’s plant-based methods.
• [Zhongde] proposed layered defenses, inspections of the arriving Holy Crusaders, and private exchanges of code phrases to identify the Fallen Ones.
• [Zhongde] asked Duolin whether the Fallen Ones had code phrases like “Hail Hydra.”

[Zhongde] used Yiden’s recognition phrase to organize a paid construction project, which players could also use to earn contribution points from Ed. At night, [Gill's Cuisine] and a group pursuing fleeing Blood Corpses discovered an artificially excavated cave that might belong to a boss.

• [Zhongde] recruited players to build a wall and checkpoint near White Wax Town, paying them three silver and fifty copper for each day’s construction tasks.
• The developers added the construction work to Bloody Night’s task list, letting workers earn both [Zhongde]’s wages and contribution points from Ed.
• Players flocked to the site for the double rewards, while Ed welcomed their efforts and joked that they would make him go broke.
• At night, [Gill's Cuisine], [Western Sharpshooter], and other players cautiously followed fleeing Blood Corpses through the hills, finding severed limbs but no monsters nearby.
• [Western Sharpshooter] pushed aside thorny branches and revealed an artificially excavated cave, which [Gill's Cuisine] suspected was the boss’s lair.

[Gill's Cuisine] led a squad through a cave to find the Blood Corpses, but their path ended at a concealed monster disguised as a stone door. After the players destroyed it, they revealed hundreds of Blood Corpses gathered around an ornate coffin.

• [Gill's Cuisine] reminded the squad to prepare for combat and check their equipment and revival funds before entering the cave.
• The squad found a dead end, and a geology student recognized that the apparent rock wall was a door.
• The geology student discovered a protrusion that became a Blood Corpse's eye and smashed it with his hammer.
• The squad attacked the disguised monster, hacked it apart, and exposed the space behind it.
• Hundreds of Blood Corpses turned toward the squad from around an intricately carved coffin.

The players fought through the Blood Corpses’ reinforcements until an old Blood Corpse awakened in the coffin and slaughtered them with giant hands made of flesh and bone. He left [Gill's Cuisine] and [Western Sharpshooter] suspended before him and asked what year and month it was, but [Gill's Cuisine] spat in his face and was killed.

• The humans fought the Blood Corpses in the cave while the creatures secretly fed blood into the enormous coffin.
• The old Blood Corpse awakened, asked what year and month it was, and killed the knight who charged him.
• The old Blood Corpse formed giant hands from the bodies of kneeling Blood Corpses and used them to defeat the players.
• The old Blood Corpse captured [Gill's Cuisine] and [Western Sharpshooter] as the last survivors and asked them what year and month it was.
• [Gill's Cuisine] spat at the old Blood Corpse, who decapitated him and calmly wiped the blood from his face.

A newly awakened Blood Corpse leader learned that nearly a century had passed and began transforming [Aluode] into one of his kind. [Aluode] became a Blood Corpse but discovered he could still think and control his character, leaving him to consider how to use his new faction status.

• The Blood Corpse leader killed his remaining captives until [Aluode] told him it was October 10, year 908 of the Royal Calendar.
• The old man realized he had slept for over eighty years and recommitted himself to serving the Grand Duke of Blood by spreading the Corpse Tide.
• The old man offered [Aluode] either a painless death or a place among his blood kin, and [Aluode] chose transformation.
• The old man transformed [Aluode] into a Blood Corpse, and the player panel showed that he had switched factions and received the Count's Gift.
• [Aluode] realized that, as a player, he retained control despite the status requiring absolute obedience, and considered using his new body to protect his valuables before resurrecting.

Ed realized the Blood Corpses were growing stronger as their seal weakened and recognized that the revived count posed a serious threat. Through [Aluode], who appeared to have joined the count but was secretly cooperating with Ed, he learned that the count intended to attack Weeping Willow Town.

• Ed watched players die fighting the revived count and concluded that Blood Corpses would grow stronger until the Grand Duke of Blood emerged.
• Ed used his powers to send [Aluode] hints while the count turned him into a subordinate.
• The count ordered [Aluode] to explain the human powers and identify his home settlement.
• [Aluode] named Weeping Willow Town in Aduolin Province as his home.
• Ed recognized Weeping Willow Town as a likely target of the count and suspected the Tree Worship Church’s Fallen Ones controlled it.

[Aluode] realized that the Blood Corpse Count was Bennett Antos, the former human Marquis Aduolin, and that his squad had awakened a powerful vampire traitor. Bennett summoned more Blood Corpses to join him in an attack on Weeping Willow Town, while [Aluode] worried that the Second Holy See was in danger.

• Ed worried about the players’ plan for Weeping Willow Town and hoped its bishop had followed Antiya Lisi’s orders to fortify the town and hold out for reinforcements.
• Bennett told [Aluode] that he had once been a human named Bennett Aduolin, known as Marquis Aduolin.
• Bennett revealed that he planned to capture Weeping Willow Town and sacrifice its humans to awaken several Blood Corpses of his rank.
• Bennett destroyed the living stone door and used a psionic spell to summon Blood Corpses to join him.
• Bennett returned to the stone hall, made a chair from two Blood Corpses, and waited with [Aluode] for the summoned reinforcements.

