Chapter Summaries

The Prefect rejected Zhang Huaimin’s report of an immortal and refused to investigate Heyang County, until news arrived that his family had been attacked at Crouching Ox Mountain. He sent Vice Prefect Xiao to verify whether his niece survived, while Xiao planned to investigate the rumors of an immortal for the emperor.

• The Assistant Prefect told the Prefect that rumors claimed an immortal had descended to Heyang County, but the Prefect dismissed them and accused Zhang Huaimin of fabricating his report.
• The Prefect refused to submit Zhang Huaimin’s memorial and prepared to reprimand him, keeping secret that the Crouching Ox Mountain bandits possessed military weapons and might be backed by Prince Ning’s Residence.
• A servant reported that bandits had killed the Prefect’s elder brother, sister-in-law, and nephew, and taken his niece Ya’er.
• The Prefect ordered troops to attack Crouching Ox Mountain, then remembered Heyang County’s report that the bandits had been wiped out and ordered someone to confirm whether Ya’er was safe.
• Vice Prefect Xiao volunteered to go to Heyang County, intending to investigate the immortal rumor and potentially bring the immortal to the capital for the aging emperor.

After wiping out the bandits around Heyang County, Gao Yunyi refined four Spirit-Gathering Pills and decided to leave. County Magistrate Zhang discovered the immortal had gone, but found a pill left for him and took it as proof that his efforts still mattered.

• Gao Yunyi refined four Spirit-Gathering Pills in the county yamen courtyard, impressing the onlookers.
• Gao Yunyi decided to leave Heyang County because it offered no quests or experience.
• County Magistrate Zhang found Gao Yunyi's room empty and panicked at the immortal's departure.
• County Magistrate Zhang discovered a Spirit-Gathering Pill Gao Yunyi had left behind and wept with renewed purpose.

Gao Yunyi traveled toward Yangcheng Dian to find a white crane spirit pet, then settled in a graveyard when night fell. A suona player mistook the light from Gao Yunyi’s meditation for a ghost and fled, while Gao Yunyi woke and found no ghost.

• Gao Yunyi attracted attention on the road with his peerless appearance, and Vice Prefect Xiao considered inviting him to the Capital before deciding the rumored immortal mattered more.
• Gao Yunyi avoided Dingzhou City and headed toward Yangcheng Dian to seek a white crane spirit pet, using his map to guide him.
• Gao Yunyi found a graveyard after dark, searched for ghosts to gain experience, and then meditated on a grave mound when he found none.
• Zhang Qiang walked home from a funeral through the graveyard and saw a faint white glow.
• Zhang Qiang shouted that he had seen a ghost and fled, dropping his lantern and suona; Gao Yunyi woke and searched for the supposed ghost.

Gao Yunyi reached Yangcheng Dian and asked Xiaoya and her father to rent him their fishing boat so he could visit the shallows where the white cranes gathered. After the father agreed, Gao Yunyi prepared to board the boat.

• Gao Yunyi passed through Zhangjia Village and continued toward Yangcheng Dian.
• Gao Yunyi arrived at Yangcheng Dian, admired the lake, and went to the dock to find a boat and a local guide.
• Gao Yunyi asked Xiaoya whether her family owned the boat and said he wanted to rent it to visit the white cranes.
• Xiaoya told Gao Yunyi that her father had gone to pay taxes, and she asked why he wanted to visit the shallows.
• Xiaoya's father returned, and after Gao Yunyi said he would pay, the man agreed to take him aboard.

Gao Yunyi searched a lakeside flock for a perfect crane and learned of a fierce, unusually large one that appeared unpredictably. He paid a boatman to bring him to a rock overlooking the mudflat and wait for the crane, while the boatman and his daughter left with money to treat her mother.

• Gao Yunyi inspected the cranes on the mudflat, rejecting them as imperfect, and told the curious girl he wanted a crane that was strong, sturdy, and handsome.
• The girl described a huge, fierce crane that ruled the flock and had injured people who tried to catch it, and Gao Yunyi decided to tame it.
• Gao Yunyi hired the girl's family's boat for regular trips and gave her father a ten-tael silver ingot.
• Gao Yunyi climbed onto a large rock overlooking the mudflat while the boatman promised to bring him meals and return if it rained.
• As the boatman and Little Ya departed, Little Ya spotted a light near Gao Yunyi, but her father dismissed it as sunlight and promised to hire a physician for her mother.

