Chapter Summaries

Adelaide saw Cuiske and the young Tree Worship Church leader in danger, then ordered Margaret and the Corpse Tide to attack while he moved to confront the youth himself. The battle shifted as Adelaide tried to save Cuiske and infect the fighter who had defeated him.

• The Immortal King and the King of Domination agreed to withdraw, while Margaret began devouring the dead knight she had defeated.
• Cuiske cried out for Adelaide as half-treants restrained his giant form and an alchemical golem severed his repaired tendons.
• Adelaide discovered that the young Tree Worship Church leader had stolen Cuiske’s aberrant plants and was about to take his life and True Blood.
• Adelaide decided he could not afford to lose Cuiske and resolved to infect the young leader.
• Adelaide ordered Margaret to attack, causing the Corpse Tide to regroup and charge the half-treants and Noya.
• Adelaide advanced toward the young leader, followed by the limping giant spider.

Ed stripped Cuiske of his grafted plants, but Adelaide cursed Little Green with Absolute Punishment, leaving Ed gravely weakened. As Adelaide faced Ed, Margaret attacked her own liege under Xilǐ'er's control, and the Immortal King seized the opening to strike.

• Ed removed all thirty-four of Cuiske's mutated plants and began to absorb his remaining powers, but his right arm rotted and broke off.
• Adelaide used Absolute Punishment on Little Green, causing it to wither and making Ed vomit black blood as the seedling's life remained bound to his.
• Ed stood his ground while Little Green told him to follow their plan.
• Xilǐ'er clapped, breaking Margaret's restraint and compelling her to attack Adelaide.
• Adelaide saw Margaret strike and rebuked her for eating something, as Xilǐ'er collapsed onto his mount.
• The Immortal King appeared at Adelaide's side with a blade of light, ready to attack.

Adelaide fought off Margaret and the Immortal King’s attacks, then pushed through the enemies blocking his path to reach the dying Ed. The chapter ended with Seraphina’s dragon breath stopped by Adelaide’s curse as he reached Ed.

• Adelaide pinned Margaret down with his Authority and crippled her arms.
• The Immortal King, using a squire’s body, struck Adelaide with a blade of light that left a wound he could not heal.
• Adelaide decided to use Ed as his escape route and blasted a hole through Noya’s wing to reach him.
• The Immortal King’s blade severed and immobilized Noya’s wing as Adelaide dodged through the obstacles.
• Adelaide cursed Seraphina’s throat, making her cough and interrupt her dragon breath, then reached the dying Ed.

Adelaide tried to turn the dying Ed into his servant by infecting him with True Blood, but Ed used Rosalind’s Devouring ability to drain Adelaide instead. After Ed recovered, he analyzed Adelaide’s Authority and learned how it worked, while Adelaide mistook him for Sailesi.

• Adelaide thrust his bloodied arm into Ed’s abdomen, expecting his True Blood to transform the boy into a loyal Blood Corpse.
• Ed grabbed Adelaide’s forearm and used the teeth of Source of Hunger to devour his True Blood.
• Adelaide cut off his right arm and exposed the ring-shaped, tooth-lined wound, then recognized Rosalind’s ability in Ed.
• Ed explained that he had lured Adelaide into infecting him because he possessed Devouring, and Adelaide concluded that the others’ attempts to stop him had strengthened his resolve.
• Adelaide recognized Ed’s voice and called him Sailesi, but Ed did not challenge the mistaken identity.
• Little Green recovered alongside Ed as he analyzed Adelaide’s Absolute Punishment Authority, learning how Adelaide assigned factions and used debuffs to weaken and absorb enemies.

Ed captured Adelaide and Cuiske, intending to use Adelaide’s True Blood and Rosalind’s Authority to advance to high tier. The King of Domination returned in Margaret’s body and warned that killing Adelaide would hasten the world’s collapse, leaving Ed and the Twin Kings facing a standoff.

