Recaps

[Dark Archmage] explored the forest near Fir City and discovered that someone was talking nearby, but a parasitic plant took root in her nose before she could investigate. She stayed alive and waited for the nearby figures to arrive, hoping to learn more before abandoning her body.

• [Dark Archmage] used a Giant Eucalyptus to sharpen her senses and heard a conversation in the silent forest.
• [Dark Archmage] considered how the Tree Worship Church had failed to scout or coordinate its defenses against the fake Holy Crusaders.
• A seed-bearing tuft of fluff entered [Dark Archmage]'s nose and sprouted, blocking both nostrils.
• [Dark Archmage] prepared to uproot the plant, but it burrowed deeper, and distinct footsteps sounded beside her.

[Dark Archmage], the Soul Returner, was captured by clerics near Fir City and taken to a military camp for questioning. When the Knight Commander said the Holy City knew of Antiya Lisi's misdeeds, [Dark Archmage] reacted with delighted surprise.

• [Dark Archmage] fled from six clerics, who captured her with a net of vines.
• The clerics carried [Dark Archmage] into a plant-built military camp near Fir City.
• The Knight Commander questioned [Dark Archmage] and explained that a reed parasitized her and that her reaction had revealed she was not a trained cleric.
• The Knight Commander said the Holy City had learned of Antiya Lisi's misdeeds and had come to deal with them.
• [Dark Archmage] asked the Knight Commander in delighted surprise whether that was really good news.

[Dark Archmage] used her scripture knowledge to convince Nuolun that she was a qualified cleric, then began exchanging information with the grand knight commander. Meanwhile, [Zhongde] and [Gill's Cuisine]'s fake Holy Crusaders reached Blue Gum Town with their force reduced after leaving players behind to maintain order in captured towns.

• [Dark Archmage] considered fabricating a story for Nuolun and used the map of Aduolin Province to prepare her lie.
• Nuolun tested [Dark Archmage]'s religious knowledge, but [Dark Archmage] recited scripture from the official lore compendium and won an apology.
• Nuolun introduced herself as the grand knight commander of the Fourteenth Knights of the Holy City's Holy Crusaders, and [Dark Archmage] claimed to be a scout from Blue Gum Town.
• [Zhongde] and [Gill's Cuisine] left players behind in each captured town, reducing their fake Holy Crusaders from five hundred to two hundred.
• [Zhongde], [Gill's Cuisine], and Jerry reached Blue Gum Town and reflected on their tactical planning as they saw its bishop hanging in the distance.

[Zhongde] learned that [Dark Archmage] had been captured by a five-hundred-strong Tree Worship Church knight order and agreed to help her with a new deception. Meanwhile, Grand Knight Commander Nuolun questioned [Dark Archmage], learned the rebels were based in Blue Gum Town, and set out to verify her account.

• [Dark Archmage] told [Zhongde] she had been captured, and the two agreed to frame her group as rebels led by Duolin based in Blue Gum Town.
• [Zhongde] recruited [Gill's Cuisine] to impersonate Duolin and Aoda again for another security inspection.
• [Dark Archmage] chose to guide Grand Knight Commander Nuolun's force to Blue Gum Town, hoping to test their loyalties and enlist their help against the Stained Ones.
• Nuolun ended his questioning after extracting [Dark Archmage]'s account, leaving her frustrated that she had learned almost nothing about him.
• Nuolun told his squad leaders that the young bishop Duolin had acted in Blue Gum Town, not White Wax Town, and prepared to verify the information.

After [Dark Archmage] abandoned her captured body and reported the encounter to Ed, he realized that Nuolun's Holy Crusaders were allies investigating the same threats. Ed rewarded the players and prepared to watch Blue Gum Town as the story moved toward a clash between well-meaning forces.

• Nuolun ordered the prisoner kept in custody and redirected her squad to Blue Gum Town after resting overnight.
• [Dark Archmage] abandoned her body, resurrected near the ancient castle, and planned to retrieve equipment before approaching Fir City again.
• [Dark Archmage] met Ed and reported the encounter, and Ed watched the replay of her interrogation.
• Ed deduced that Nuolun and her Holy Crusaders were Pure Ones sent to aid Duolin, though the players had mistaken them for suspicious outsiders.
• Ed told [Dark Archmage] he would watch Blue Gum Town and awarded her and 201 other players a future custom action, along with compensation.

