Chapter Summaries

Qin Yan began studying at the Martial Hall, where General Xu assigned him military texts and lessons in strategy. When he saw Li Qing brutally beating Han Chen, Qin Yan intervened and slapped Li Qing.

• Qi Hao introduced Qin Yan to Li Zhu and Feng Cuo at the Martial Hall, and Qin Yan asked them to treat him as a fellow student.
• General Xu welcomed Qin Yan, assigned him military texts to study, and warned that he would be tested before he could lead an army on his own.
• Qi Hao explained the Martial Hall's class system and told Qin Yan that Li Qing bullied Han Chen, a talented strategist from a humble family.
• Song Qianyang and the other young nobles backed down when Qi Hao revealed that Qin Yan was his ally.
• Qin Yan stopped Li Qing from striking Han Chen and slapped him for making too much noise.

Qin Yan defended Han Chen at the Martial Hall, beating Li Qing and Instructor Cao before revealing his identity as the Count of Qinghe. He began the Hall’s instruction and mastered Command and Stratagem.

• Qin Yan struck Li Qing for attacking Han Chen, then seized him and slammed him unconscious when Li Qing threatened him.
• Instructor Cao rushed at Qin Yan, who stopped him with a kick and warned him against neglecting his duties as a teacher.
• Qi Hao told the students that Qin Yan was the newly appointed Count of Qinghe, and Han Chen thanked him for intervening.
• Xu Ce learned of the fight and decided to find Qin Yan a teacher before he caused more trouble.
• Qin Yan began studying military command and logistics, and mastered Command and Stratagem.

Qin Yan advanced his military studies under Meng Fuzi and later encouraged Han Chen to join him in challenging the corrupt rules of their world. Han Chen was left shaken by Qin Yan’s invitation to help set change in motion.

• Qin Yan studied military texts and improved his Command and Stratagem abilities.
• Meng Fuzi tested Qin Yan’s claim that he had memorized more than a hundred military texts, then began teaching him military wargaming.
• Qin Yan learned from Meng Fuzi and increased his Stratagem proficiency.
• Han Chen thanked Qin Yan for saving him and explained why he had finally stood up to his bullies.
• Qin Yan shared how he had fought his way to strength and invited Han Chen to join him in changing the world’s corrupt rules.
• Han Chen stared at Qin Yan, feeling as though something inside him had broken free.

Qin Yan recruited Zhang Xin and other talented Martial Hall students to help build his army, then returned to the Capital with Qi Hao to attend Li Chong’s birthday banquet. The chapter left Qin Yan entering Duke Yingguo’s Mansion among the Capital’s powerful figures.

• Qin Yan asked Han Chen to identify promising Martial Hall students and recruited Zhang Xin to oversee logistics and find more talent, giving him ten thousand taels of silver.
• Zhang Xin and Han Chen recruited a group of capable students, including Bai Yi, Ma You, Li Tan, and Tie Qian, and planned to approach more students.
• Qi Hao summoned Qin Yan to attend the Supreme Pillar of the State’s hundred-and-fiftieth birthday celebration at Duke Yingguo’s Mansion.
• Qi Hao introduced himself and Qin Yan to Li Chong, who praised them and invited them inside.
• Qin Yan entered the mansion and saw that the gathering included numerous prominent figures and hidden powerhouses.

At the Elder Pillar of the State’s birthday banquet, Qin Yan met the birthday host and heard that several young cultivators wanted to challenge him. The Elder Pillar of the State announced a martial exchange with the Sky Amber Saber as the prize, drawing many eyes toward Qin Yan.

• Qi Hao brought Qin Yan to meet the young guests at the birthday celebration, and Li Ming escorted him to the Elder Pillar of the State.
• The Elder Pillar of the State praised Qin Yan’s cultivation and martial talent, then advised him to remain diligent and humble.
• Qin Yan returned to the banquet, where Qi Hao told him that some talented guests wanted to challenge him.
• The Crown Prince and other princes arrived, and Xia Chengqian complained to Qin Yan about the tense court gatherings.
• The Elder Pillar of the State proposed that the young guests exchange pointers for the Sky Amber Saber, and Qin Yan realized the challenge was aimed at him.

The Elder Pillar of the State held a martial contest with the Sky Amber Saber as its prize, while Qin Yan watched the younger generation compete. Ying Hongjing challenged Qin Yan, who answered by accusing him of being ruled by greed, anger, and delusion.

• Qin Yan wondered why the Elder Pillar of the State had arranged the contest, while Qi Hao warned him about Song Qianming, a powerful disciple of the Moving Mountain Abbey.
• Tu Wei won three bouts before Lin Xi defeated him and stepped away from the arena.
• Qin Yan and Qi Hao discussed how Buddhist and Daoist temples gained influence by taking noble children as disciples.
• Song Qianyang urged Song Qianming to challenge Qin Yan, but Ying Hongjing reached the arena first and called Qin Yan out.
• Qin Yan accepted Ying Hongjing's challenge, and the Elder Pillar of the State watched with interest.
• Ying Hongjing said he wanted to test Qin Yan, who accused him of greed, anger, and delusion; Ying dismissed Qin Yan's words.

