Chapter Summaries

Duàn Yì tracked the beggars who had abducted Huihui to a ruined temple, where the Yuyang Branch leader held her as bait and ordered the Dog Beating Formation to guard the area. Duàn Yì watched from hiding, unable to approach without risking Huihui’s safety.

• The Yuyang Branch leader heard Huihui’s sobs and ordered a Four-Bag Disciple to bring her inside while the beggars secured the temple with the Dog Beating Formation.
• The Four-Bag Disciple brought Huihui into the temple, where the branch leader tried to reassure her and offered her candy, but she remained frightened and silent.
• Duàn Yì followed a beggar ringleader to the ruined temple and saw more than a hundred beggars positioned outside in groups.
• Duàn Yì realized Huihui was likely inside the temple and that he could not sneak in or force his way through without endangering her.

Duàn Yì joined forces with the mysterious martial artist Lingling to rescue Huihui from the Beggars' Sect. After agreeing to work together, they settled on a plan to distract the beggars and take advantage of the confusion.

• Duàn Yì searched for a way to enter the ruined temple and save Huihui without alerting the Beggars' Sect.
• Lingling appeared behind Duàn Yì and proposed that they work together to rescue Huihui.
• Duàn Yì was startled by Lingling's unfathomable martial arts, then apologized after she rebuked him for staring.
• Lingling refused to reveal her real name or her connection to Huihui, but allowed Duàn Yì to call her Lingling.
• Duàn Yì asked Lingling for a plan, and she suggested distracting the beggars and striking where they were unprepared.

Duàn Yì and Lingling put their plan to rescue Huihui into motion by disguising Duàn Yì as a beggar and using Lingling to draw the Beggars' Sect outside the ruined temple. Lingling confronted the beggars, and Elder Jiang emerged as Duàn Yì waited for a chance to infiltrate the temple.

• Duàn Yì understood Lingling's plan: she would distract the beggars while he infiltrated the temple in disguise and seized an opportunity to rescue Huihui.
• Lingling gave Duàn Yì filthy beggar clothes, and he changed, dirtied his skin with ash and soil, and hid his belongings.
• Duàn Yì hid behind a tree as Lingling shouted at the beggars and drew their attention toward her.
• The branch leader inside the temple sent Elder Jiang outside to deal with Lingling and prevent a delay to their affair.
• Lingling insulted Elder Jiang and provoked the beggars into shouting abuse, until another furious voice ordered them to be quiet.

Lingling slaughtered the beggars attacking her with a devastating claw technique while Duàn Yì used the chaos to slip into the ruined temple. There, he ran into a two-bag disciple and tried to pass himself off as a frightened fellow beggar.

• Elder Jiang ordered the beggars to surround Lingling with the Dog Beating Formation, whose songs and staff blows disrupted an opponent's mind and qi.
• Lingling tore through the formation, killing and maiming the beggars with an unknown claw technique that alarmed Duàn Yì.
• Elder Jiang rallied the remaining beggars and led them in a united attack on Lingling.
• Seeing the temple's other sides left unguarded, Duàn Yì circled around and climbed inside.
• A two-bag disciple came out of the temple and ran into Duàn Yì, who pretended to be a panicked beggar worried about Lingling.

Duàn Yì infiltrated the ruined temple by posing as a Beggar Gang disciple, then killed the Four-Bag Disciple guarding Huihui and seized her. As the Branch Leader pursued them, Duàn Yì smashed through the temple wall with Huihui and escaped outside.

• Duàn Yì tricked a Two-Bag Disciple into leaving the temple by claiming Elder Jiang had sent him to seek help.
• Duàn Yì entered the temple and spotted Huihui beside a Four-Bag Disciple while the Branch Leader sat on the altar.
• Duàn Yì killed the Four-Bag Disciple with Vajra Arching Back and scooped up Huihui.
• The Branch Leader pursued Duàn Yì across the temple, but Duàn Yì rammed through a wall and escaped with Huihui.

Duàn Yì escaped the ruined temple with Huihui and discovered that Lingling had slaughtered nearly the entire Beggar Clan force. The Branch Master considered retreating, while Lingling and Duàn Yì demanded to know why he had abducted Huihui.