County Magistrate Zhang arrested his concubine’s brother for abducting a woman, rejected her pleas, and ordered her expelled and divorced. He then learned that Lord Xiao was approaching Heyang County and rushed to organize an official welcome.

• Constable Chen reported that Young Master Ning had abducted a woman, and County Magistrate Zhang ordered him arrested and the woman returned safely.
• County Magistrate Zhang’s concubine pleaded for her brother’s release, but he refused and ordered her dragged out and divorced.
• A Yamen Runner announced that Lord Xiao, the newly appointed assistant prefect of Dingzhou City, was less than five li from Heyang County.
• County Magistrate Zhang hurried out to welcome Lord Xiao and ordered the county officials, Archivist Han, and Assistant County Magistrate Liu to join him.
• County Magistrate Zhang asked where Adviser Xue was and grumbled that he would scold him for leaving without permission.

Xiao Associate Magistrate hurried to Heyang County after hearing that an immortal had made an Immortal Elixir, only to learn the immortal had already left. He pressured County Magistrate Zhang into surrendering the elixir for the emperor, then revealed that the prefect’s niece had been abducted on the day Zhang suppressed the bandits.

• Xiao Associate Magistrate rushed into Heyang County and asked County Magistrate Zhang where the immortal was.
• Zhang told Xiao the immortal had left, then described the immortal and his visit in detail.
• Xiao questioned Zhang about the Immortal Elixir and persuaded him to present it to the emperor.
• Xiao promised to recommend Zhang for promotion in exchange for his loyalty and the elixir.
• Xiao asked whether Zhang had rescued the prefect’s niece during the Crouching Ox Mountain campaign, and Zhang reacted with shock when he learned she had been abducted.

Xiaoya brought Gao Yunyi breakfast at Yangcheng Dian, but he refused it and told her family to visit only morning and evening without bringing food. As the boat carried Xiaoya away, she happily ate the flatbread Gao Yunyi had given her while he continued waiting for the crane king.

• Xiaoya sailed to the mudflat with breakfast for Gao Yunyi and called out to him, startling the white cranes.
• Xiaoya's father apologized for disturbing Gao Yunyi, who calmly forgave Xiaoya and kept watching for the crane king.
• Xiaoya offered Gao Yunyi the breakfast, but he told her to keep it and said her family should visit only in the morning and evening without bringing food.
• Xiaoya left with her father, holding a flatbread Gao Yunyi had given her, and declared that it was delicious.

The Canglang Gang’s Lord Gou used fabricated debts to seize Li Jiu’s silver and demanded that Li Jiu’s daughter, Xiao Ya, pay the remainder. Li Jiu died resisting, and Lord Gou ordered his men to bring Xiao Ya to him.

• Lord Gou confronted Li Jiu over inflated fees and loans, then had his men search him and take the silver he was carrying.
• The accountant claimed Li Jiu still owed four taels and one qian, and Lord Gou demanded that Xiao Ya be used to pay the debt.
• Li Jiu refused and was beaten by the shore patrolmen until he died, still determined not to sell his daughter.
• Lord Gou ordered the accountant to stamp a prepared deed of sale with Li Jiu’s blood, then sent the patrolmen to fetch Xiao Ya.

Xiao Ya was lured to the Loyalty and Righteousness Hall, where Lord Gou revealed that her father had sold her. She discovered her father’s corpse, and Lord Gou was left alone with her, whip in hand.

• Xiao Ya cooked fish soup for the young master while the Dan people warned of Lord Gou’s danger through their silence.
• Shore Patrolmen from the Canglang Gang arrived and tricked Xiao Ya into going with them by claiming her father was waiting at the Loyalty and Righteousness Hall.
• Lord Gou showed Xiao Ya a deed of sale bearing her father’s thumbprint and told her that she belonged to him.
• Xiao Ya bit a patrolman, broke free, and found her father dead in a room off the hall.
• Lord Gou sent the Shore Patrolmen away and took out a whip as Xiao Ya sobbed over her father’s body.