Qin Yan defeated Ying Hongjing by exploiting the blind spot in his eight-armed technique, then quickly knocked Song Qianyang out before he could cast a Daoist art. The crowd was left stunned by Qin Yan’s overwhelming speed and strength.

• Ying Hongjing attacked Qin Yan with the Upper Treasure Wrathful Might Vajra Hand Seal, but Qin Yan evaded every blow with his movement technique.
• Qin Yan slipped behind Ying Hongjing and slammed him into the ground, ending the fight.
• The Elder Pillar of the State explained that Qin Yan had exploited the eight-armed Buddha hands’ blind spot, while Song Qianming recognized Qin Yan as a formidable opponent.
• Song Qianyang entered the arena and used his ability to walk through the air as he prepared a Daoist art.
• Qin Yan vanished with a zero-frame start and struck Song Qianyang in the face before he could cast his art, knocking him unconscious.

Qin Yan overwhelmed the young talents at the birthday banquet and received a heavy saber from the old Pillar of the Nation. In private, he learned that the old Pillar of the Nation had helped secure his earldom so he could lead a new army, and Qin Yan accepted the task while recognizing he might be a chess piece in a larger plan.

• Qin Yan swiftly defeated Song Qianyang and Ying Hongjing, then called for another challenger, but none of the young talents dared answer.
• The old Pillar of the Nation told Qin Yan that stronger young geniuses included Grandmasters and aspiring Supreme Grandmasters.
• The old Pillar of the Nation presented Qin Yan with a heavy dark-gold saber, which Qin Yan said fit his hand perfectly.
• After the banquet, the old Pillar of the Nation revealed that he had helped Qin Yan become an earl and wanted him to lead a new army as Great Li faced rebellions.
• Qin Yan realized the old Pillar of the Nation might be using him as a piece in a larger plan, but he agreed not to fail the task entrusted to him.

Qin Yan watched the Hongjia Emperor’s collapse trigger a crackdown on the crown prince’s faction, then learned that Huang Chao had been accused of cheating and imprisoned. He began working to free his friend, while Huang Chao remained in a Youshan Prefecture cell insisting he was innocent.

• Qin Yan judged that the dynasty’s troubles called for overturning the existing order, while the crown prince resented the emperor’s refusal to yield the throne.
• Qin Yan built influence at the Martial Hall as the Hongjia Emperor fainted, then returned to court too weak to govern and placed the crown prince under house arrest.
• The Hongjia Emperor purged the palace, and officials of the crown prince’s faction were imprisoned or stripped of office as suspicion and fear spread through the Capital.
• Qin Yan learned that Huang Chao had been accused of cheating, lost his scholarly honors, and faced exile, so he wrote to Zong Xiaoshan and Zhao Zhen to investigate and help him.
• Huang Chao endured torture in Youshan Prefecture prison and maintained that he had not cheated, while an unseen voice suggested he had offended someone.

After the Hongjia Emperor named Qin Yan commander of the Red Shadow Army, Qin Yan left the Capital to gather troops and prepare to fight the Taiping Army. He reached Hongshan Garrison, where General Wei Xu appeared to withhold the garrison’s best cavalry from him.

• Qin Yan learned from Zhao Zhen that everyone in Youshan Prefecture prison, including the jailers and warden, had vanished without a trace.
• As the Hongjia Emperor purged officials and the crown prince’s allies, Qin Yan asked General Xu to let him leave the Capital and fight the Taiping Army.
• Ten days later, Qin Yan received the emperor’s appointment as commander of the Red Shadow Army, three thousand suits of armor, and authorization to transfer fifteen hundred troops from Hongshan Garrison.
• Qin Yan gathered 134 followers, including 120 elite Martial Hall students, and rode with them to Hongshan Garrison after receiving warhorses from General Xu.
• Qin Yan met Wei Xu, who ordered Ren Sheng to take him to the cavalry camp, where Qin Yan suspected that the garrison’s best cavalry had been kept out of sight.

Qin Yan selected fifteen hundred ambitious cavalrymen, formed the Red Shadow Army, and led them toward the Taiping Army’s advance in Dongying Prefecture. After learning that a camp at Heavenly Lake Hill was under siege, he rushed to rescue it as its defenders faced imminent defeat.