• Duàn Yì used bricks and stones to delay the middle-aged Branch Master, then carried Huihui out of the ruined temple.
• Duàn Yì found more than a hundred Beggar Clan disciples dead or dying, while Lingling calmly wiped a speck of blood from her collar.
• The middle-aged Branch Master saw Old Jiang kneeling with broken legs and threatened Lingling, who dismissed his threats and questioned him about abducting Huihui.
• Duàn Yì asked why a Beggar Clan Branch Master had targeted an ordinary child, and Huihui recognized him as the kind visitor from her family's stall.
• The Branch Master grew wary of Duàn Yì and Lingling, recalled that Huihui was the daughter of someone he hoped to control, and vowed revenge as he considered fleeing.

Wang Tiancheng appeared to rescue Huihui and confronted the Beggars' Sect branch leader who had kidnapped her. He effortlessly overwhelmed the leader, who tried to kill himself rather than face further torture.

• Wang Tiancheng arrived and revealed that Huihui was his daughter, terrifying the Beggars' Sect branch leader.
• The branch leader threatened Wang Tiancheng with the approaching Rod-Wielding Dragon Head and Eight-Bag Protectors.
• Wang Tiancheng used a powerful suction force to pull the branch leader toward him.
• The branch leader launched a desperate Copper Hammer Hand attack, but Wang Tiancheng absorbed its force and caught his fist.
• Wang Tiancheng crushed the branch leader's right fist, and the leader tried to strike his own head to end his life.

Duàn Yì watched Wang Tiancheng maim and kill the Six-Sack Beggar Clan Branch Chief, then helped reunite him with Huihui while Lingling eliminated the remaining witnesses. After Duàn Yì retrieved his clothes and sword, Wang Tiancheng invited him and Lingling to his home to thank them for saving his daughter.

• Wang Tiancheng stopped the Branch Chief from killing himself, severed his arm, and later killed him with a pebble while Huihui was out of sight.
• Duàn Yì returned Huihui to Wang Tiancheng and warned him to shield her from the bloody scene.
• Lingling went into the temple to kill the remaining Beggar Clan members, while Wang Tiancheng carried Huihui away with Duàn Yì.
• Huihui cried in her father's arms, and Duàn Yì discovered that the puppy she held had been beaten to death.
• Duàn Yì changed back into his clothes and retrieved his Songyang Iron Sword, and Lingling returned after dealing with the remaining threats.
• Wang Tiancheng thanked Duàn Yì and Lingling for saving Huihui and invited them to his home for a drink.

After Duàn Yì and Lingling rescued Wang Tiancheng’s daughter, Wang mistakenly assumed the two were married, prompting a bitter argument over their ages and status. Wang broke up their near-fight, and the group prepared to leave before Beggars' Sect reinforcements arrived, though Duàn Yì and Lingling still held a grudge against each other.

• Wang Tiancheng thanked Duàn Yì and Lingling for saving his daughter and invited them to repay their kindness.
• Lingling denied that she and Duàn Yì were married, and Duàn Yì mocked her age and called her Auntie.
• Lingling grew furious and nearly attacked Duàn Yì, who drew his Songyang Iron Sword and stood his ground.
• Wang Tiancheng stepped between them, apologized, and urged them to leave before Beggars' Sect reinforcements arrived.
• Duàn Yì warned Wang that a middle-aged woman had been asking about him and his wife, then apologized to Lingling, who let the matter go on Wang’s account.

The Rod-Wielding Dragon Head investigated the slaughter at the ruined temple and ordered a countywide search for Wang Tiancheng. After Wang Tiancheng brought Huihui home, he learned that Sister-in-law Cheng had been involved in her abduction and left to settle the matter while Duàn Yì and Lingling escorted his family to safety.

• The Rod-Wielding Dragon Head arrived at the ruined temple, where Eight-Bag Protectors reported that the killer had used God-Abandoning Claws and that another victim had died by a frost-infused Great Vajra Fist.
• The Rod-Wielding Dragon Head ordered a house-by-house search, a three-day lockdown of Yuyang County, and an investigation into the person who used the Great Vajra Fist.
• Lingling's mother anxiously waited until Wang Tiancheng returned with Huihui, then clutched her daughter in relief.
• Duàn Yì reminded Lingling's mother that Sister-in-law Cheng had asked about Wang Tiancheng, prompting the couple to suspect she had arranged Huihui's abduction.
• Wang Tiancheng told his wife to take Huihui, Duàn Yì, and Lingling to their other home through the Earthly Dao, then left to deal with Sister-in-law Cheng.

Duàn Yì and Lingling helped Wang Tiancheng’s family escape through a hidden passage, and Wang thanked them over a meal. When Duàn Yì asked why the Beggars' Sect had targeted Huihui, Wang revealed that his martial art was the Lodestone Skill, prompting Lingling to ask whether he was descended from the Northern Demonic Cult.

