Chapter Summaries

Gray and Nora left the Antasia to visit Ed, bringing the knight’s sword and the unconscious Bennett, whose Grand Duke Antos summons seemed to have ended. After Gray shocked Bennett into pretending to pass out at the castle, the group approached Muller, but a commotion broke out nearby.

• Muller watched the Antasia arrive and waited for its guests to approach, resisting his urge to study the mobile fortress.
• Gray and Nora prepared to visit Ed, and Antasia reminded Gray to bring the knight’s sword that Xilǐ'er had asked him to deliver.
• Antasia told Gray to take Bennett to Ed, since it could now transport Gray and Nora and Bennett’s recurring frenzied state made him a burden.
• Bennett woke as Gray wheeled him away, claimed Grand Duke Antos’s summons had ended, then pretended to pass out when Gray threatened to shock him at the castle.
• Gray, Nora, and Bennett approached Muller, and a sudden commotion arose in a clearing to their left.

Gray and Nora encountered two groups of Soul Returners fighting over Luoli’s Electric Shock Wheelchair Pro, while Bennett watched from his own wheelchair. Bennett’s outburst drew Gray’s anger, and Luoli greeted him just as a well-dressed man arrived to mediate.

• Two groups of Soul Returners argued over who could use Luoli and his wheelchair, while Luoli urged them to settle the dispute peacefully.
• Bennett waited for Luoli to be punished with an electric shock, then blurted out his wish for it when no shock came.
• The players stopped arguing and began to reconcile, but Bennett’s loud outburst drew everyone’s attention and angered Gray.
• Luoli turned to Bennett and cheerfully greeted him as a familiar senior.
• A neatly dressed middle-aged man approached from the castle and offered to mediate.

Muller arrived to escort Gray and Nora to meet Ed, revealing that he was a Blood Corpse marquis from the feared Rosalind lineage who now served Ed. Gray lent Bennett to the Soul Returners as a free apology, and Muller led the guests toward the old castle.

• Gray recognized the blood in Muller's eyes and warned the others that he was a Blood Corpse, but the players trusted [Soaring Clouds 2882] and lowered their weapons.
• Muller introduced himself as a marquis of the Adrian Lineage and said he served Ed, then revealed that he had once belonged to Rosalind's lineage.
• Luoli and Bennett panicked at Muller's former lineage, but Muller calmly returned Luoli to his wheelchair.
• Muller said Ed had sent him to receive Gray and Nora, and suggested Gray lend Bennett to the Soul Returners because there were too few counts to use.
• Gray agreed to hand Bennett over for free, and the players cheered as Muller led Gray and Nora toward the old castle.

Gray and Nora told Ed about the suspected grand duke near Klaf City, Antasia’s Machine Spirit awakening, and Xilǐ’er’s transformation. Ed planned an investigation and considered whether the Machine Spirit could help the players’ technology research, then learned Xilǐ’er had sent him a gift.

• Gray told Ed that he and Nora had encountered a being suspected to be a grand duke and abandoned their cargo near a Blood Corpses gathering southeast of Klaf City.
• Ed connected the location to Luoli’s account of Hall and decided to send an advance team to investigate.
• Ed explained that Antasia’s Machine Spirit awakening was connected to him and the sacred World Tree icon he had made.
• Gray described how Xilǐ’er had changed, and Ed considered what the Eternal Domain had done to the knights.
• Gray told Ed that Xilǐ’er had sent him a gift to repay Ed for taking him in.

Ed accepted the knight’s sword from Gray and discovered that it contained the soul of a blue dragon named Noya. After sending Gray and Nora away, he began drafting a one-sided employment contract for Noya, while Seraphina appeared after a burst of flames left Muller charred and embedded in a corridor wall.

• Ed took the sword from Gray and revealed Noya, a blue dragon soul who pledged to follow him as her master.
• Ed told Noya she had to work in the Second Holy See and argued that she could never retire because her age had stopped at fifty when she died.
• Ed sent Gray and Nora away, then took out a blank contract to make Noya sign an employment agreement.
• A pair of black-and-gold eyes opened in the Obsidian Bank, and a crimson streak of fire crossed the sky.
• Muller appeared charred and embedded in a corridor wall as Seraphina opened the study door and Ed looked toward her.

Ed introduced Noya, the soul of the last Blue Dragon, to Seraphina and drafted an employment contract to keep her supplied with Psionic Energy. Seraphina accepted Noya’s presence but questioned the contract, and the chapter ended with her asking to review it.

