Recaps

The emperor declared that he would send troops north in spring to defeat the demons and rescue the surviving people, while the Yuchi patriarch challenged his motives and the court’s transformation. The emperor vowed that all responsible, including himself, would pay, and Yuchi accepted the blood wine and joined the ghostly ranks.

• A clansman in Taiyuan heard that people had fled Guanzhong after children vanished and rumors spread of the court sacrificing them in Ghost and God Temples.
• The emperor announced that he would dispatch troops in spring to reclaim the north, defeat the demons, and avenge his northern subjects.
• The Yuchi patriarch questioned whether a northern campaign still mattered as the transformed ministers watched him hungrily.
• The emperor argued that humanity should rule its own fate and asked Yuchi whether he still believed in him.
• A man from the Chen Household offered Yuchi black blood wine, and Yuchi drank it, transforming his eyes to the eerie green of the others.
• The emperor helped Yuchi up and promised that everyone responsible for the suffering, including himself, would pay.

The Ge Family discovered that the court had seized its Guanzhong supplies while the northern cities were destroyed, and its grand elder reconsidered an old betrayal as he weighed whether to join Chen Qing. Chen Qing announced an alliance requiring Jiangnan to send troops in three months, warning that King Xiang and the emperor could become unstoppable if they gained control of the far north.

• The Ge Family found its Guanzhong holdings deserted and discovered that the court had gathered its hidden supplies near the capital.
• The grand elder reflected on his past betrayal of a young man who had sought coexistence between humans and demons, then considered whether the Ge Family should go to the capital or Jiangnan.
• The grand elder asked why Chen Qing had been granted the title King of Qin, prompting the elders to consider whether Chen Qing resembled the young man from the past.
• Chen Qing summoned Jiangnan’s senior leaders and announced that they had three months to prepare to send troops when the court attacked the north.
• Chen Qing told Shen Er and the others that King Xiang could regain his former strength by monopolizing the far north’s resources, while the northern lands currently lacked a master because many individual contract holders had died.

Chen Qing revealed that he planned to use the court’s campaign against the snake demons to seize northern territory, then met the players secretly controlling the Heavenly Python Palace. The players warned him that King Xiang’s Ghost Domain threatened them all, and Chen Qing’s response to their plea for help remained unstated.

• Chen Qing told the Shen Family that he would send troops to help the court while secretly competing for northern territory, and said the mysterious northern forces would have no choice but to agree.
• Three days earlier, Chen Qing entered the Land of the Void and recognized it as the barrier of the Nine Heavens, where players had advanced to the brink of the fourth version.
• A woman in red asked whether Chen Qing was Mr. Pu Yunchuan, and he said he was no longer certain who he was.
• Chen Qing explained that the players controlled the Heavenly Python Palace through bloodline contracts, leaving the organization vulnerable if the contracted players died.
• The woman in red warned Chen Qing that King Xiang must not take the north, or the Ghost Domain could destroy the players’ power and threaten humanity.

Chen Qing negotiated with the Heavenly Python Palace’s guild leaders to occupy most of the northern lands while they retreated to the Northern Wasteland, but his forces were too stretched to secure the territory. After hearing the troop counts, Chen Qing was left facing the near-impossible task of holding the north with the soldiers he could spare.

• Chen Qing demanded that the guild leaders serve as his informants while he occupied most of the north in the imperial court’s name, and argued that they had little choice but to accept.
• The Fourth Guild stopped the guild leaders from intimidating Chen Qing, then questioned whether his forces could take the northern territory.
• Tian Heng and the Shen Family warned Chen Qing that Jiangnan’s expanding fronts had left its military stretched thin.
• Tian Heng reported that the West Sea Army had three hundred thousand combat-ready troops, but most were low-ranked and needed to guard other fronts.
• Xu Hu said they could muster fifty thousand elites and a hundred thousand lower-ranked troops for the northern campaign, leaving Chen Qing to recognize that this force could not hold such a vast territory.