[Dark Archmage] learned that Ed had reimbursed her losses and headed for Blue Gum Town to investigate Nuolun. As Nuolun’s Holy Crusaders arrived at the town, [Zhongde] and the players prepared to judge their strength and screen them for allies, while Nuolun’s symbiotic reeds spread around the walls.

• Ed reimbursed [Dark Archmage] for the assets she had lost when she killed herself, and she shared her information with [Zhongde] and the others before setting out for Blue Gum Town.
• Nuolun ordered her Holy Crusaders to prepare to march and used rapidly growing reeds to gather information across the surrounding area.
• Two days later, [Zhongde] and the players prepared a staged defense of Blue Gum Town and planned to screen the approaching Holy Crusaders for Pure Ones and Stained Ones.
• The Holy Crusaders reached the outskirts of Blue Gum Town, and [Zhongde] and [Gill's Cuisine] observed their discipline and bloodstained uniforms.
• Nuolun's reed seeds spread to the town walls and began growing among the Blood Corpses, while Ed considered taking advantage of her symbiotic plants but held back.

Ed joined the players at Blue Gum Town to test his combat strength and reassure them, while Nuolun arrived with the Holy Crusaders Fourteenth Knights. After learning her prisoner had died, Nuolun agreed to the town’s security inspection and led her troops inside.

• Ed stayed in Blue Gum Town with the players while the Holy Crusaders Fourteenth Knights approached.
• Nuolun learned that the prisoner had died and ordered her squadron leader to keep the body safe so she could report the negligence to Bishop Duolin.
• [Zhongde] had the defenders demand a security inspection for bite marks and warned that the First Knights had been sent back to Fir City for refusing one.
• Nuolun confirmed [Zhongde]’s Territory Secret Pact and agreed to the inspection.
• Nuolun led five hundred Holy Crusaders through Blue Gum Town’s gates, and [Zhongde] remarked that she was braver than Motley.

Ed questioned Grand Knight Commander Nuolun in Blue Gum Town, but the code phrase exposed him as a Fallen One and triggered her attempt to escape and protect her troops. The chapter ended with Nuolun attacking Ed and her sword lodging in his wooden arm.

• Nuolun entered Blue Gum Town, where players led some of her five hundred Holy Crusaders away while the rest waited and began removing their armor.
• Ed questioned Nuolun about her identity, departure from the Holy City, and encounters with Blood Corpses.
• When Ed said the code phrase “Stained with sin,” Nuolun recognized him as a Fallen One and rushed for the door.
• Ed sealed the door with ivy vines, while Nuolun snapped her fingers and caused the reed seed heads outside town to burst and scatter fluff toward the walls.
• Nuolun attacked Ed, but her sword could not pierce his resilient beechwood arm.

Ed tested Nuolun’s combat ability and revealed that he could quickly regenerate a severed hand using Boston ivy. He drove her into a corner with unorthodox swordplay, leaving her to reassess his apparent knowledge of seminary swordsmanship.

• Nuolun’s feints severed Ed’s left hand, but Boston ivy tendrils pulled it back onto his wrist, startling her.
• Nuolun overcame her fear and held her ground, taking a defensive stance as Ed grew an iron birch blade.
• Ed adopted a standard seminary swordsmanship opening stance, which Nuolun recognized despite doubting that he had learned it properly.
• Ed attacked with heavily modified moves, using Boston ivy to control his sword and force Nuolun back toward a corner.
• After Ed threw and retrieved his sword several times, Nuolun revised her judgment, deciding he seemed to have only sat in on the lesson about the opening stance.

Ed cornered Nuolun, but she unleashed Blood-Seeking Pampas Grass, whose seeds parasitized him and drained his vitality. As the grass revealed its abilities to Ed, he began to awaken his own power, leaving Nuolun puzzled and alarmed.

• Ed pressured Nuolun into a corner and slashed open her sleeve, exposing that she had not yet used her symbiotic plant.
• Nuolun released a storm of reed plumes that obscured her and sent seeds seeking out Ed to take root and drain his vitality.
• Little Green notified Ed that it had collected the Blood-Seeking Pampas Grass gene, and Ed learned the plant's abilities.
• Nuolun saw Ed covered in parasitic seeds and planned to weaken him before capturing him alive.
• Ed's sapling glowed beneath his hood as his eyes turned more intensely green, and Nuolun grew puzzled and alarmed.