• Seraphina mistook Noya’s dragon soul for an intruder and challenged her before Ed explained that Noya’s body had died.
• Noya told Seraphina that Blue Dragons could separate their souls from their bodies, but she had never learned this ability because she was corrupted by the Demonic Tide before birth.
• Seraphina questioned Noya about dragon customs and her lack of ancestral knowledge, then calmed down after hearing her explanations.
• Ed said he planned to give Noya an employment contract, while Seraphina argued that a battle-shy dragon deserved a slave contract instead.
• Ed drafted a contract promising Noya enough Psionic Energy to survive and a bonus for exceptional work, then handed it to Seraphina when she asked to see it.

Ed and Seraphina revised a contract to hire Noya, whose spirit gained enough psionic energy to survive and took the form of a small blue dragon. Ed then asked Noya to recount how she was hunted, and she began describing her life and the strange group she first encountered.

• Ed and Seraphina negotiated Noya’s employment contract while Noya trembled in fear.
• Seraphina notarized the revised contract, and Noya received psionic energy and became a member of the Second Holy See.
• Ed helped Noya solidify into a small dragon-soul form connected to his knight’s sword.
• Seraphina identified Ed’s silver-coin portrait as Leo IV, an emperor of the southern Empire from over a hundred years earlier.
• Ed asked Seraphina and Willow to hear Noya recount how she was hunted and promised they might help her get revenge.
• Noya described her corrupted egg, impaired wings and bloodline memories, then recalled eating the first strange group of creatures she encountered.

Noya recounted how Blood Corpses infected her, how the York Lineage hunted her, and how an expedition killed her. She believed the knight who struck her down had wielded the power of an Amber Dragon.

• Ed questioned Noya about eating the Blood Corpses, and Willow explained that dragons could resist infection for a long time.
• Noya said the Blood Corpses she ate belonged to the York Lineage, which hunted her until surviving demons attacked the lineage and killed a duke.
• Noya described finding a group of hollow metal shells that recorded information about her lair and retreated without pursuing her.
• Noya recounted how an expedition suppressed her, killed her, and severed her head, after which she lodged her soul in an unconscious knight.
• Ed asked what power had killed Noya, and she identified it as the power of an Amber Dragon.

Ed and the others learned that the Eternal Domain’s Immortal King was likely Aeldra, an ancient Amber Dragon who had absorbed Noya’s blue dragon power. They considered whether this could let Aeldra reach the Transcendent Tier, and Ed proposed that a dragon might need the powers of multiple lineages to attain it.

• Noya confirmed that the Eternal Domain was connected to the Amber Dragon, and Seraphina explained that dragons could absorb the powers of their own kind, making Noya’s lost body a source of power for the Amber Dragon.
• Seraphina recalled hearing of an ancient Amber Dragon named Aeldra, Shadow of Antiquity, who roamed the kingdom’s northern border and collected rare treasures, including dragons who had coveted them.
• Ed asked how strong Aeldra might be, and the group realized that absorbing Noya’s complete blue dragon body could provide the special opportunity needed to approach the Transcendent Tier.
• Seraphina and Noya said they knew of no Transcendent Tier dragons beyond the first Dragon King, and Ed suggested that later dragons might need powers from multiple lineages to reach that level.

Ed and the others discussed the dragons still alive and the threat posed by Aeldra, then planned to search for Loxor and warn him. Willow questioned how Xilǐ'er, once an empty suit of armor, had acquired a flesh-and-blood body.

• Seraphina explained that dragons corrupted by the Demonic Tide would die slowly and that she had sensed no signs of other dragons being forcibly killed.
• Ed concluded Aeldra was not yet at transcendent tier and asked Seraphina to name any living dragons she knew.
• Seraphina recalled Loxor, Melter of All Things, a Green Dragon she had met near the kingdom-empire border about a hundred years earlier.
• Ed said he would send Soul Returners to search the empire and warn Loxor about Aeldra's hunt for dragon authorities.
• Ed proposed that the Amber Dragon was the Immortal King and that the King of Domination had revived and controlled the Eternal Domain's knights.
• Willow asked how Xilǐ'er had obtained a flesh-and-blood body after once being an empty suit of armor.

Ed pieced together that the Eternal Domain’s knights were Blood Corpses empowered by Antos, while its officers and nobles were the Amber Dragon’s collectibles. He concluded that the Eternal Domain was a machine built by the Immortal King and the King of Domination, and marked it as an enemy.