• Ed resisted Adelaide’s Absolute Punishment and used his vine-like arm to capture him while pulling the half-dead Cuiske from the water.
• Ed explained that he had prepared to withstand Adelaide’s blood poison and True Blood, and planned to use Adelaide as advancement material with Cuiske as a backup.
• As Adelaide feared that his lineage would end, he began to close the eye on the back of his head, while Ed declared himself the battle royale’s winner.
• The King of Domination, restored to peak condition in Margaret’s body, severed the vines holding Adelaide and Cuiske.
• The King of Domination warned Ed that killing Adelaide would make the world collapse faster, but Ed challenged it to fight or leave and said the warning made him more certain Antos was alive.

Ed and the King of Domination struck a deal as Adelaide triggered a curse meant to bury Klaf City and everyone beneath it. While Ed drained Adelaide’s True Blood, his body began transforming into a high-tier being and his roots held the collapsing city together.

• The King of Domination asked Ed to take the True Blood and leave Adelaide to her, revealing that Adelaide was her blood relative.
• Adelaide tore out the Territory Secret Pact and invoked Absolute Punishment, causing a devastating earthquake that threatened to collapse Klaf City.
• The King of Domination agreed to give Ed the unconscious knight in exchange for Adelaide’s body, and Ed began extracting Adelaide’s True Blood.
• Muller supplied Ed with nutrients while Little Green converted Adelaide’s True Blood into power, and Ed picked up the cracked Territory Secret Pact.
• Ed began transforming into a tree, spreading roots through Klaf City’s collapsing levels until a vast forest burst through the surface.

Ed drained Adelaide of his True Blood and withdrew from Margaret, while the players received the results of their quest and a new epilogue began. As Ed prepared to sleep and advance to High Tier, Noya returned to the Root Network to administer the game system.

• Ed took Adelaide’s last drop of True Blood, leaving the weakened grand duke for Margaret to carry away with the knight retainers.
• The Immortal King vanished after exchanging a glance with Seraphina, and the players watched the battle’s health bars fall to zero.
• The system announced an SSS rating for [Beneath the Corpse Tide], granted players [Corpse Poison Immunity (low)], and began the [Great Adventurer-Epilogue] stage.
• The announcement stopped before revealing the limited-time event, so the pixel Blue Dragon appeared with a parchment and began writing aloud.
• Ed’s effort to move the gate in his mental space required him to focus and sleep, prompting Noya to return as the network administrator.
• Noya worried about her new responsibilities as Ed prepared to fall asleep and advance to High Tier.

With Ed asleep, Noya published a limited-time quest ordering players to clear Klaf City and expand the Second Holy See’s territory. New players charged into the Blood Corpses as Muller finally received permission to stop feeding and return to the Second Holy See.

• Noya used Ed’s old quest logs to create an event quest for clearing Klaf City, then appeared in a pixel Blue Dragon suit and published the announcement.
• The players laughed at the announcement’s informal tone and celebrated the event’s rewards and the end of the long quest chain.
• The Resurrection Trees released dozens of low-level players, who charged into the Blood Corpses and quickly disappeared among them.
• A veteran player in Half-Treant Aggregate form warned that the newcomers meant trouble, and another player pointed out that he was new too.
• Muller, exhausted from consuming nutrients to support Ed’s work, heard that his task was complete and could return to the Second Holy See.
• Muller stopped eating and rested among the remaining Blood Corpses, surprised to find that he felt revulsion toward the food.

Muller was attacked by low-level players and fled rather than risk breaking Ed’s rules, while Xilǐ'er sought answers from the Twin Kings after waking in pain. The King of Domination revealed that Xilǐ'er’s memories had obscured the true length of his service and said their connection would end after this conversation.

• Muller was struck by a Soul Returner, then ran from the players who mistook him for a boss instead of fighting back.
• Xilǐ'er woke amid the celebration in Klaf City, tormented by pain and questions about what he had overheard.
• Xilǐ'er called upon the Twin Kings, and the King of Domination answered after the Immortal King mocked his claim of loyalty.
• The King of Domination told Xilǐ'er that this would be their last conversation and that his authority could alter memories.
• The King of Domination explained that Xilǐ'er had served him for 289 years since being knighted in year 620, though nearly two centuries had passed in the amber state.

The King of Domination revealed that Xilǐ'er was the original knight whose soul survived by attaching to his armor, and that Duke Frostblade’s Territory had secretly been ruled by vampires. After explaining that he had turned the territory’s people into blood corpses and that Xilǐ'er’s enemies were also his creations, the King left Xilǐ'er questioning his identity and purpose.