Nuolun’s symbiotic plants abandoned her to join with Ed, and she recognized him as the progenitor of all plants. She understood that Luxiusi had sent her to follow Ed’s orders, and suspected the cardinal wished he could have come himself.

• Nuolun’s seeds parasitized Ed but sent messages showing they wanted to remain with him, and Ed drew them all into his right hand and absorbed them.
• Nuolun saw the plant in Ed’s eye socket and recognized him as the Tree God’s progenitor.
• Ed reflected that he would punish the Stained Ones by keeping them alive to serve him rather than simply killing them.
• Nuolun recalled Luxiusi telling her that someone in Aduolin would give her instructions and understood that he had envied her assignment.
• Nuolun realized she would willingly obey Ed and believed Luxiusi would have wanted to come in her place.

Ed revealed himself to Nuolun as the Tree God's incarnation, accepted her into the Second Holy See, and led her Holy Crusaders to Blue Gum Town's church. Nuolun spotted a familiar person among the players and remembered a dead prisoner she had not yet reported to Ed.

• Ed praised Nuolun's faith, explained that the Tree Worship Church had fallen, and invited her to join the Second Holy See.
• Nuolun accepted Ed's invitation, officially joining the Second Holy See.
• Nuolun left the examination room and found that the Soul Returners and her soldiers had resolved the conflict outside.
• Nuolun recognized a familiar face among the players and recalled the prisoner who had died before reaching town.
• Ed introduced Nuolun and her five hundred Holy Crusaders to the players, then led both groups toward Blue Gum Town's church.

Ed explained that the Soul Returners were ancient resurrected souls whose strange behavior came from living in a distant era, then arranged for Nuolun to connect to the Root Network and hire them with funds. He realized Nuolun’s standing army needed reliable monthly pay and promised the Fourteenth Knights wages about twenty percent higher than in the Holy City, leaving the exact coin exchange rate to be settled later.

• Ed told Nuolun that the Soul Returners had been summoned from the Hall of Heroic Spirits and warned him that their language and behavior might seem unfamiliar.
• Nuolun accepted the Soul Returners as allies of the Tree God and said he would not hold prejudice against them.
• Ed gave Nuolun a leaf from Little Green to connect him to the Root Network and explained that he could pay Soul Returners for tasks using transferred funds.
• Ed realized Nuolun’s five hundred Holy Crusaders were a standing army that needed monthly wages, unlike the players who treated military rewards as optional quest pay.
• Ed promised Nuolun that the Fourteenth Knights would receive monthly wages about twenty percent higher than in the Holy City, converted from tree seeds into coins.

Ed showed Nuolun the evidence of the Fallen Ones’ crimes in Blue Gum Town, where she resolved to execute their leaders. With Cardinal Luxiusi’s authorization, she publicly sentenced four church officials to death, leaving the other captured Fallen Ones under Ed’s judgment.

• Ed took Nuolun to Blue Gum Town’s church and showed her records, tools, and human experiments that revealed the Fallen Ones’ crimes.
• Nuolun learned that six other occupied towns had similar operations, then asked where the captured Fallen Ones were being held.
• Nuolun told Ed she intended to kill the Fallen Ones, explaining that Cardinal Luxiusi had authorized her to execute church members with a special sword technique.
• Ed permitted Nuolun to kill the ringleaders and said the rest would begin an eternal journey of atonement.
• Nuolun publicly announced the crimes of Blue Gum Town’s bishop and three other officials, sentenced them to death, and executed them with her technique.

After Nuolun executed four Stained Ones in Blue Gum Town, he explained the charges to the townspeople while players discussed the town’s missing dungeon boss. In Holy City, the deaths of the Blue Gum clerics’ Soul Trees drew the attention of an old keeper, who reported them to Samuer for Cardinal Luxiusi.

• Nuolun beheaded four Stained Ones, then explained their crimes to the residents of Blue Gum Town.
• Players discussed the execution, the dungeon in White Wax Town, and whether Blue Gum Town would get a boss and its own dungeon.
• A keeper in Holy Soul Hall discovered that the Soul Tree of a Blue Gum Town bishop had died by beheading.
• The old night keeper took charge and found three more dead Soul Trees belonging to Blue Gum Town clerics.
• The old keeper reported to Samuer that the four Soul Trees had died within a minute of one another, and Samuer recognized traces of moves imbued with special meaning.

Samuer reported that Soul Trees in Blue Gum Town had died after being called home by the Lord, and Luxiusi explained that he had sent Pure Ones to Aduolin Province to protect and train Nuolun. The chapter ended with Samuer asking his brass bird Icarus whether the Tree God was good or evil, and Icarus admitting it did not know.