After spending the day among the Blood Corpses, Aluode logged off and told his friends that Bennett had turned him into a thinking Blood Corpse and made him an adviser. Gill's Cuisine logged into Aluode's account to seek advice, leaving Aluode to realize what he had done.

• At sunrise, the weakened Blood Corpses retreated into the cave's shadows, and the Soul Returner passed out.
• Gill's Cuisine and Western Sharpshooter went to Aluode's room after discovering that he had not respawned with the rest of their group.
• Aluode revealed that Bennett had turned him into a thinking Blood Corpse and appointed him as an adviser.
• Gill's Cuisine and Western Sharpshooter learned that Aluode had lied about coming from Weeping Willow Town and discussed how he could use his position as an undercover agent.
• Gill's Cuisine borrowed Aluode's helmet to log in and consult a friend, and Aluode realized he had entered the game on Aluode's account.

[Gill's Cuisine] and [Zhongde] exchanged information and devised a plan to exploit the fake wall and the Blood Corpses, while Ed watched the players take initiative. Ed reflected on how players could help him grow stronger and began searching for ideas for the next game event.

• [Gill's Cuisine] met [Zhongde] in the White Wax Town Adventurers' Guild and told him about the cave and the Blood Corpses.
• [Zhongde] showed [Gill's Cuisine] the short fake wall intended to mislead the Holy Crusaders, and they realized the players could shape the plot through their own plans.
• [Gill's Cuisine] logged out and hinted to [Aluode] that he had a solution involving interlocking stratagems.
• [Zhongde] sent [Concrete Mixed with Spaghetti] and Guard Tailun to check on the walls and civilian evacuation in Weeping Willow Town.
• Ed praised the players' initiative, reviewed how Territory Secret Pacts, genes, and leveling strengthened his abilities, and searched for inspiration for a new game mode.

[Aluode] led Count Bennett Antos and his Blood Corpse army toward Weeping Willow Town, hoping the players would stop the force before it reached White Wax Town. As arrows suddenly struck the vanguard, Bennett faced an ambush aided by a translucent player ID.

• Count Bennett Antos awoke and gathered with more than a thousand Blood Corpses in the Wilderness of Chaos.
• At Bennett’s command, [Aluode] led the Blood Corpses toward Weeping Willow Town while Bennett rode in a flesh-and-bone sedan chair.
• After three days of marching, nearly a hundred Blood Corpses had fallen behind, and Bennett learned that nearby villages had been evacuated and fortified.
• Bennett began summoning more Blood Corpses as reserves when archers in the woods shot down the vanguard.
• Several heavy arrows flew toward Bennett, guided by a translucent ID floating in the darkness.

[Aluode] led a group of Blood Corpses into the woods and killed five players, who had staged the fight to help him win Count Bennett’s favor. Bennett believed the story and promised to make him a count when he became a marquis, then ordered his forces to attack Weeping Willow Town before dawn.

• Count Bennett sent [Aluode] after the attackers with a hundred Blood Corpses after an arrow struck him.
• [Gill's Cuisine] and the other players confirmed their plan to let [Aluode] defeat them and claim credit.
• [Aluode] and the five players exchanged a signal before he killed them and presented their heads to Bennett.
• Bennett accepted [Aluode]’s explanation for the mutilated heads and his own wounded face, praising him and promising him a title.
• Bennett ordered his forces to march at full speed and launch an assault on Weeping Willow Town before dawn.

Aluode learned that the Blood Corpses planned to attack Weeping Willow Town that night and alerted his fellow players. In Weeping Willow Town, Tailun and Zhongde had prepared the town’s defenses, and the chapter ended as they braced for the coming assault.

• Aluode warned the Infernal Affairs group that the Blood Corpses would attack Weeping Willow Town that night.
• Gill's Cuisine, Zhongde, and Western Sharpshooter confirmed their plans and reported that White Wax Town's reinforcements would arrive at daybreak.
• Tailun beat a cleric while criticizing the town’s defenses, and the bishop asked him to calm down.
• Zhongde and Tailun explained how they had gained the bishop’s trust and learned which local clerics were Stained Ones.
• The bishop and Tailun imposed martial law, gathered villagers, and organized workers to prepare defenses against the Blood Corpses.

Tailun and [Zhongde] learned that at least a thousand Blood Corpses would attack Weeping Willow Town before dawn, and they pressured the town’s bishop to help defend it. The bishop agreed to put his elite clerics under Tailun’s command, hoping to survive while the others fought.

• Tailun kicked a fallen cleric and worried that Weeping Willow Town was unprepared for the coming Blood Corpses.
• [Gill's Cuisine] rushed into the church and warned Tailun, [Zhongde], and the bishop that at least a thousand Blood Corpses would arrive before dawn.
• Tailun argued that the town could hold out until dawn, while [Zhongde] suggested that the bishop hand his elite clerics over to Tailun.
• Tailun threatened to take his troops to Ginkgo Town and leave the bishop to face the consequences of losing Weeping Willow Town.
• The bishop agreed to place his elite clerics under Tailun’s command while privately hoping the inspector would die in the fight.