• Huihui's mother led Duàn Yì, Lingling, and Huihui through a secret passage from Wang Tiancheng's home to a safer residential district.
• Wang Tiancheng thanked Duàn Yì and Lingling for saving his family and offered to help them in return.
• Duàn Yì asked why the Beggars' Sect had targeted Huihui, and Lingling listened closely for Wang Tiancheng's answer.
• Wang Tiancheng explained that his martial art was the Lodestone Skill, a technique distinct from the Dragon Grasping Skill, Crane Controlling Skill, and Star Absorbing Great Method.
• Lingling identified the Lodestone Skill as a lost Northern Demonic Cult art and asked whether Wang Tiancheng was descended from the cult.

Wang Tiancheng revealed that his father was a loyal Heavenly Monarch under Ying Woqiu, while Lingling challenged his claim to have no ties to the Demonic Cult. The exchange exposed Lingling’s own Demonic Cult connection, and Wang offered to teach her the Great Heavenly Demon Hand in repayment for saving his daughter.

• Duàn Yì wondered whether Lingling’s knowledge and abilities meant she belonged to the Demonic Cult.
• Wang Tiancheng explained his father’s history as Heavenly Monarch Ni Shun and described Ying Woqiu’s rise, defeat, and the Demonic Cult’s collapse.
• Lingling claimed Ying Woqiu entrusted powerful inheritances to three loyal Heavenly Monarchs and questioned whether Wang truly knew nothing of them.
• Wang Tiancheng identified Lingling’s claw technique as the Twenty-One Forms of God-Abandoning Claws, derived from his family’s Great Heavenly Demon Hand.
• Lingling admitted she had learned only the derivative claw technique, and Wang offered to teach her the Great Heavenly Demon Hand as repayment for saving his daughter.

Lingling rejected Wang Tiancheng’s offer to teach her the Great Heavenly Demon Hand, warned him to leave Yuyang County, and departed after cautioning Duàn Yì to keep his identity secret. Wang Tiancheng regretted not offering something inherited from his father instead, and Duàn Yì asked what Lingling might have wanted.

• Duàn Yì considered asking Wang Tiancheng to teach him the Great Heavenly Demon Hand but decided against it because he was not a Demonic Cult member and had already said he sought nothing.
• Lingling refused the Great Heavenly Demon Hand, told Wang Tiancheng that his ties to the Demonic Cult could not be severed, and advised him to leave Yuyang County.
• Lingling suggested Wang Tiancheng seek help from someone surnamed Tang at Five Elders Mountain, then warned Duàn Yì to keep what he had heard secret and left.
• Wang Tiancheng returned to the room and said he wondered whether offering something passed down by his father would have persuaded Lingling to accept his gratitude.
• Duàn Yì asked Wang Tiancheng whether he possessed something Lingling wanted.

Duàn Yì learned that the Beggars' Sect had kidnapped Huihui to force Wang Tiancheng to give up a map tied to Ying Woqiu's martial legacy. Wang Tiancheng explained that the legacy's powerful art caused deadly backlash, leaving its map a dangerous prize.

• Wang Tiancheng told Duàn Yì that the Beggars' Sect wanted the map his father had inherited from Ying Woqiu, and had kidnapped Huihui to threaten him.
• Wang Tiancheng recounted how his father defeated and killed the previous Beggars' Sect Leader, ending the sect's harassment for a time.
• Duàn Yì concluded that Lingling had revealed Wang Tiancheng's identity in hopes of drawing him toward the Demon Sect and its legacy.
• Duàn Yì asked why Wang Tiancheng and his father had not learned the martial art marked by the map.
• Wang Tiancheng explained that the art could quickly grant immense power but eventually caused destructive backlash, so neither he nor his father dared to practice it.

Wang Tiancheng explained that the Demonic Sect’s dangerous Heavenly Cripple Divine Skill had been created from the principles of Buddha’s Palm. He revealed that the art could greatly increase its practitioner’s power but inevitably corrupted their temperament, leaving Duàn Yì with the secret’s true cost.

• Duàn Yì wondered why Ying Woqiu had passed down a martial art with severe consequences, and Wang Tiancheng asked whether he wanted to learn about its mysteries.
• Wang Tiancheng identified Buddha’s Palm as Buddhism’s greatest divine skill and described how later versions spread through the martial world.
• Wang Tiancheng recounted how a Demonic Sect genius debated a Buddha’s Palm inheritor for ten days and ten nights, then created the Heavenly Cripple Divine Skill using Buddha’s Palm as its foundation.
• Wang Tiancheng explained that the skill absorbed negative forces from the world to purify and strengthen its practitioner, but inevitably altered their temperament and risked madness or Qi Deviation.

