Chapter Summaries

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.

Players overwhelmed Black Locust Town’s church, looting its furnishings and defeating the clerics. The bishop killed himself rather than surrender, while the remaining clerics gave themselves up and [Litang's Supremely Fierce Tiger] questioned whether they should be spared.

• Players stripped the church of furnishings as their growing numbers turned the fighting against the clerics.
• The bishop listened as his symbiotic plant relayed the deaths and surrenders upstairs, then accepted that the players had surrounded the grand prayer hall.
• The bishop ordered the tax collector and clerics to surrender, then killed himself with a wooden spike.
• The tax collector and the other clerics surrendered to the Soul Returners.
• [Litang's Supremely Fierce Tiger] objected to letting the clerics benefit from surrendering after the players had already secured victory.

The Soul Returners exposed the surrendered clerics’ attempt to blame the dead, then searched Black Locust Town’s church and rescued its young test subjects. After completing the hidden quest, the players received rewards and prepared to expand toward the Wilderness of Chaos and Fir City, while Ed recognized that the Second Holy See’s affairs could no longer stay secret.

• [Litang's Supremely Fierce Tiger] questioned the tax collector, whose lies about the church experiments turned the Soul Returners against the surrendered clerics.
• The Soul Returners took the clerics to White Wax Town’s concentration camp, while [Litang's Supremely Fierce Tiger] stopped [Zhong Lele] from filming their punishment.
• The players rescued young test subjects from beneath Black Locust Town’s church and stripped the building of nearly everything they could carry.
• Nuolun accepted the players’ explanation that the church was being disbanded, and Ed received the Territory Secret Pact as the hidden side quest was completed.
• The players celebrated their rewards, then split between stabilizing the towns and establishing a safe zone near the Second Holy See.
• Ed planned a brief period of development before expanding toward Fir City, while acknowledging that the Second Holy See’s affairs were unlikely to remain hidden.

Ed ended the Bloody Night quest after the Second Holy See secured a broad safe zone, and planned its next stage while keeping his identity as the Son of God secret. A game update opened new towns and Dungeons, added Blood Corpse quests and more fish, leaving [Epic-Level Giant] furious about the fishing changes.

• Ed considered how the Second Holy See’s expansion would spread information and decided his Son of God identity had to remain secret.
• Players completed the Bloody Night quest after building a fifty-kilometer safe zone and killing hundreds of thousands of Blood Corpses.
• Ed ended the quest, accepted the ongoing threat from the Blood Corpses, and began planning the Second Holy See’s next stage.
• The development team announced new spawn points, Dungeon bosses, Blood Corpse quests, and increased river fish variety.
• [Epic-Level Giant] read the update, threw down his fishing rod, and shouted that they had to drain the river.

Gray oversaw the repaired Antasia’s hybrid propulsion and new rest system during a test run with [Do Some Farm Work], [Traditional Eccentric Wheel], and the others. After the tests succeeded, Gray prepared to ask Lord Ed for permission to return to the Graycast Corridor.

• [Do Some Farm Work] and [Traditional Eccentric Wheel] roleplayed as pirates aboard the Antasia while Gray watched with Bennett and Motley.
• Gray ordered Bennett to make the Blood Corpses pedal, and the Antasia accelerated across the wilderness.
• The crew tested the rest system, which let the Antasia stop while its roots drew nutrients and the Blood Corpses drank nutrient fluid.
• [Diorite] confirmed that the mechanisms below deck were running normally.
• [Do Some Farm Work] declared the New Antasia’s technical testing a success, and Gray said he would ask Lord Ed to let him go home.

The Antasia was repaired and prepared to depart, while Gray and Xilǐ'er made plans to return to the Graycast Corridor and leave the Second Holy See. As Willow Seretima took a walk through the castle, she discovered countless vines moving wildly through its hall.

• The Antasia returned to the castle with its damage repaired by a plant support system, drawing the players' attention.
• Gray told Ed he was ready to return to the Graycast Corridor, and Ed arranged supplies and asked him to take up to ten people aboard the Antasia.
• A messenger told Xilǐ'er that the Antasia would depart the next day and that Gray had reserved him a place.
• Xilǐ'er said farewell to the Gungnir members, urging his first students to train newcomers and uphold their knightly creed.
• After working for seventy-two hours, Willow Seretima went for a walk and spotted hundreds upon thousands of vines dancing through the castle hall.