• Samuer told Luxiusi that Soul Trees in Blue Gum Town had been called home by the Lord, confirming that Luxiusi's arrangements had borne fruit.
• Luxiusi explained that sending Nuolun to Aduolin Province was meant to protect and train her because she might become a dangerous enemy if she became one of the Stained Ones.
• Luxiusi told Samuer he might soon have an opportunity to leave the Holy City and see the world.
• Luxiusi asked Samuer whether he believed the Tree God was good or evil, and Samuer said the Tree God was both.
• Samuer asked Icarus the same question, and the brass bird said the Tree God was good because He had given it life, but admitted it did not know whether He would be good or evil if He took its life back.

Nuolun and the Fourteenth Knights adopted a Soul Returner’s plan to enter Black Locust Town by posing as reinforcements. The town’s clerics opened the gates to the seven hundred troops, and Nuolun began inspecting its defenses as they entered.

• Nuolun proposed attacking Black Locust Town, and her officers debated how to cross its walls without harming civilians.
• A Soul Returner explained how the players had entered other towns by posing as Holy Crusaders and asked for a hundred sets of combat vestments.
• Nuolun and the officers agreed to the plan, lent the Soul Returners the vestments, and sent four hundred Holy Crusaders and three hundred Soul Returners toward Black Locust Town.
• Four days later, the clerics opened the gates to the troops after hearing they had come to reinforce the town.
• Nuolun entered Black Locust Town and noticed its lax security, exploitation of civilians, and poorly constructed walls.

Nuolun discovered that Black Locust Town’s clergy had all been converted, but learned that the bishop could communicate with them through a symbiotic plant. After the bishop’s warning revealed that he knew the newcomers were enemies, Nuolun sent her forces to clear the walls, hold the gate, and attack the church.

• Nuolun inspected the wall and met the bishop’s assistant, who revealed that all 105 clerics in Black Locust Town were Stained Ones and admitted that locals also worked for the church.
• Nuolun killed the assistant, but he continued muttering as the other clerics hurried away.
• Nuolun pulled two vibrating leaves from the assistant’s ear, and a player used a military drum to amplify the bishop’s warning that enemies had entered town.
• Nuolun recognized the leaves as part of the bishop’s symbiotic plant and ordered the first two squads to clear the walls, the third squad to hold the gate, and the rest to follow her to the church.
• A player explained that he had brought the drum to provide music during the fighting and had captured it in Blue Gum Town.

Nuolun let the Soul Returners lead the assault on Black Locust Town's church, while her Holy Crusaders stood by as reserves. The Soul Returners prepared an improvised slingshot to launch [Noncompliant Nickname 1214] toward the church as a scout.

• [Dark Archmage] persuaded Nuolun to let the Soul Returners take the lead in attacking the church, with the Holy Crusaders serving as reserves.
• Nuolun saw that the church was fortified and crowded with Fallen Ones, while the Soul Returners discussed sending in a scout.
• [Noncompliant Nickname 1214] won the scout assignment because his high constitution supposedly gave him a better chance of surviving.
• The Soul Returners built a slingshot from iron birch supports and elastic mutated [Oil Vine].
• Ten players grabbed [Noncompliant Nickname 1214]'s arms and pulled him backward to launch him toward the church.

The Soul Returners used a giant slingshot to launch scouts at Black Locust Town’s church, and [Autumn Light and Osmanthus Shadows] successfully broke into the undefended third floor and sent back intelligence. After he killed a cleric and warned of incoming reinforcements, [Noncompliant Nickname 1214] reappeared through a shattered window.

• [Litang's Supremely Fierce Tiger] ordered the Soul Returners to launch [Noncompliant Nickname 1214] at a second-floor church window, but he struck the outer wall and fell to the ground.
• [Litang's Supremely Fierce Tiger] had [Autumn Light and Osmanthus Shadows] launched toward the same target, and he crashed through a third-floor window instead.
• [Autumn Light and Osmanthus Shadows] reported that the third floor was lightly defended and used incapacitating smoke to disable and kill an armed cleric.
• The bishop sensed his subordinate weakening and sent a five-man cleric squad to the third floor, while [Autumn Light and Osmanthus Shadows] warned his allies that reinforcements were coming.
• [Noncompliant Nickname 1214] climbed through a shattered window beside [Autumn Light and Osmanthus Shadows] and announced that he was back.