• The King of Domination explained that Xilǐ'er was the knight Duke Frostblade had invested in centuries earlier, whose soul had endured inside his armor through the King’s mark.
• The King revealed that Duke Frostblade was a false identity he had maintained, with vampires serving as the territory’s public nobles and rulers.
• The King told Xilǐ'er that vampire relatives had attacked him, and that the demon force responsible for destroying Duke Frostblade’s Territory consisted of blood corpses he had placed in the Demon Realm.
• The King said he had converted the territory’s inhabitants into blood corpses, who became the population of the Eternal Domain, leaving Xilǐ'er unsure whether he was human or why he fought for humanity.
• The King said he revealed the truth because Xilǐ'er had asked, and that as a trader who honored contracts, he would no longer alter Xilǐ'er's memories after trading him away as a bargaining chip.

Xilǐ'er was freed from the King of Domination’s control and chose to seek direction from the enormous tree. In the Twin Kings Palace, the Immortal King revealed his plans to hunt the Melter of All Things, identified as Loxor.

• The King of Domination told Xilǐ'er that he was free, and he collapsed on Radish after her control over his memories ended.
• Xilǐ'er rode Radish to the enormous tree in the underground space, choosing it to guide his path.
• The Immortal King challenged the King of Domination over her desire for loyal, independent followers and her decision to give Xilǐ'er away.
• The Immortal King said he wanted to capture the Son of God and the young Red Dragon, but the King of Domination warned that he could not yet leave his throne.
• The Immortal King revealed that the empire’s new keeper of the seals was Loxor and declared that he intended to hunt down the Melter of All Things.

Adelaide was imprisoned in a walled courtyard with his blood relative Antos, who had also been stripped of his true blood. After fighting out their resentment, the two former grand dukes looked for a way to pass the long years ahead.

• Knights escorted Adelaide through three locked gates and imprisoned him in the courtyard where Antos was already living.
• Adelaide and Antos discovered that both had lost their true blood and were left with only their regenerative abilities.
• Antos mocked Adelaide for being defeated quickly, and Adelaide attacked him, starting a brawl that broke Adelaide's arm.
• After the two exhausted themselves fighting, Adelaide asked how they could pass the time, and Antos suggested carving chess pieces from Adelaide's broken bone.

Leo VII appeared before his officials and backed Luokenuosuos as Keeper of the Seal. A young traveler offered to lure the Skeleton Alliance away from the southern continent, leaving Leo VII with a chance to reclaim lost lands, and ended by declaring that he wanted peace.

• Leo VII emerged before the gathered officials, announced that his health had greatly improved, and endorsed Luokenuosuos as Keeper of the Seal.
• Luokenuosuos admitted a young traveler carrying a huge hawk, who offered to tell the Skeleton Alliance about Wens and Rosalind so it would send its forces across the sea.
• The traveler warned Leo VII that the Starlight Empire would be destroyed if the Skeleton Alliance returned with a new Authority.
• Leo VII weighed the proposal, then asked the traveler what he wanted.
• The traveler said he wanted to end the strife and bring peace and harmony to the world.

As Ed broke through to High Tier, a life review began playing backward through his memories, taking him back to his first arrival in the World of Disorder. The review then split his consciousness into three strands, and Ed began watching an unfamiliar memory from Number Three’s past as the chapter ended.

• Ed realized that his pain came from a reverse-playing review of his memories during his breakthrough to High Tier.
• Ed watched his memories of Klaf City and the past year rewind until he reached his arrival in the World of Disorder.
• Ed watched his past self close his eyes, after which his consciousness split into three strands.
• Ed selected one strand and saw an unfamiliar memory from before his transmigration, belonging to Number Three.
• Ed began to witness how Number Three had crafted his thunder body.

Ed experienced the origins of “Number Three,” Little Green, and his former-life self, then received a flood of memories from a far more distant age. As he began to piece them together, the memories showed his earliest consciousness awakening amid endless psionic energy and starting to create matter.