Wang Tiancheng explained the deadly flaw in the Heavenly Cripple Divine Skill and why Buddha's Palm could counter it. Trusting Duàn Yì to resist practicing it recklessly, he gave him the map to its hiding place, which Duàn Yì accepted.

• Wang Tiancheng told Duàn Yì that the Heavenly Cripple Divine Skill had driven seventeen talented students to ruin because its cultivation brought deadly negative forces.
• Duàn Yì guessed that Buddha's Palm could suppress or expel the Divine Skill's harmful effects, and Wang Tiancheng confirmed it.
• Wang Tiancheng explained that he had withheld the map from Lingling because he feared Demon Sect members would misuse the art.
• Wang Tiancheng offered Duàn Yì the map in repayment for saving his family and urged him not to cultivate the art without a way to remove its danger.
• Duàn Yì accepted the map despite privately doubting his ability to resist the temptation to practice the Divine Skill.

Duàn Yì struggled to resist the temptation of the Heavenly Cripple Divine Skill map while traveling toward Ji County to seek the Ice Profound Energy. He resolved to delay retrieving the skill until his mental cultivation could withstand it, then arrived at Ji County’s heavily guarded southern gate.

• Duàn Yì accepted Wang Tiancheng’s map to the Heavenly Cripple Divine Skill before the Beggar Gang’s search for Wang Tiancheng’s family ended without success.
• After the lockdown in Yuyang County was lifted, Duàn Yì parted from Wang Tiancheng’s family and continued toward the Yuwen Family in Ji County.
• During six days of travel, Duàn Yì repeatedly considered seeking the hidden skill but used reason and willpower to suppress his desire to cultivate it.
• Duàn Yì decided he would retrieve the Heavenly Cripple Divine Skill only after his mental cultivation surpassed Wang Tiancheng’s.
• Duàn Yì reached Ji County’s southern gate, where disciplined soldiers required travelers to present officially stamped identity documents.

Duàn Yì entered Ji County after the guards verified his papers and learned that Yuwen Mu was staying at a horse ranch outside the city. As he headed there with a young soldier, he heard information that dampened his hopes for the visit.

• Duàn Yì observed Ji County’s elite defenders and considered how a martial artist might fight against their disciplined formations.
• Duàn Yì presented his papers and explained that he had brought a letter from Bái Xī Wén to visit Yuwen Mu.
• Yuwen Kai ordered the clerk to stamp Duàn Yì’s papers and offered to send a soldier to guide him to Yuwen Mu at the western horse ranch.
• Yuwen Kai sent a young soldier with Duàn Yì, who learned useful information from him that cast a shadow over his visit.

Duàn Yì learned about the Yuwen Family and the limited influence of Yuwen Mu, the horse-loving second master he had come to visit for Ice Profound Energy. He arrived at the vast You Prefecture horse farm and entered to meet Yuwen Mu, while considering that he might need to appeal directly to Yuwen Xiu.

• The Yuwen Family had left the grasslands to serve Great Xia, and Yuwen Xiu had earned great prestige as a general and patriarch.
• Duàn Yì learned that Yuwen Mu was Yuwen Xiu’s younger brother, whose passion for horses outweighed his involvement in family affairs.
• Duàn Yì decided he would keep pursuing Ice Profound Energy even if Yuwen Mu could not help him, and considered appealing to Yuwen Xiu instead.
• Duàn Yì and his escort reached the You Prefecture horse farm and passed through its guarded gate.
• Duàn Yì entered the horse farm to visit Yuwen Mu.

Duàn Yì visited Yuwen Mu to seek the Ice Profound Energy, and Yuwen Mu agreed to help if Duàn Yì proved himself by surviving ten moves against eight elite soldiers. As the soldiers closed in, Duàn Yì prepared to break their encirclement.

• Yuwen Mu read Old Bai’s letter and challenged Duàn Yì to demonstrate his strength.
• Yuwen Mu set the test: Duàn Yì had to last ten moves against eight elite soldiers or risk being killed.
• Duàn Yì studied the soldiers’ training, strength, and coordination before accepting the challenge.
• Yuwen Mu ordered the soldiers to finish Duàn Yì within ten moves, and they surrounded him from four directions.
• Duàn Yì gathered his Ice True Qi and recalled Lingling’s battle against the Beggars’ Sect’s Dog Beating Formation as he prepared to fight.