Gao Yunyi finally encountered the Crane King and tried twice to tame it, but its pride resisted his skill. As he prepared to beat it into submission, the boatman’s daughter arrived alone and weakly warned him to run.

• After waiting three days, Gao Yunyi spotted the Crane King and watched it mate with another crane before it noticed him.
• Gao Yunyi used his taming skill twice, but the Crane King resisted both attempts and broke free.
• The enraged Crane King prepared to attack, while Gao Yunyi decided to weaken it with ordinary punches and kicks rather than risk killing it with Sword Qi.
• The boatman’s daughter arrived alone in the boat, weakly urging Gao Yunyi to run.

Gao Yunyi rescued Xiao Ya from the men pursuing her, then accepted her request to destroy the Canglang Gang. He began binding the frightened Crane King with a Blue Band as Xiao Ya watched.

• Xiao Ya reached Gao Yunyi's boat and warned him that attackers were coming to kill him.
• Gao Yunyi killed the men pursuing Xiao Ya with Blazing Sun Sword Qi and forced the Crane King to submit.
• Gao Yunyi asked Xiao Ya whether she wanted revenge, and she asked him to avenge her family.
• Gao Yunyi accepted the Blue Quest to destroy the Canglang Gang and began placing a Blue Band on Xiao Ya and the Crane King.

Lord Gou raged over Li Jiu’s daughter escaping and dismissed the possibility that Gao Yunyi would help her. Gao Yunyi arrived on a giant crane and destroyed the Canglang Gang’s hall with a strike of Sword Qi, leaving Lord Gou and his men shattered and stunned.

• Lord Gou discovered that Li Jiu’s daughter had escaped and learned she had rowed across the lake toward Gao Yunyi.
• Lord Gou and his bookkeeper assumed Gao Yunyi would not intervene because they believed he was an aristocratic young master who would not care about a lowly Xumin.
• A crane’s cry rang above the hall, and a patrolman reported that a huge crane carrying two people had flown over the docks.
• A streak of scarlet Sword Qi split the Loyalty and Righteousness Hall in two, killing or injuring Lord Gou’s men and burying his bookkeeper beneath a pillar.
• Lord Gou sat stunned in the ruins as another crane cry confirmed the destruction was real.

Gao Yunyi slaughtered the Canglang Gang Branch in Yangcheng Dian, while Xiao Ya personally avenged her family by killing Lord Gou. The mission to eliminate the Canglang Gang in Dingzhou City remained incomplete, but Gao Yunyi reached level 12.

• Lord Gou realized Gao Yunyi was the rumored immortal as Gao Yunyi killed his men with Sword Qi.
• Xiao Ya asked Gao Yunyi to leave Lord Gou to her, and Gao Yunyi agreed.
• Xiao Ya stabbed Lord Gou repeatedly to avenge her father, mother, and herself, then continued attacking his corpse.
• Gao Yunyi hunted down the Canglang Gang members hiding around Yangcheng Dian and slaughtered the branch to the last man.
• The mission remained incomplete because it required wiping out the Canglang Gang in Dingzhou City, but Gao Yunyi leveled up to 12.

Sha Pingwei grew increasingly uneasy at the Canglang Gang headquarters, unaware of what was coming. After avenging her family, Xiao Ya nearly killed herself, but the young master invited her to come with him, and she chose to live.

• Sha Pingwei questioned his advisers and stewards about trouble in Dingzhou City but found no cause for his growing dread.
• Sha Pingwei dismissed rumors that an immortal had descended and blamed the Spirit-Tuning Sect, then ordered the gang's core members to return to headquarters.
• Xiao Ya, overwhelmed by emptiness after killing Scarface Gou, picked up her dagger and decided she should die.
• The young master appeared before Xiao Ya and told her to come with him.
• Xiao Ya dropped the dagger and agreed to live as long as the young master needed her.

