Chapter Summaries

Ed monitored player reports about Antiya Lisi and deduced how the archbishop could kill the Rat King despite his plant-based powers. He concluded that creatures could inherit Antiya Lisi’s restrictions by eating his transformed subjects.

• Ed observed that the Second Holy See and its surrounding towns had become stable, then checked the player forums for unusual reports.
• Howling Pothos reported that Antiya Lisi had marked him, sending treants after him until they killed him.
• That's Good Then reported that his treant-form body had died while he was offline, and players suspected it had been eaten by the Rat King.
• Ed recalled that the Rat King had entered the cathedral’s underground prison, where That's Good Then was being transformed into a treant.
• Ed deduced that the Rat King inherited Antiya Lisi’s rules by eating That's Good Then, then died after violating a restriction against attacking its creator.

Cardinal Luxiusi sent Samuer to Aduolin Province as Sailesi’s Stained Ones Knight Order approached, hoping the journey would resolve Samuer’s doubts about the Tree Worship Church. Meanwhile, a church clerk delivered documents about the Aduolin Province Black Dragon Incident to the incineration room, where its administrator began reading one before destroying it.

• Luxiusi told Samuer that Sailesi’s Stained Ones Knight Order was heading to Aduolin Province and instructed him to depart, while expressing confidence that the rebels could win.
• Samuer asked about Cardinal Geliwusi’s position, and Luxiusi advised him to judge Geliwusi by his actions rather than his words.
• Samuer returned to his room, summoned Icarus, and told the bird to prepare for their trip outside the Holy City.
• An old cleric delivered a cartload of documents to the church’s incineration room and left without discussing their contents.
• The incineration room administrator read a document titled “Investigation Report on the Aduolin Province Black Dragon Incident, Kingdom Calendar Year 908.”

A cleric in the Records Office read reports about Aduolin Province and tried to reconstruct its fate from documents marked for destruction. His assumptions about a Blood Corpse catastrophe were overturned by a report showing rebels occupied most of the province, and he found the surprise fascinating.

• A cleric read a report about a black dragon in Aduolin Province and noticed it had been sent to the incineration room despite claiming the province was operating normally.
• He found a later report about Blood Corpses and guessed that they had overrun Aduolin Province, leaving Archbishop Antiya Lisi besieged in the capital.
• He searched the cart for evidence and found a report stating that rebels occupied all of Aduolin Province outside Fir City.
• He realized the Blood Corpses had met strong resistance and that villagers were returning home, then became delighted that his deductions had been wrong.

An incinerator priest escaped the Holy City by transforming into a demon and headed toward Aduolin Province. In Fir City, [Zhong Lele] and her companions used the rat infestation as cover to plan a new tunnel route into and out of the city.

• The priest burned the Tree Worship Church files and his recliner, then entered the incinerator and escaped through its flue as a demon.
• The demon emerged in the woods outside the Holy City, said farewell, and vanished northward.
• After Howard killed the chapel Rat King, over ten thousand rats scattered through Fir City, making the staged infestation real.
• [Zhong Lele], [Pond Fish and Old Abyss], and [Dark Archmage] discussed how to use the rats as cover after abandoning their exposed disguises.
• [Zhong Lele] proposed digging a tunnel in the rat-infested part of the city, and [Dark Archmage] suggested starting inside someone's house.

Ed reviewed the Fir City Operation and delayed its decisive phase until the map was fully explored, civilians evacuated, and more intelligence gathered. He then heard [Ginseng Rooster]’s secret plan to undermine Fir City’s army and agreed to support it after learning it involved fabricating history.

• Ed noted that players had unlocked 92% of Fir City’s map while the city’s defenses and nighttime dangers increased.
• Ed raised bounties for unexplored areas and planned to wait until the map was complete, nearby civilians were evacuated, and Fir City’s leaders were better understood before escalating the operation.
• [Great Wei Boxing Champion] brought [Ginseng Rooster] to meet Ed because [Ginseng Rooster] lacked enough trust to request the meeting himself.
• [Ginseng Rooster] offered to personally carry out a secret stratagem that he claimed would divide Fir City and weaken its army’s morale.
• After [Ginseng Rooster] began explaining that the plan’s core was fabricating history, Ed decided to support it.

Ed authorized [Great Wei Boxing Champion] and [Ginseng Rooster] to fabricate rumors about Antiya Lisi, and the pair decided to investigate his family situation first. [Howling Pothos] accepted a risky commission to locate the archbishop’s residence and learn who lived there.