Inspector Tailun took command of Weeping Willow Town’s defenders as Count Bennett’s Blood Corpses attacked the town wall. The defenders trapped the vanguard in a ditch and set them alight, while the battle continued into the night.

• Church elites lit arrows to reveal the approaching Blood Corpses, sending frightened townspeople fleeing from the wall.
• Tailun showed the bishop’s insignia and took command of the clerics, then organized local defenders and players on the wall.
• Count Bennett ordered the Blood Corpses to attack the wall’s lowest section, unaware that traitor [Aluode] had directed him toward a trap.
• The Blood Corpses at the front fell into the ditch dug before the wall and began climbing over one another toward the defenders.
• Defenders poured grease onto the climbing Blood Corpses, and a spark ignited the vanguard in the ditch.

Bennett’s Blood Corpse siege stalled against Weeping Willow Town’s shield defense, so [Aluode] manipulated him into committing more forces. Tailun redirected the town’s clerics toward [Aluode]’s attack, intending to use them as casualties.

• Bennett realized the defenders were using large shields to knock burning Blood Corpses off the wall, and began regretting his decision to attack Weeping Willow Town.
• [Aluode] urged Bennett to let him lead an assault, invoking Bennett’s promise to make the town’s people into Blood Corpses.
• Bennett gave [Aluode] two hundred Blood Corpses and ordered him to take the wall.
• [Aluode] led the Blood Corpses toward a position identified by the Soul Returner, while Tailun learned where the attack would land.
• Tailun ordered the local clerics to reinforce that position, threatening them despite knowing they would likely become casualties.

Tailun gathered uncorrupted clerics as temporary guards while [Aluode] led Blood Corpses in an assault on the wall, where Tailun let a Fallen One die. In the Holy Soul Hall, a night watchman found Kandel’s Soul Tree destroyed in a way that matched an old record of a Blood Corpse attack.

• Tailun recruited a middle-aged cleric and other Pure Ones to serve as temporary guards while sending captured Fallen Ones toward the slaughterhouse.
• [Aluode] led the Blood Corpses through a gap in the wall, threw two shield-bearing guards aside, and fought the clerics who rushed to defend it.
• Tailun watched as a Blood Corpse killed a Fallen One, then killed the Blood Corpse and claimed he had arrived too late.
• A Holy Soul Hall night watchman found Kandel’s Soul Tree broken, marked with claws, and covered in grayish-black leaves.
• The night watchman compared the damage with old records and identified it as matching a Blood Corpse attack.

A night watchman discovered that Blood Corpses had returned to Weeping Willow Town and reported the deaths to Cardinal Luxiusi. Luxiusi summoned the other cardinals, ordered reports gathered, and prepared to travel, wondering how Nuowa’s seal had broken so soon.

• The night watchman found three dead Soul Trees in Weeping Willow Town and identified their deaths as Blood Corpse attacks.
• The night watchman reported the deaths to Samuer, Cardinal Luxiusi’s attendant, who took a dead Soul Tree to the cardinal.
• Luxiusi examined the Soul Tree and confirmed that a Blood Corpse had killed its owner.
• Luxiusi ordered Samuer to summon Cardinals Sailesi and Geliwusi, gather reports from Aduolin Province, and prepare for a trip.
• Luxiusi wondered aloud how Nuowa’s seal had broken so soon.

At Weeping Willow Town, Count Bennett rushed onto the wall to save [Aluode] and satisfy his urge to fight, slaughtering players as he prepared a devastating punch. Dawn broke and white light fell on Bennett, threatening the Blood Corpses.

• Bennett doubted [Aluode] was fighting in earnest, but a shield soldier's heavy blow convinced him that [Aluode] had not conspired with the defenders.
• Bennett leapt from his sedan chair and used a hand of bone and flesh to deflect a boulder and shove the unconscious [Aluode] out of danger.
• Bennett landed on the wall and attacked the players, grabbing two shield soldiers and striking them with a Facebreaker.
• Bennett gathered flesh and blood around his fist to unleash a Haymaker, but a shaft of white light fell on him as dawn broke.

After sunlight weakened Bennett and his Blood Corpses, he abandoned the siege of Weeping Willow Town and fled with [Aluode]. Bennett blamed [Aluode] for the defeat and ordered him to die in the coming assault on White Wax Town, unaware that [Aluode] had already planned to die there.

• Dawn weakened Bennett and the Blood Corpses, forcing Bennett to flee the battlefield and follow [Aluode] to safety.
• Once they reached the woods, Bennett summoned scattered Blood Corpses and blamed [Aluode] for the failed attack on Weeping Willow Town.
• Bennett asked about nearby settlements, and [Aluode] told him that White Wax Town lay north, a day and a night away.
• Bennett decided to march slowly for two days and nights, gathering Blood Corpses and spreading his forces to prevent messages passing between the towns.
• Bennett ordered [Aluode] to die during the assault on White Wax Town as punishment for the defeat, and [Aluode] agreed while secretly welcoming the plan.