Ziyue persuaded the young emperor of Great Yan to lend Jiangnan five hundred thousand ordinary soldiers for three years, while he sought help with the soldiers’ livestock losses. After leaving the palace, she remained concerned about Jiangnan’s preparations for a possible spring invasion and the need to find blood qi in the far north.

• The young emperor hesitated to lend troops because Northern Yan had already lost many elite bloodline soldiers, but Ziyue reminded him that she had fulfilled her promises to secure his imperial authority.
• Ziyue explained that Jiangnan needed ordinary soldiers to defend against the court’s planned northward campaign and asked Great Yan for five hundred thousand troops.
• The young emperor worried Jiangnan might keep the soldiers, so Ziyue offered a spell covenant with the King of Qin requiring their return after three years.
• The young emperor agreed in principle, but raised the soldiers’ livestock losses as a condition for their service in Jiangnan.
• Ziyue left the palace and worried that Jiangnan’s forces might be overstretched if the court invaded in spring, while finding a far-north source of blood qi remained essential.

Word spread that Jiangnan was recruiting five hundred thousand men from Northern Yan’s tribes, and common herdsmen debated whether leaving the grasslands might offer them a better life. At a tribe’s selection, Han Lin revealed that he had not come to recruit auxiliary soldiers, leaving the purpose of his bone examinations unclear.

• News that Jiangnan was borrowing troops reached the tribes, and young herdsmen discussed the chance to go south despite their concerns about abandoning their livestock and finding hardship there.
• Brother Chao’er cautioned Hanzi and the others not to volunteer rashly, but Hanzi privately resisted the prospect of spending his life herding cattle and sheep.
• The tribal elder assembled several hundred men and introduced Han Lin, a squad leader from Jiangnan’s Fighter Army, who said he would choose ten volunteers.
• Han Lin examined the men’s bones, puzzling the elder and Brother Chao’er, who asked why he was examining ordinary recruits.
• Han Lin stopped and asked who had said he had come to select auxiliary soldiers.

Han Lin recruited Northern Wasteland veterans for Jiangnan's Fighter Army, explaining that people without bloodlines could gain extraordinary abilities through secret methods. News that Chen Qing planned to train five hundred thousand borrowed soldiers as combat troops left the guild leaders wondering where Jiangnan would find the resources.

• Han Lin told the tribal elder that he had come to recruit combat troops, not auxiliaries, and explained why Northern Wasteland veterans could be trained quickly.
• Han Lin demonstrated his Fourth Rank strength and said ordinary people like him could gain abilities without bloodline power.
• A young man knelt to enlist, and others followed as Han Lin promised fair prices for their livestock and said commanders would recruit five hundred thousand soldiers from Northern Yan.
• The tribal elder questioned how Jiangnan could afford the resources to train so many troops.
• Players from major guilds reported Chen Qing's plan, and their leaders doubted that Jiangnan could train five hundred thousand soldiers into combat troops.

Ziyue explained how Yuchi Feihong would use a three-year loan of soldiers to build his army and draw recruits to Jiangnan, while she worried that Chen Qing might not win the battle that would make their plans possible. In the southeast, Murong Bingyun learned that his teacher had deliberately kept him from overseeing a city’s Underworld, but he did not yet know why.

• Yuchi Feihong questioned why Ziyue had arranged to borrow five hundred thousand soldiers for three years, and she explained that the emperor would agree to a loan when he would not hand over troops outright.
• Ziyue told Yuchi Feihong that soldiers trained in the Divine Path Style would likely choose to return to Jiangnan rather than give up its benefits, and their strength would attract more recruits from the grasslands.
• Ziyue described how Yuchi Feihong’s reputation and the Underworld could bind the grassland people and clan forces to Jiangnan, but she worried that Chen Qing might lose to the dangerous player from the Xiao Household.
• Yuchi Feihong asked Ziyue whom she planned to appoint to oversee Northern Yan’s Underworld, and she said he knew the person she had in mind.
• Murong Bingyun, newly appointed Grand Underworld Official of the southeast, asked his teacher why he had never been assigned to oversee a city’s Underworld.