• “Number Three” implanted a sapling into his left eye while fleeing the priests, and it grew into a Symbiotic Tree that transformed both pursuers into living trees.
• The two transformed priests fought over “Number Three” and tore him in half while he lost consciousness.
• Ed watched memories from the other two timelines and saw that Little Green had no memories from before its seed sprouted.
• Ed received nearly infinite, scrambled memories and spent almost a year in the World of Disorder piecing them together.
• An ancient consciousness awakened in endless psionic energy, grew aware, and began creating matter to relieve its boredom.

A lonely consciousness created a world, made a living vessel in the form of a towering tree, and filled the world with intelligent races. When the races began warring over the tree, which one group worshiped as a god, He decided He did not want His existence to be the cause of their conflict.

• The consciousness created a world and made a living vessel whose roots spread across it, gathering at a towering tree.
• The consciousness created plants and then many intelligent races, observing their growth and occasionally helping individuals who later became notable figures.
• The races discovered that the great tree was unique, gave it names, and began competing to claim it.
• Humans who had received the consciousness’s help called the tree the World Tree and worshiped it as a god.
• The races began a protracted war over the tree, and He realized He did not want His existence to cause their battles.

The Creator recounted how the Demonic Tide shattered Its body and sent Its spirit into another world, where It waited for a chance to return. Fate eventually brought Its scattered spirit, bone, and flesh together, reviving It in a weakened state.

• The Creator withdrew Its vessel from the ancient world, and the war over the giant tree quietly ended.
• A rift opened in the Sea of Psionic Energy, and contamination from another world began to threaten the Creator and Its vivarium.
• The Creator shielded the world until the barrier failed, unleashing the catastrophe later known as the Demonic Tide.
• The contamination divided the Creator's authority into bone, flesh, and spirit, and the spirit was pulled into another world.
• The spirit lived among and observed that world's people while waiting for a chance to return.
• Fate brought the spirit, bone, and flesh together, and the Creator revived in a weakened state.

Ed recovered memories revealing that he was the Creator and Tree God, but his former powers and main accounts were lost after the Demonic Tide corrupted the world’s Psionic Energy. He prepared to wake and rebuild order, splitting off Little Green as an assistant even though the two were now one consciousness.

• Ed recovered memories showing that he was the Tree God, the Creator who had made the World Tree as a vessel and created the world.
• Ed realized that the World Tree account had been sacrificed and the Creator account remained inaccessible while Psionic Energy was corrupted.
• Ed recognized that clearing the Demonic Tide and rebuilding order would be a vast undertaking, though doing so could help him grow stronger again.
• Ed called out to Little Green and learned that Little Green was now fully merged with him.
• Ed deliberately split off part of his consciousness to restore Little Green as his chief assistant, joking that he enjoyed ordering himself around.

After awakening from his advancement to High Tier, Ed discovered that Seraphina’s dragon breath had nearly emptied his account during the battle with Adelaide. As the Second Holy See celebrated his victory and the players explored Klaf City, Ed formed a body from the giant tree and began testing his expanded presence through the Root Network.

• Ed realized that he had spent nearly all his money during the battle at the Rotting Corpse Dark Lake and regretted creating currency and elaborate dragon settings.
• Three days after Ed fell asleep advancing, the Second Holy See grew more active as news spread that he had defeated Adelaide and reached High Tier.
• Duolin praised Ed to Duma as the Tree God’s favored Son of God, while Duma silently concluded that Duolin was preaching to him.
• Players swept through the stabilized Klaf City under Little Blue Noya’s planning.
• Ed used vines and branches to weave a youthful body at the base of the giant tree, opened his eye, and sent his gaze hundreds of miles through a spatial rift.

Ed tried to evade Seraphina, but she tracked him through their contract and demanded a security deposit because his finances seemed close to collapse. While reviewing his recent income, he discovered Noya had cut the players’ resurrection fee to five percent and summoned her in anger.

• Ed fled from Rotting Corpse Dark Lake and Klaf City, but Seraphina followed him through their contract.
• Seraphina listed Ed’s five loans and asked for a security deposit to protect her repayment prospects.
• Ed questioned why his finances were strained despite the players’ recent battles and resurrection costs.
• Ed checked World of Disorder’s update announcements and discovered Noya had reduced the resurrection fee to five percent of its standard price.
• Noya appeared beside Ed and greeted him, and Ed said he wished he were still asleep.