[Noncompliant Nickname 1214] survived being launched into the church and teamed up with [Autumn Light and Osmanthus Shadows] to scout its interior while the Soul Returners sent in more players. Outside, Nuolun and her cavalry joined the body-retrieval effort after seeing [Western Sharpshooter] drag wounded players by the neck with a lasso.

• [Autumn Light and Osmanthus Shadows] found [Noncompliant Nickname 1214] alive, and the two formed a temporary party to explore the church.
• [Autumn Light and Osmanthus Shadows] reported that at least ten enemies were on the second and third floors, while [Litang's Supremely Fierce Tiger] ordered the Soul Returners to keep launching scouts.
• The Soul Returners improved their aim and sent more players through the church windows on giant slingshots.
• Nuolun asked [Zhongde] if her cavalry could help retrieve fallen Soul Returners, and [Zhongde] directed her to follow [Western Sharpshooter].
• [Western Sharpshooter] dragged a wounded Soul Returner by a lasso around his neck, and Nuolun, disturbed by the method, led her cavalry into the retrieval effort.

Players unleashed their destructive instincts inside the enemy church in Black Locust Town, then discovered its storeroom and filled their pockets with tree seeds. After disguising themselves in layers of clerical robes, they escaped through a window when a fallen cleric found them.

• [Noncompliant Nickname 1214], [Autumn Light and Osmanthus Shadows], and [Gu Gugu] formed a temporary party and fought fallen clerics inside Black Locust Town's church.
• The three players found the storeroom, where taxes in Fir City-tree seeds had piled up because the Blood Corpses disrupted payments.
• They stuffed themselves and their storage spaces with seeds, then donned layers of clerical robes to carry even more.
• A fallen cleric discovered the players, so they used a Paralysis Bomb and escaped through a window with Deadwood Vines.

[Gu Gugu] and [Noncompliant Nickname 1214] escaped the church with stolen supplies, but the fallen cleric attacked them and [Noncompliant Nickname 1214] died. After learning how much treasure remained inside, the players turned their attention from fighting to plundering the church.

• The fallen cleric cut the vines, causing [Gu Gugu] and [Noncompliant Nickname 1214] to fall, then shot at them with wooden arrows.
• [Gu Gugu] dodged the arrows and carried the injured [Noncompliant Nickname 1214] toward the battle formation, where a squad leader rescued them and medics treated him.
• [Noncompliant Nickname 1214] told a medic to collect the cleric's wooden arrows for resale, then died from his wounds.
• [Gu Gugu] revealed that he and his companions had stolen tree seeds and clerical robes from a nearby storeroom, worth around ten gold coins.
• The players realized that the church held more valuable supplies and began growing Iron Birch trees to reach its windows and loot it.

Players prepared to storm the church, with [Zhongde] directing the assault and a band playing “Sailing on Dry Land” to inspire them. As the players began climbing into the church, the bishop misjudged their numbers and sent the tax officer upstairs to investigate.

• A player used a flexible pole to launch himself through a church window, inspiring others to discuss trying the maneuver.
• A player asked [Zhongde] for permission to play music, and [Zhongde] approved the band’s request to perform during the assault.
• [Zhongde] ordered the players to clear the upper floors, avoid killing enemies, and rely on the medical team; he then told the band to play something rousing.
• The band played “Sailing on Dry Land,” while [That's Good Then] and [That's Really Bad] joked that the players were fighting for legitimacy as Green Rome.
• The players raised ladders against the church and began assaulting its rooms as the bishop estimated that roughly twenty enemies were looting upstairs.
• The bishop ordered the tax officer to take three squads upstairs, and the tax officer eagerly led them toward his own room.

Players looted the church and captured a tax collector after trapping him with Blood-Drinking Thornbushes. As more players arrived, the church’s second and third floors were stripped of nearly every resource.

• The tax collector split the clerics into search teams and hurried toward his room to collect his hidden valuables.
• Three players broke into the tax collector’s room, where Blood-Drinking Thornbushes caught him and the players subdued him.
• The players forced the tax collector to reveal his hiding places and found tree seeds and metal coins among his valuables.
• The players marked the bound tax collector with a white flag and threw him out a window, where [Western Sharpshooter] lassoed him and dragged him to the players’ base camp.
• The players looted the church’s upper floors until later arrivals found only stripped rooms and ordinary clerical robes.