• Ed approved the plan to create unofficial histories and gave [Great Wei Boxing Champion] and [Ginseng Rooster] funding to pursue it.
• [Ginseng Rooster] proposed exploiting the World of Disorder’s lack of sexual scandals by tailoring rumors to whether Antiya Lisi was married.
• [Great Wei Boxing Champion] and [Ginseng Rooster] commissioned an investigation into Antiya Lisi’s residence and household.
• [Howling Pothos] accepted the commission despite knowing that following Antiya Lisi could get him killed again.

Howling Pothos organized a team to trace Antiya Lisi’s movements and find his residence. Meanwhile, a demon reached the Holy Crusaders’ camp and learned that Cardinal Sailesi’s forces planned to slay a suspected newly revived god, even if they had to replace the Tree God.

• Howling Pothos recruited players to track Antiya Lisi through a series of coordinated handoffs.
• The team began its investigation early the next morning, with Do Some Farm Work organizing information outside the game.
• A demon traveling north as a flame spotted a Holy Crusader camp, entered it, and joined the gathered grand knight commanders.
• The commanders discussed Antiya Lisi’s request for reinforcements after Fir City was attacked by animal amalgamations made by the rebels.
• The senior grand knight commander said they would slay the suspected revived god and replace the Tree God if he opposed them.

A demon overheard the Stained Ones’ commanders plotting to control a newborn Tree God and decided to test the suspected god himself. It trapped a grand knight commander in the Dark Side of the World and demanded his memories and skin so it could borrow his identity.

• The Stained Ones’ grand knight commanders agreed to pursue their plan to control the Tree God and become executors of divine authority.
• A demon listening through a brazier concluded that someone had concealed the truth about Aduolin Province and decided to put the suspected newborn god to a trial.
• After the commanders’ meeting ended, the demon entered the host’s tent and attacked the grand knight commander studying a map of Aduolin Province.
• The demon revealed that it had trapped the commander in the Dark Side of the World, then demanded some of his memories and his skin.

Duma persuaded Grand Knight Commander Marba to surrender his identity, then took his form and recalled the crusader officers to discuss their upcoming battle against a god. He left them considering how a unified command had helped demons win early battles against the kingdom.

• Duma weakened Grand Knight Commander Marba with whispers and convinced him to give up his name if Duma succeeded in killing the god.
• Marba recalled the demon general's name from a history textbook and called him Duma, who took over Marba's memories and identity.
• Duma ordered the command tent cleaned and summoned the other grand knight commanders and their deputies.
• Duma asked the officers why the kingdom's armies had suffered early defeats in wars against demons, and Marba's assistant explained that the demons had prepared and appointed a supreme commander.
• Duma asked the officers what lesson they had learned from that history.

Duma, disguised as Marba, forced the Holy Crusaders’ knight orders into a unified legion by ordering dissenting officers killed. In the Holy City, Geliwusi’s attendant secretly removed the dead officers’ Soul Trees, and Geliwusi arranged to take investigators Kele and Saili under his management.

• Marba proposed merging the Holy Crusaders’ knight orders into a legion and declared himself its commander.
• Duma, wearing Marba’s skin, ordered two subordinates to take over knight orders and kill the officers who opposed the reorganization.
• Seven or eight Soul Trees belonging to Stained Ones Knight Order officers shattered in the Holy Soul Hall, and the night watchman succumbed to hallucinations before reporting the deaths.
• Geliwusi’s attendant collected the shattered Soul Trees and fragments from the Holy Soul Hall and brought them to Geliwusi.
• Geliwusi ordered his attendant to transfer investigators Kele and Saili to the Records Office after dawn.

The players investigating Antiya Lisi learned that he lived alone in a lavish mansion with many servants, but its layout was too difficult to uncover. They realized the mansion might have belonged to Bennett and decided to get its floor plan from the Blood Corpse count, leaving him suddenly uneasy as he worked with Gray.

• Howling Pothos reported that Antiya Lisi was single, lived with many servants, and occupied a heavily guarded mansion whose layout the players could not determine.
• Zhong Lele explained that their client, Ginseng Rooster, wanted personal information for a public opinion campaign and hoped to collect as much as possible.
• Do Some Farm Work connected the mansion to Bennett Aduolin, who had once been a noble and might know its layout.
• The players agreed to ask Bennett for the floor plan, reasoning that Gray's private property could be persuaded by the threat of electrocution.
• After the players left Enzo's home, Traditional Eccentric Wheel received a private message, and Bennett shuddered while helping Gray adjust the Antasia's power output.