• Ed proposed that Eternal Domain knights lost their bodies after spending too long outside the domain, but Noya contradicted him with examples of low-tier knights who had bodies and higher-tier knights who did not.
• Ed recalled that both Xilǐ'er and Silvis had fleshly bodies after Antos had been captured and taken to the Eternal Domain.
• Ed connected Silvis’s sword mark and the bloodshed beneath Klaf City to Antos, then concluded that Antos’s blood-and-flesh authority had granted bodies to the Eternal Domain’s knights.
• Ed told Willow that if Hall was sealed, Vanessa was likely the King of Domination and that many of the Eternal Domain’s people were her Blood Corpses.
• Ed interpreted the symbols on the knights’ armor as signs of the Amber Dragon and a vampire, and decided that the Eternal Domain was an enemy built by the Immortal King and the King of Domination.

Vanessa broke Antos out of an illusory siege and revealed that she had repeatedly tricked him into surrendering True Blood. She rejected his offer of service, saying her blood relatives and the vampire race had no hope of changing.

• Antos questioned why he was attacking the City of Dusk and realized he could not remember how long the battle had lasted.
• Antos tried to smash his own head, but the disguised marquis stopped him and revealed the battlefield as an illusion.
• Antos recognized the marquis as Vanessa and transformed into a monstrous mass of flesh and bone.
• Vanessa told Antos that he had failed to see through her deception many times and had given her True Blood.
• Antos offered to serve Vanessa for a thousand years, but she refused and explained that she had lost hope for vampires.

Vanessa confronted Antos and left his consciousness space as his flesh dissolved, while the King of Domination and an aged voice discussed their plans in the Eternal Domain. A live update then launched the next phase of the Great Adventurer quest, sending players to investigate sealed vampire grand dukes and liberate Black Pine City.

• Vanessa told Antos that vampires inevitably sought to betray and absorb one another, then offered to preserve his consciousness if he surrendered his True Blood and rank.
• Vanessa vanished from Antos's consciousness space, and Antos's flesh dissolved as a resentful, fearful pulse of Psionic Energy spread from his body.
• In the Twin Kings Palace, the King of Domination discussed his failed attempt to manipulate Antos and his progress mastering cold-domain authority with an aged voice.
• The King of Domination and the aged voice agreed to wait while Silvis remained restrained and Antos's consciousness stayed separated from his power.
• The World of Disorder announcement opened phase three of the Great Adventurer quest, directing players to search Klaf City and the Wilderness of Chaos for sealed grand dukes and to infiltrate Black Pine City.

A new World of Disorder update arrived after major developments on the southern and eastern fronts, adding quests, shop items, and new combat builds. Ed watched players embrace the update while recognizing that a silent race had begun between the Second Holy See and the Eternal Domain.

• Duma and the Soul Returners captured or scattered Fitz Province’s Holy Crusaders, forcing the archbishop to abandon three towns and gather his forces in Black Pine City.
• A group of top players discovered that Antos’s grave was empty and continued searching for Adelaide rather than return to the Second Holy See.
• The update introduced new quests and items, including temporary teleportation trees, aggregation fruit, and self-replenishing plants.
• Players rushed to buy woody and vine aberrant animals, whose customizable combat abilities made summoner builds viable.
• Ed listened to the players celebrate the new content and recognized the growing contest between the Second Holy See and the Eternal Domain.

Black Pine City’s residents gathered under threat to hear Archbishop Luorui'er Fitz address the looming conflict with the heretics who had occupied Aduolin Province. She acknowledged that Fitz Province’s Holy Crusaders had suffered several defeats, leaving the crowd awaiting what she would say next.

• Black Pine Cathedral announced that Luorui'er Fitz would give a prebattle speech, and residents who voiced reluctance were hanged as suspected heretic infiltrators.
• The people of Black Pine City crowded the square while Soul Returners [Dark Archmage], [Pond Fish and Old Abyss], and [Vanilla Ice Cream Scoop] infiltrated the gathering to investigate the absent archbishop.
• Clerics emerged from the cathedral to control the crowd, and Luorui'er Fitz appeared on the platform and introduced herself.
• Luorui'er Fitz told the crowd that heretics had occupied Aduolin Province and admitted that Fitz Province’s Holy Crusaders had suffered several small-scale defeats.