The old gentleman explained that Murong Bingyun had been trained for a much higher post than a county Underworld office and outlined how Jiangnan planned to use the Underworld to gain influence in Northern Yan. Shen Qi arrived to meet Murong Bingyun, suggesting his appointment as Northern Yan’s Grand Underworld Official was imminent.

• The old gentleman told Murong Bingyun that his background was not holding him back and that he had been trained for a position beyond a small county.
• The old gentleman explained that Jiangnan could use the Underworld’s authority and benefits to draw Northern Yan’s great families and ministers away from the young emperor’s influence.
• Murong Bingyun realized that Northern Yan’s allegiance might have already created an Underworld administration in Northern Wolf City, where he could potentially hold authority over the entire kingdom.
• Shen Qi requested an audience with the Grand Underworld Official, and the old gentleman brought Murong Bingyun into the mortal world to meet him.
• Shen Qi greeted Murong Bingyun warmly and recognized that the old gentleman had been training him for the role of a provincial Grand Underworld Official.

Shen Qi confronted Mr. Five Poisons over the fate of the people from beyond the heavens and began to suspect that the Grand Underworld Lord shared Chen Qing’s otherworldly nature. The chapter ended with Shen Qi shaken by the possibility that people like Chen Qing had caused the world’s suffering from the start.

• Mr. Five Poisons recalled how his poisonous nature had forced him to kill those around him in each life, and how Chen Qing’s appointment had given him hope of living longer.
• Shen Qi distrusted Mr. Five Poisons and worried that appointing him Grand Underworld Lord was connected to the arriving people from beyond the heavens, some of whom would retain their memories.
• Mr. Five Poisons sent Murong Bingyun to leave with Shen Qi, but Shen Qi stopped him to ask about arrangements for the people from beyond the heavens.
• Mr. Five Poisons rejected Shen Qi’s question, and Shen Qi said he was asking on Chen Qing’s behalf.
• Shen Qi asked whether Mr. Five Poisons and Chen Qing were the same kind of person, and Mr. Five Poisons’s astonished reaction confirmed Shen Qi’s suspicion.
• Shen Qi grew pale as he considered whether people like Chen Qing had caused the world’s misfortunes and whether Chen Qing truly wanted to improve humanity’s lot.

Jiang Xiaoling escorted Zhang Zhengyuan and a group of free souls toward the Northern Wasteland, where Zhang weighed the prospects for his followers in Chen Qing’s territory. Chen Qing and Ziyue watched the newcomers arrive, and Ziyue questioned Chen Qing’s decision to bring Federation people to a region planned as a blood essence channel and base for a second Battle God Army.

• Jiang Xiaoling guided Zhang Zhengyuan and the free souls toward the North Ocean Ferry Crossing and described the opportunities and restrictions within Chen Qing’s territory.
• Zhang Zhengyuan considered whether Jiangnan, the southeast, or the Northern Wasteland would offer the best prospects for himself and his ten thousand Jade Dynasty followers.
• Hou Tianhua arrived, prompting Zhang Zhengyuan to recognize that the Northern Wasteland would draw more of the Central Federation’s great families.
• Ziyue and Chen Qing watched the free souls from North Sea City, and Ziyue asked why Chen Qing was bringing Federation people to the Northern Wasteland.

Chen Qing used the Northern Wasteland’s dangers to draw Federation figures there, while Ziyue worried that their presence could cause trouble. The newcomers were summoned to the Underworld, where Murong Bingyun prepared to carry out an important mission.

• Chen Qing explained that the Northern Wasteland would be a proving ground for Federation figures and a way to challenge the young emperor and royalists from within.
• Ziyue warned Chen Qing that Federation players with intact memories could destabilize the Northern Wasteland, but Chen Qing trusted Yuchi Feihong to lead them in battle.
• Federation arrivals complained about the Northern Wasteland and discussed Chen Qing’s identity until Zhang Zhengyuan overheard them and decided to keep his distance.
• A black-clad figure summoned all souls from beyond the heavens to the Underworld within a quarter of an hour or face expulsion from the Northern Wasteland.
• Zhang Zhengyuan and Hou Tianhua followed a wandering god into the Underworld and found Murong Bingyun, its newly appointed master, preparing to fulfill Chen Qing’s important mission.