[Traditional Eccentric Wheel] helped [Do Some Farm Work] obtain a layout of Bennett’s old residence in Fir City. After Bennett drew the plans, [Do Some Farm Work] shared them with the Soul Returners preparing for the mission.

• [Traditional Eccentric Wheel] received [Do Some Farm Work]’s request for a rough plan of Bennett’s residence and left his inn to find Gray.
• [Traditional Eccentric Wheel] asked Gray to borrow Bennett, and Gray agreed after confirming the Blood Corpses had returned to their posts.
• Bennett offered to draw the residence layout if [Traditional Eccentric Wheel] untied one of his hands, then begged him not to use the shock lever.
• Bennett controlled a borrowed Blood Corpse to draw a rough plan, and [Traditional Eccentric Wheel] photographed it and sent it to [Do Some Farm Work].
• [Do Some Farm Work] studied the plans and shared them with the other Soul Returners taking part in the Fir City mission.

After the players documented Antiya Lisi’s routine, [Ginseng Rooster] used the records to invent a scandalous unofficial history about the archbishop. With [Great Wei Boxing Champion], he devised a way to mass-produce it using an Iron Birch printing block, and the two began printing copies.

• The stalker-fan players recorded Antiya Lisi’s routine and discussed spreading rumors about him while claiming they were helping Fir City.
• [Ginseng Rooster] reviewed the players’ investigation records and wrote “Archbishop Antiya Lisi’s Four Little-Known Quirks” with help from [Great Wei Boxing Champion].
• [Ginseng Rooster] and [Great Wei Boxing Champion] hired an illiterate Dragonborn to carve the article into a wooden board.
• [Great Wei Boxing Champion] grew an Iron Birch seedling inside the carved board until it took the grooves’ impression and became a printing block.
• [Ginseng Rooster] and [Great Wei Boxing Champion] bought paper and ink, then began printing copies of the unofficial history.

[Autumn Light and Osmanthus Shadows] piloted a Soldier Bee over Fir City and dropped ten thousand leaflets spreading [Ginseng Rooster]’s fabricated history and gossip about Archbishop Antiya Lisi. The clerics noticed the leaflets too late, and one was left stunned after reading the first lines.

• Players entering Fir City were offered a silver coin to carry ten leaflets into the city, while [Great Wei Boxing Champion] arranged the broader leaflet campaign.
• [Autumn Light and Osmanthus Shadows] rode a Soldier Bee from the players’ growing supply camp toward Fir City, relying on his [Animal Compatibility] to evade the city’s air defenses.
• [Autumn Light and Osmanthus Shadows] dove over Fir City’s western district and released the leaflets, whose scattered flight carried them into the city as the Soldier Bee escaped.
• Literate residents stopped to read the leaflets, while clerics in the chapel bell tower tried and failed to shoot down the Soldier Bee.
• A cleric caught a leaflet and read its opening claim about Archbishop Antiya Lisi’s private quirks before crumpling it, but the other clerics had already seen the words.

[Ginseng Rooster] publicly told a fabricated history portraying Antiya Lisi as having sold his ass and Cardinal Sailesi as his exploiter, drawing a crowd in Fir City. A cleric captain killed him, but the Soul Returners revealed that he had deliberately provoked the clerics to spread the story.

• The clerics tried to hide the leaflet after reading its claims about Antiya Lisi.
• [Ginseng Rooster] read aloud his invented story about Antiya Lisi and Cardinal Sailesi to a crowd in Fir City.
• [Ginseng Rooster] expanded the tale into an unofficial history serial, planning to give future archbishops their own storylines as the Soul Returners advanced.
• A cleric captain leapt from the bell tower and killed [Ginseng Rooster] with a blade formed through Directed Alienation.
• Soul Returners watching nearby said [Ginseng Rooster] had deliberately sought death so the sensational story would spread among the citizens.

Antiya Lisi punished the cleric who killed [Ginseng Rooster], then ordered a crackdown on leaflets and prepared Fir City for the arrival of reinforcements. He was left alone, furious over the rumors and determined to find their instigator after the war.