• Qin Yan persuaded soldiers to join him by recounting his victories and promising that they would receive all the merit they earned.
• Han Cui, Jin Shizhong, and Guo Hai became commanders of the fifteen hundred cavalrymen Qin Yan selected.
• Qin Yan led his new troops south and learned that Hong Sheng’s Taiping Army had grown to 150,000 by recruiting and plundering as it advanced.
• Qin Yan’s scouts reported that four county seats in Chaowen Prefecture had fallen and that more than two thousand Taiping soldiers were besieging a military camp.
• Qin Yan ordered the Red Shadow Army to race thirty li ahead and attack the rebels, while the besieged camp’s defenders struggled to hold their crumbling defenses.

Qin Yan led the Red Shadow Army in a devastating attack that destroyed the Taiping Army and killed its commander, Chu Li. After the battle, he used Magnetic Field Healing to save the severely wounded soldiers, leaving his men deeply moved by his care for them.

• Qin Yan blasted three paths through the Taiping Army with his bow, then led the Red Shadow Army’s charge as Great Li troops counterattacked from the camp.
• Qin Yan broke Chu Li’s spear and killed him with one strike, causing the Taiping Army to rout under the cavalry’s repeated charges.
• Han Chen ordered squads to clear the battlefield, where the Red Shadow Army killed all two thousand-odd Taiping soldiers at the cost of fifty-one casualties.
• Zhang Xin reported the Red Shadow Army’s losses, and Qin Yan went to the wounded soldiers’ tent to treat them.
• Qin Yan used Magnetic Field Healing to save the nine severely wounded soldiers and heal the lightly wounded, earning his troops’ gratitude and loyalty.

Qin Yan healed the wounded soldiers at the camp, gaining a group-healing magnetic field and earning their worship. He then learned that Chaowen Prefecture faced a much larger Taiping Army force, leaving his small contingent to confront a dire military situation.

• Qin Yan began treating gravely wounded soldiers, and Magnetic Field Healing advanced to a ten-meter healing domain.
• Qin Yan infused wounded soldiers with his own Qi and blood and absorbed Heaven and Earth Origin Qi, allowing him to heal dozens or even a hundred people at once.
• He Zhiwu, commander of the Greenwood Battalion, thanked Qin Yan, and hundreds of soldiers knelt before him.
• Qin Yan urged the soldiers to join him in suppressing the rebels and restoring peace, then asked He Zhiwu about Chaowen Prefecture.
• He Zhiwu explained that Xiao Mu led fifteen thousand Taiping Army troops against Chaowen Prefecture, while the northern front had collapsed after Lang Futian's ambush.
• Qin Yan realized that his fifteen hundred cavalry and He Zhiwu's troops numbered fewer than two thousand against the enemy force.

Qin Yan and Han Chen devised a plan to kill the Taiping Army’s officers and lure the force into a pine forest for a fire attack. Qin Yan infiltrated the camp at Qumu and killed Xiao Mu, leaving the Taiping Army shaken and without its commander.

• Han Chen urged Qin Yan to use his Archery to kill the Taiping Army’s officers, and Qin Yan agreed to pursue a larger plan to destroy the force.
• Han Chen proposed driving the Taiping Army into a dry pine forest, while Zhang Xin estimated that preparing a fire attack would take at least two days.
• Qin Yan assigned everyone to help prepare, asked He Zhiwu to join him, and sent Han Chen to Chaowen City to seek the defenders’ support.
• Qin Yan infiltrated the Taiping Army’s camp at Qumu, killed the Innate expert Han Chong, and sent his corpse to Zheshen Ghost.
• Qin Yan beheaded Xiao Mu and destroyed his soul; the surviving Taiping Army officers discovered their commander’s death and spent the night in terror.

Qin Yan used the Ink Sun Bow to devastate the Taiping Army’s camp, kill its commanders, and drive the fleeing soldiers toward a trap. The army entered the pine forest as fires closed in from both directions, leaving Yang Mingyi convinced they were finished.

• Dong Wei and Yang Mingyi feared the assassin who had killed Xiao Mu, while Qin Yan prepared to attack the Taiping camp with the Ink Sun Bow.
• Qin Yan fired a powerful arrow into the camp, then killed Dong Wei with another strike and battered the Taiping Army with repeated explosions.
• Yang Mingyi ordered a retreat, and Qin Yan picked off officers while steering the panicked soldiers toward the planned route.
• Han Chen asked Chu Prefect and the Chaowen Commandant to send troops after the routed army, but they refused to risk their small force.
• Qin Yan continued driving the Taiping soldiers onward until they entered the pine forest, where Zhang Xin’s forces lit fires ahead of them.
• Yang Mingyi ordered his troops to retreat again, but a second fire blocked their way behind them, and he declared them finished.

Qin Yan’s Red Shadow Army won a crushing victory over Xiao Mu’s Taiping Army, earning praise from the Hongjia Emperor and spreading their fame through the Capital. Back in Chaowen City, Qin Yan accepted Chu Prefect’s gift and secretly arranged rewards from the army’s enormous haul of spoils.