Murong Bingyun learned why the Northern Wasteland mattered to ancient factions and why Chen Qing was sending reincarnated souls there under strict rules. He then offered them places in the region’s great families, pressuring the group to choose quickly and dividing them.

• Chen Qing explained that ancient beings needed jadeite and blood essence to revive quickly, and that the far north held many dormant high-grade demons.
• Chen Qing told Murong Bingyun that souls from beyond this world could reincarnate with their memories only if they obeyed the law, and that their misconduct could justify executing them.
• Murong Bingyun addressed the souls from beyond this world and offered those who stayed early a chance to reincarnate into Northern Wasteland great families.
• Zhang Zhengyuan asked how aptitude would be judged, and Murong Bingyun offered him a legitimate-line place in one of Northern Yan’s four great bloodline families.
• Zhang Zhengyuan asked for time to consider, but Murong Bingyun warned that the limited places would go to those who chose first, making Zhang realize he was being pressured to divide the group.

Chen Qing used the allocation of reincarnation slots to deepen resentment between Federation family scions and their followers. As Zhu Rong and others surrendered their places, Chen Qing revealed to Ziyue that he planned to eliminate the Disintegration Program, with Wang Ye involved.

• Chen Qing recognized that the Federation delegation included great-family scions and their followers, and used a seemingly fair spirit-body ranking system to pit them against one another.
• Zhang Zhengyuan allowed his subordinates to seek slots, while Murong Bingyun confirmed that people could surrender their places to someone else.
• Zhu Rong gave up a place that qualified him to be born into a great family, and others began surrendering their slots as well.
• Ziyue questioned how Chen Qing's tactic could help when the Disintegration Program still controlled the dissatisfied followers.
• Chen Qing declared that the Disintegration Program should not exist and told Ziyue that he had left Wang Ye to deal with it.

Wang Ye explained to Data City's families why the Underworld could not reserve reincarnation slots in advance, leaving them worried that the best births would be gone before they arrived. He considered Chen Qing’s mission to eliminate the disintegration programs and then noticed an extra eye on his palm as business suddenly surged in the red-light district.

• Data City's families questioned Wang Ye about the unequal allocation of reincarnation slots and whether Chen Qing had deliberately disadvantaged them.
• Wang Ye argued that reincarnation into powerful families served the Northern Wasteland plan, then offered to ask his lord to stop the replacement policy.
• The families asked Wang Ye to reserve high-quality births, but he explained that spirits could only enter an embryo after a woman became pregnant.
• The assembly members realized they might miss the best slots if they waited, while Wang Ye reflected on entrenched clans and his difficult mission to eliminate the disintegration programs.
• Wang Ye rubbed his fingers, and an extra eye appeared on his palm without anyone noticing.
• The red-light district in northern Data City drew an unusually large crowd of unfamiliar customers.

A group of grassroots military figures secretly watched a confidential live feed and confronted how the great families still controlled their lives through implanted disintegration programs. The chapter ended with Xu Min accusing Li Chong of inviting them to betray their country, while Li Chong argued the Federation had become an alliance of great families.

• Red-light district owners noticed the unusual visitors, and Sister Feng told them to keep quiet about what they had seen.
• The visitors gathered in private data rooms to watch a live feed through an eye brought by Wang Ye, whose display of familiar energy auras convinced them it was genuine.
• A burly man described how grassroots recruits had been forced to surrender resources and risk their lives in demonic organizations to seek advancement.
• Xu Min reminded the group that their disintegration programs still left the Federation in control of their lives, unlike Zhang Zhengyuan, who had no such implant.
• Li Chong revealed that Wang Ye wanted to free them from the programs and divide the Federation's internal factions, prompting Xu Min to accuse him of treason.

Li Chong tried to recruit demonic-path cultivators to help Wang Ye break their disintegration-program shackles, while Wang Ye explained why he wanted to destabilize Data City’s old order. The chapter ended with Mr. Heavenly Secrets revealing that Chen Qing had less than a ten percent chance of defeating the emperor from the Xiao Household.