Luorui'er Fitz defended her handling of battle reports and argued that Black Pine City would hold by invoking the Fitz Family’s history of surviving the Demonic Tide. The crowd took up her slogan, while the players recognized that planted supporters had helped turn the speech into a display of unity.

• Luorui'er Fitz claimed that citizens who spread alarming rumors about the Holy Crusaders’ losses had been exposed and executed.
• The players [The Priest Was Once a Little Boy], [Fifteen Jin for Thirty Yuan], and [Ginseng Rooster] joked in their chat about Luorui'er's anticipated argument for victory.
• Luorui'er Fitz recounted how her ancestors had led the city through the Demonic Tide a century earlier and said the current rebels were a lesser threat.
• Luorui'er Fitz declared that Black Pine City would never fall, and planted supporters began shouting the slogan until the crowd joined them.
• The three players joined the chanting, while [Ginseng Rooster] noticed that a cleric beside him had initiated the shouting as part of the archbishop's assignment.

During Luorui’er's speech in Black Pine City, [Ginseng Rooster]'s unusually loud chanting drew the archbishop's attention, and he improvised a family story to support her account of the city's past victory. Luorui'er appointed him captain of a militia reinforcement unit and promised its members advancement, while [Ginseng Rooster] privately planned to recruit the other players.

• [Ginseng Rooster] kept chanting after the crowd quieted, and Luorui'er noticed him from the cathedral platform.
• Luorui'er summoned [Ginseng Rooster] and asked whether he believed her speech; he claimed his grandfather had told him that his great-grandfather defended the city under Marquis Fitz.
• Luorui'er presented [Ginseng Rooster] to the crowd as a descendant of a city defender and declared that Black Pine City would win again.
• Luorui'er appointed [Ginseng Rooster] captain of the Black Pine City Militia Reinforcement Unit and promised its members the chance to become Holy Crusaders or join the clergy.
• [Ginseng Rooster] agreed to serve Luorui'er while privately resenting her plan, then messaged the group chat to invite the other players to join the unit.

Ginseng Rooster was recruited to help Black Pine City’s government, while players who recognized his infamous work began moving toward the cathedral to join the operation. Archbishop Luorui'er publicly declared that Black Pine City would never fall, but privately ordered her attendant to prepare their escape to the Holy City.

• Ginseng Rooster promised his companions [Fifteen Jin for Thirty Yuan] and [The Priest Was Once a Little Boy] government positions if they recruited more players.
• [Vanilla Ice Cream Scoop] identified Ginseng Rooster to [Dark Archmage] and [Pond Fish and Old Abyss], who recognized his infamous writing.
• [Dark Archmage] proposed cooperating with Ginseng Rooster, and her group packed their traps and sentry plants before heading toward the cathedral.
• Two clerics escorted Ginseng Rooster deeper into the cathedral, while Archbishop Luorui'er continued her public speech praising Black Pine City’s prospects.
• After declaring that Black Pine City would never fall, Luorui'er privately told her attendant to pack so they could flee to the Holy City when fighting began.

[Ginseng Rooster] challenged militia applicants to prove their fitness through combat, and Karl began choosing opponents. The chapter ended with Karl selecting [Dark Archmage] for a fight.

• Citizens surged toward the clerics when militia registration began, and Holy Crusaders restored order.
• [Ginseng Rooster] demanded that a cleric address him as militia captain and rejected Karl as unfit to join.
• [Ginseng Rooster] told Karl to fight an opponent and win to earn a place in the militia.
• Karl declined to fight [The Priest Was Once a Little Boy] after seeing his transformed spike, then backed away from [Pond Fish and Old Abyss] after noticing her vine appendages.
• Karl dragged [Dark Archmage] out of the crowd as his chosen opponent.

[Dark Archmage] passed militia registration after defeating Karl, while [Ginseng Rooster] and the clerics established a two-stage selection process. At the second screening, [Ginseng Rooster] attacked a candidate who denied having a cough.

• [Dark Archmage] signed the militia contract after Karl was knocked unconscious and taken away.
• [Ginseng Rooster] mocked the clerics' candidate and praised [Dark Archmage] as a more suitable recruit.
• A cleric proposed that the clerics conduct the first screening and [Ginseng Rooster] conduct the second, and the others agreed.
• [Ginseng Rooster] asked for a literate partner, and Andy was assigned to assist him.
• Some commoners left after seeing the screening, while Rod passed the first round and was attacked by [Ginseng Rooster] after denying he had a cough.