A magnificent immortal crane carried a man and a woman into Dingzhou City, and the people—including the Prefect—realized that immortals were real. The man unleashed fiery Sword Qi on the Southern Urban District, striking the Canglang Gang’s Main Headquarters and leaving the area in ruins.

• A giant white crane descended over Dingzhou City carrying a man in a moon-white robe and a commoner woman.
• The people of Dingzhou City celebrated the crane as an auspicious sign, then fell into awe when they saw the man riding it.
• A servant told the Prefect that an immortal had descended, and the skeptical Prefect went outside to see for himself.
• The Prefect saw the immortal crane and the man in white, dropped to his knees, and accepted that immortals existed.
• The man unleashed fiery Sword Qi that struck the Canglang Gang’s Main Headquarters in the Southern Urban District, collapsing buildings and setting the area ablaze.

Gao Yunyi rode the Crane King into Dingzhou City and attacked the Canglang Gang headquarters with Blazing Sun Sword Qi. Sha Pingwei survived the devastating strike and realized that an immortal had come specifically for him.

• Gao Yunyi used the game's map to locate the Canglang Gang headquarters, where its members had gathered.
• Sha Pingwei felt an inexplicable sense of impending danger and summoned the gang's core members to guard the headquarters.
• A disciple announced that an immortal had arrived, but Sha Pingwei angrily dismissed him and went outside to shoot at a noisy crane.
• Sha Pingwei saw a blazing attack fall from the sky and destroy much of the Canglang Gang headquarters, killing and injuring many members.
• Gao Yunyi descended on the Crane King, and Sha Pingwei recognized the immortal and wondered why he had come for him.

Sha Pingwei tried to flee as an immortal slaughtered his gang, but the Crane King recognized him as the man who had once tried to capture it. As Sha Pingwei neared the main gate, the Crane King's cry made his legs go weak.

• Sha Pingwei dodged the immortal’s attacks and tried to escape through the back gate while his gang members were killed around him.
• A scarlet Sword Qi swept through the compound, killing the disciples running toward Sha Pingwei and collapsing the wall that blocked the back gate.
• Sha Pingwei forced himself to keep going and made it from the back courtyard to the front gate.
• The Crane King recognized Sha Pingwei as the man who had once led a group trying to capture it and shot an arrow at it.
• The Crane King stopped itself from attacking because of its master’s warning, but its furious cry left Sha Pingwei weak with fear near the gate.

Gao Yunyi slaughtered the Canglang Gang’s members while Sha Pingwei tried to escape and survived a strike from Blazing Sun Sword Qi with a severed arm. As Sha Pingwei sought help from the Left Thousand Commander, a bolt from the sky struck him dead before the crowd.

• Gao Yunyi cleared the Canglang Gang compound of monsters and used a Spirit-Gathering Pill as his mana ran low.
• Sha Pingwei secretly unbolted the main gate and rushed outside as Gao Yunyi noticed him and fired Blazing Sun Sword Qi.
• Sha Pingwei invoked Golden Bell Shield, Iron Shirt and survived the strike, though it blasted off his arm and left him badly injured.
• Sha Pingwei staggered toward the Left Thousand Commander and begged him for help, while the commander pretended not to know him.
• A bolt from the sky struck Sha Pingwei dead before tens of thousands of onlookers.

After wiping out the Canglang Gang, Gao Yunyi completed Xiao Ya’s revenge task and reached level 13, but refused to let her follow him. He tossed her an Essence-Restoring Pearl, which restored her will to live, then prepared to leave and found the Crane King had disappeared.

• Gao Yunyi used his new Thunder-Drawing Incantation and Sword Qi to defeat the Canglang Gang disciples, completing the task.
• Xiao Ya thanked Gao Yunyi for taking revenge on the Canglang Gang, and he reached level 13.
• Gao Yunyi refused Xiao Ya’s request to follow him, and she lost the will to live.
• Gao Yunyi gave Xiao Ya the Essence-Restoring Pearl, and she decided to stay alive and wait for him.
• Gao Yunyi called for the Crane King to leave, but discovered it was nowhere to be seen.