• Li Chong told Xu Min and the others that Wang Ye had a plan to remove their disintegration programs, and they demanded proof before joining.
• Wang Ye told Mr. Heavenly Secrets that the powerful families would not shut down the Demon World, even if the operation failed, because they coveted immortality.
• Wang Ye said he wanted to act quickly because Data City’s technology might eventually develop ways to counter their abilities.
• Wang Ye explained that he wanted to upend the great families’ rule to draw out the hidden force behind Data City, while Chen Qing sought to build an army to challenge the Xiao Household’s emperor.
• Mr. Heavenly Secrets revealed that his divination gave Chen Qing less than a ten percent chance of defeating the emperor.

Councilor Hou’s plan to appease the uproar over surrendered reincarnation slots met little resistance from the young councilors, though Elder Hou doubted they understood the grassroots alliance. Xu Min used the unrest to conceal a plan involving Flying Star Marks, and welcomed the higher-ups’ invitation to meet, confident their attempt to divide his faction would fail.

• Councilor Hou proposed publicly criticizing the families’ scions, postponing their punishment, and giving up some reincarnation slots to divide the protesters.
• Elder Hou doubted that the grassroots talents would abandon their solidarity for immediate rewards and worried that the young councilors underestimated them.
• Xu Min’s aide confirmed that the Flying Star Marks had been arranged, while Xu Min said the plan depended on Wang Ye locating the disintegration program.
• Xu Min received an invitation from the higher-ups and recognized their attempt to win over one faction against another.
• Xu Min smiled, trusting Mr. Heavenly Secrets’ favorable prediction and hoping to change the Central Federation.

Xu Min rejected Hou San’s attempt to enlist him as a scapegoat for the powerful families’ resource dealings and asked for time to consider. Meanwhile, Wang Ye explained how the military could identify the disassembly programs, leaving the officers wondering where he would obtain the needed intelligence.

• Hou San offered Xu Min and selected talents good reincarnation slots in exchange for helping redirect public anger, but Xu Min recognized the scheme.
• Xu Min concealed his refusal by saying he needed time to think, then met other summoned leaders who silently acknowledged that their next steps mattered.
• Wang Ye reasoned that the powerful families must know the locations of the disassembly programs so they could access them quickly.
• Wang Ye asked the military officers to track everyone entering and leaving the sites once he supplied the intelligence.
• The officers questioned how Wang Ye could obtain intelligence that even they lacked and worried that Chen Qing had deeply infiltrated Data City.

Xu Min and Yun Dongliu agreed to consider Wang Ye’s plan after reviewing intelligence that exposed covert operatives controlling disintegration programs for the great families. Wang Ye reflected on Xu Min’s possible connection to Xu Hu and wondered whether other talented people from humble backgrounds were reincarnated players.

• Xu Min and the others reviewed Wang Ye’s detailed intelligence and concluded it was almost certainly accurate, despite wondering how he had obtained it.
• Wang Ye told Mr. Heavenly Secrets that bringing A Li to the origin of the world would be too dangerous because her Thousand-Faced Fox ability could give her control over the place.
• Xu Min and Yun Dongliu came to Wang Ye and said the intelligence was convincing enough to risk acting on, though only a few people would participate.
• Xu Min asked Wang Ye to protect their other allies if the plan failed, and Wang Ye recognized that Xu Min looked related to Xu Hu.
• Wang Ye wondered whether Xu Hu and other talented people from humble backgrounds had once been reincarnated players, and considered whether he might be one too.

Shao Junyi, a Shao family sleeper agent working in the Federation, debated entering the new world with a fellow agent before receiving Wang Ye. Wang Ye revealed that the man was secretly monitoring her, and Shao Junyi asked what he wanted her to do next.