• Antiya Lisi rebuked the cleric for killing [Ginseng Rooster] instead of capturing him and exploiting the opportunity to expose the rebels.
• Antiya Lisi transformed the cleric into a Treant Hunter and had him taken to an underground cell.
• Antiya Lisi read [Ginseng Rooster]'s leaflet and worried that the rebels' propaganda signaled a dangerous change in their strategy.
• Antiya Lisi ordered knightly orders to confiscate leaflets, inspect their ranks, scout for reinforcements, and prepare for combat.
• Antiya Lisi sat alone, seething over the rumors and vowing to punish their instigator after the war, as a large bird flew past his window.

Marba heard that rebels were using mutated insects and leaflets to terrorize Fir City, but dismissed the rumors and promised Antiya Lisi that the legion would arrive within a day. Meanwhile, [Autumn Light and Osmanthus Shadows] spotted unfamiliar colors on the southern horizon and flew toward them, as Holy Crusader soldiers began hearing a buzz overhead.

• A dark bird landed on a young man's shoulder, and he asked Icarus if its flight had been fun.
• A messenger told Marba that rebels were harassing Fir City with mutated insects and fabricated leaflets, and Marba promised the legion would enter the city within a day.
• [Autumn Light and Osmanthus Shadows] flew his Soldier Bee over Fir City, gathering intelligence while dodging arrows and practicing his piloting.
• [Autumn Light and Osmanthus Shadows] noticed unfamiliar colors on the southern horizon and accelerated toward them after the Soldier Bee assured him they could return.
• Holy Crusader soldiers on the march heard a faint buzzing overhead and spotted a tiny point of light in the sky.

Marba ordered his Holy Crusaders to shoot down [Autumn Light and Osmanthus Shadows] and the Soldier Bee carrying him, then learned that his subordinate's mutated plant could be implanted in other soldiers at a severe cost. He decided to prepare seeds and select death soldiers for the experiment.

• The Holy Crusaders spotted [Autumn Light and Osmanthus Shadows] approaching, and Marba ordered Nasen to shoot him down.
• [Autumn Light and Osmanthus Shadows] told the Soldier Bee to return if he died, then tried to evade the arrows and projectiles below.
• Nasen fired high-speed black pellets that killed [Autumn Light and Osmanthus Shadows] and shredded the Soldier Bee's wings; the Holy Crusaders finished off the falling insect.
• Marba asked Senna whether his mutated plant could be implanted in another soldier, and Senna warned that it would burden the host's body.
• Marba ordered seeds prepared so he could choose a group of death soldiers.

After returning to Black Locust Town, [Autumn Light and Osmanthus Shadows] reported that more than a thousand Holy Crusaders were approaching Fir City, prompting Ed to prepare for a larger battle. Ed then announced updates to the Fir City Operation, including completed map coverage, increased rewards for building-layout information, and a guide to entry and extraction methods.

• [Autumn Light and Osmanthus Shadows] returned to Black Locust Town and reported to a Pure One squad leader that over a thousand armed Holy Crusaders were approaching Fir City from the south.
• The squad leader recorded the intelligence and relayed it to Nuolun and the Son of God.
• Ed learned that Antiya Lisi had reinforcements and reviewed his plans to map Fir City, evacuate citizens, and investigate its leaders’ combat abilities.
• Ed decided to question Motley's prisoners for information and drafted an update announcement for the Soul Returners.
• The announcement confirmed that Fir City's bird’s-eye map was complete, raised the rewards for core-building layout information, and listed available entry and extraction methods.

Ed’s edited announcement encouraged Soul Returners to form temporary alliances in Fir City’s core, while reinforcements from the Tree Worship Church’s heartland arrived at the southern gate. Army Commander Marba challenged Archbishop Antiya Lisi’s caution, leaving him to consider whether bold action could have prevented Fir City’s current crisis.

• Ed’s announcement introduced temporary cooperation quests that rewarded Soul Returners for joining forces against powerful enemies and investigating them.
• Players began searching the forums for allies, and Ed watched the reaction with satisfaction.
• The southern gate reopened, and Fir City’s Holy Crusaders welcomed reinforcements from three knight orders.
• Antiya Lisi privately told Marba that the situation was complicated and urgent, then led him and his senior officers to the cathedral.
• Antiya Lisi questioned Marba’s newly created army commander position, and Marba defended it as necessary to win the coming war.
• Marba criticized Antiya Lisi for acting too cautiously and argued that an earlier campaign against the rebels might have prevented the city’s predicament.