• Qin Yan led the Red Shadow Army to hunt down rebels who had escaped after his fire attack devastated Xiao Mu’s forces.
• Qi Zhen sent Qin Yan’s victory report to the palace, and the Hongjia Emperor praised Qin Yan, ordered a decree of commendation, and prioritized supplies for his army.
• The battle report spread through the Capital, impressing the Martial Hall and prompting elders to seek places for their juniors in the Red Shadow Army.
• Chu Prefect welcomed Qin Yan back to Chaowen City, explained why he had not sent reinforcements, and presented him with chests of gold and silver.
• Zhang Xin told Qin Yan the army had seized spoils estimated at a million taels, and Qin Yan ordered rewards for the soldiers while directing them to keep quiet about the haul.

Qin Yan rewarded the Red Shadow Army after its victory and ordered the soldiers not to disturb the people of Chaowen City. When Wang Wu and his companions broke that order, Qin Yan had them and their accomplices executed, leaving the army shaken into obedience.

• Qin Yan set aside three hundred thousand taels for Red Shadow Army rewards and reserves, entrusted the funds to Zhang Xin, and stored the rest in the Cloud Luo Pearl.
• Qin Yan's guards announced the soldiers' rewards and strict rules against disturbing or cheating the people of Chaowen City.
• Red Shadow Army soldiers spent their day off in the city, where Wang Wu and his companions refused to pay for a meal and damaged a restaurant.
• Bai Yi's squad arrested Wang Wu and the others, then paid the shopkeeper for the damage and food.
• Qin Yan ordered Han Chen to behead the offenders and their companions, including those who had failed to stop Wang Wu.

After disciplining his officers, Qin Yan learned that the Taiping Army planned to assassinate him and that buried corpses in Wild Boar Forest were becoming evil entities. He ordered the corpses exhumed and the officials responsible investigated, while the Taiping Army prepared to send a powerful force against him.

• Qin Yan ordered Han Cui, Jin Shizhong, and Guo Hai to receive ten strokes of the military rod and punished officers whose subordinates had been beheaded.
• Heavenly King Hong agreed with his generals that Qin Yan had to die and sent Immortal Master Minghe, two Grandmasters, and a Supreme Grandmaster to kill him.
• After hearing reports of burning figures appearing in Wild Boar Forest, Qin Yan went there with Bai Yi and his guards.
• Qin Yan discovered that the corpses had been buried rather than burned and ordered them dug up, warning that they could endanger Chaowen City.
• He Zhiwu admitted that he had delegated the work, and Qin Yan sentenced him to fifty strokes and ordered an investigation by the Demon-Suppressing Bureau.
• The workers unearthed at least a thousand corpses, and the labor foreman responsible for burying them was imprisoned.

Qin Yan stayed behind in Wild Boar Forest and destroyed the spirits and corpses that emerged from the pit. After he killed Ying Cang with overwhelming force, Liang Tong and Immortal Master Minghe realized they faced a terrifying opponent.

• Qin Yan ordered Bai Yi and the Red Shadow Army to leave Wild Boar Forest before nightfall, then faced the corpse pit alone.
• As the Sha Qi gathered, burned Vengeful Ghosts and corpses attacked Qin Yan, who used his saber to destroy them and recognized one powerful Evil Corpse as Yang Mingyi.
• After Qin Yan killed more than a thousand evil creatures, he revealed that Liang Tong, Ying Cang, and Immortal Master Minghe had been watching him.
• Ying Cang attacked Qin Yan, but Qin Yan crushed his head with one hand, leaving Liang Tong trembling and calling him a demon.
• Immortal Master Minghe felt horrified by Qin Yan's killing intent and wondered whether Qin Yan was a peerless demon hidden among mankind.

Qin Yan killed Immortal Master Minghe after surviving his Primordial Spirit attack, and the Slaughter skill advanced to Proficient Level. He then manifested a towering blood-red God and Devil bearing his likeness.

• Immortal Master Minghe forced Liang Tong to fight Qin Yan, but Qin Yan killed Liang Tong with a single palm strike.
• Qin Yan attacked Immortal Master Minghe, shattering most of his Ten-Life Beads and driving him into a hill.
• Immortal Master Minghe summoned a swarm of white-gold cranes and used a talisman plaque to shield himself, but Qin Yan's arrow destroyed both defenses and blasted apart his physical body.
• Immortal Master Minghe transformed his Primordial Spirit into a crane and struck Qin Yan's soul, but Qin Yan endured the attack and destroyed the spirit with a Tenfold Sonic Boom Fist.
• Zheshen absorbed Immortal Master Minghe's Primordial Spirit power, and Qin Yan's Slaughter skill rose to Proficient Level.
• Qin Yan condensed his dark red radiance into a towering blood-colored God and Devil that resembled him.