• Shao Junyi's companion urged her to challenge the higher-ups for an early place in the new world, but she refused to commit.
• Shao Junyi went to receive Wang Ye, while her companion later reported to Shao Junfu that she had passed his test.
• Wang Ye used the Thousand-Eye Technique to reveal the companion's secret call and explain that Shao Junyi's crucial data-security role had drawn suspicion.
• Shao Junyi asked Wang Ye what he wanted her to do.

Wang Ye recruited Shao Junyi to help place marked objects inside the Federation’s data centers, preparing to infiltrate them and undermine the great families. As the Central Federation reached a new era of power, a revolt against its million-year family rule was about to erupt.

• Wang Ye explained that Shao Junyi and other insiders could help him exploit divisions among the families and access their data centers.
• Wang Ye told Shao Junyi to continue his usual work and ensure that objects bearing Wang Ye’s spatial mark reached the database sites.
• Shao Junyi warned Wang Ye that the Federation might soon notice his activity and accepted a waist token that could transport him to the new world if danger arose.
• Wang Ye revealed that he had recruited a third of the key supervisors, enough to carry out his infiltration plan.
• The Central Federation prepared to become the Federations’ leading power, unaware that its internal conflict would soon devastate the great families’ rule.

After the coup sealed off Data City, Hou Limin and the aristocratic scions learned that the disintegration program had been destroyed and the rank-and-file forces had joined the revolt. Elder Xu warned them that their elite reinforcements might not return and suspected Chen Qing and Mr. Wang had helped Xu Min’s side, leaving the aristocrats with little leverage.

• Hou Limin and the other aristocratic scions argued over how to suppress the coup until Elder Xu asked what had emboldened the rebels.
• Reports confirmed that guards in the western district’s data sector had been killed and many disintegration programs destroyed.
• Elder Xu pointed out that the city defense forces had not deployed, suggesting the rank-and-file soldiers across Data City had joined the revolt.
• Hou Limin proposed recalling elite operatives from the Jade Dynasty Realm, but Elder Xu revealed that almost none had responded to his earlier recall order.
• Elder Xu explained that many sidelined aristocratic operatives had little incentive to defend their families and feared being made scapegoats.
• Elder Xu suspected Chen Qing had used Mr. Wang to help Xu Min’s side breach the disintegration program, though he did not know how.

Xu Min explained that his military coup aimed to end aristocratic privilege and demand fair treatment in the new world, not to destroy the great families. He left the crowd calling for the disintegration program to be abolished and for everyone to have a fair chance to compete.

• People outside Data City watched the coup unfold and debated the Federation’s corruption as Xu Min and Gong Mingrui appeared for interviews.
• Xu Min acknowledged that the uprising was a coup and said the Federation had to address aristocratic control before its rare opportunity to enter the new world.
• Xu Min revealed his disintegration-program mark and argued that aristocratic scions’ marks were fake, citing records showing that none of more than 18,400 executions had involved an aristocrat.
• A female reporter challenged Xu Min’s claims, but viewers and the crowd condemned her, and she yielded the interview platform.
• Xu Min rejected a reporter’s call to eliminate the aristocratic families, explaining that doing so could provoke a damaging civil war and weaken the Central Federation.
• Xu Min demanded abolition of the disintegration program and fair, transparent treatment in the new world so talented people could compete without being displaced by privilege.

Elder Hou and the other elders chose reincarnation rather than return to the Federation, allowing Chen Qing’s coup to succeed. The Federation opened virtual-world entry to selection by scholarly and martial merit, prompting public celebration and protests from privileged descendants and the Academic Clique.

• Elder Hou and the other elders debated abandoning their reincarnation slots to return and control the unrest, but Zhang Zhengyuan refused to go back and entered the reincarnation pool.
• Elder Hou decided the elders could not undo the growing rift, so he followed Zhang Zhengyuan into the pool.
• Chen Qing concluded the coup was settled and considered recruiting more players ahead of the coming war.
• The great households compromised by restructuring parliament, abolishing disintegration-program restrictions, and opening virtual-world entry to a Federation-wide examination based on scholarly and martial merit.
• The Central Federation celebrated the new opportunity, while Hou Laosan’s privileged descendants and the Academic Clique protested the selection requirements.