Chapter Summaries

Fang Shuwen recalled the hardships that had damaged his martial foundation and how the Guard System’s three-month reward had greatly improved his cultivation. As his first mission guarding the Zhou Family ended, the system granted him Muscle Tendon Change at grand completion.

• Fang Shuwen remembered Zheng Sihai telling him that his poor physical foundation left him little hope of mastering martial arts, and that he should become a Zhou Family martial guard.
• Fang Shuwen recalled surviving alone on the streets, working at an apothecary, and spending four years studying under Zheng Sihai before running out of money.
• Fang Shuwen explained that the Guard System had increased his aptitude and comprehension fivefold during his three months serving the Zhou Family, letting him rapidly advance his martial arts.
• Fang Shuwen finished cultivating as the mission countdown reached zero, while his partner Song Li went to relieve himself.
• The system announced that Fang Shuwen had completed the mission and awarded him Muscle Tendon Change at grand completion.

Fang Shuwen mastered [Muscle Tendon Change] at Great Perfection and discovered that it had restored his damaged foundation. After finding Song Li murdered and killing an intruder, he saw the Zhou residence come under attack and headed toward the main courtyard.

• Fang Shuwen claimed [Muscle Tendon Change], endured its painful effects, and opened his Ren and Du Meridians as his internal power reached the Greater Celestial Circuit.
• Fang Shuwen tested his new strength by smashing a window with the wind of a punch, then went out to take over the night watch.
• Fang Shuwen found Song Li dead with his throat cut and dodged a spindle dart fired by an attacker.
• Fang Shuwen broke the attacker's arms and crushed his head before realizing the intruders had come to kill rather than steal.
• Fang Shuwen saw flaming arrows setting the Zhou residence ablaze and ran toward the main courtyard.

Fang Shuwen fought his way through the Zhou Mansion and stopped an attacker from killing Zhou Feixiong, then refused the leader’s offer to betray the Zhou Family. He stood ready to defend his employers as the courtyard standoff resumed.

• Fang Shuwen killed two men in black who were attacking the Zhou Family’s servants and ordered the survivors to flee.
• Fang Shuwen fought his way toward the main courtyard, killing intruders and learning to better control his strength.
• Fang Shuwen found Zhou Feixiong and his wife surrounded by household attendants, including Wang Tao, as they faced the leader of the attackers.
• The leader said Zhou Qingmei would soon die too, and one of his men broke through the attendants to attack Zhou Feixiong.
• Fang Shuwen dropped into the courtyard and killed the attacker with one punch, explaining that Zhou Feixiong still owed him wages.
• Fang Shuwen rejected the leader’s offer of twice his pay, saying he would honor his employment with the Zhou Family.

Fang Shuwen killed the attackers besieging the Zhou estate and helped Zhou Feixiong regain control of the crisis. Zhou Feixiong asked him to protect his daughter, Zhou Qingmei, at Lakeheart Cottage, and a new escort mission appeared.

• Fang Shuwen rejected a middle-aged attacker’s offer of silver and killed him when negotiations failed.
• Fang Shuwen defeated and killed the remaining attackers who ambushed him.
• Zhou Feixiong asked Wang Tao to organize the household guards while he and Fang Shuwen went to the ancestral hall.
• Zhou Feixiong gave Fang Shuwen silver notes and asked him to rescue Zhou Qingmei, who lived at Lakeheart Cottage.
• A new escort mission appeared, instructing Fang Shuwen to protect Zhou Qingmei until the crisis was resolved.

Fang Shuwen accepted a mission to protect Zhou Qingmei and hurried to Lakeheart Cottage, where she was fighting a black-robed assassin. As the assassin moved to kill the wounded Zhou Qingmei, Fang Shuwen arrived and hurled a saber at them.

• Fang Shuwen accepted the escort mission, gaining doubled aptitude and comprehension for its duration.
• Zhou Feixiong gave Fang Shuwen his waist token and directed him through a secret passage toward Lakeheart Cottage.
• Fang Shuwen left Julu City and raced north to reach Zhou Qingmei.
• Zhou Qingmei fought a black-robed man but was wounded when his hidden heart-guard stopped her sword and his palm strike sent her flying.
• The black-robed man moved to finish Zhou Qingmei, but Fang Shuwen shouted and sent a saber flying toward them.

Fang Shuwen rescued Zhou Qingmei from a black-robed assassin at Lakeheart Cottage, but the assassin killed himself before revealing who was behind the attack. Zhou Qingmei fainted before explaining whom she had offended, leaving Fang Shuwen’s mission unresolved and the danger ongoing.

• Fang Shuwen arrived at Lakeheart Cottage and threw his saber, shattering the black-robed man’s iron fan and badly injuring him.
• Fang Shuwen identified himself to Zhou Qingmei as a Zhou Family guard and helped her stand.
• Fang Shuwen brought the wounded black-robed man to Zhou Qingmei and told her she could decide his fate.
• The black-robed man warned that Zhou Qingmei had offended someone powerful, then severed his own heart meridian and died.
• Fang Shuwen realized Zhou Qingmei’s danger was not over and asked whom she had offended, but she fainted after coughing up blood.

Fang Shuwen rescued and healed Zhou Qingmei after the attack, then accompanied her to the burned Zhou Mansion, where she learned her family had escaped. Zhou Qingmei suspected the attack began after she intervened against a flower thief in Guangning City, a place that stirred vague memories for Fang Shuwen.

• Fang Shuwen carried the unconscious Zhou Qingmei to Lakeheart Cottage, treated her wounds, and used [Muscle Tendon Change] to heal her internal injuries.
• After Zhou Qingmei awoke, she confirmed her internal injuries had healed and hurried with Fang Shuwen back to Zhou Mansion.
• At the burned residence, Zhou Qingmei found a letter from her father saying the Zhou Family had left Julu City to evade their enemies.
• Zhou Qingmei told Fang Shuwen she had rescued a young woman from a flower thief in Guangning City half a month earlier and suspected the incident had drawn the attackers to her family.
• Hearing Guangning City, Fang Shuwen recalled that his parents had once spoken of living there.

Fang Shuwen and Zhou Qingmei decided to investigate the mysterious flower thief by traveling to Guangning City. After setting out together on horseback, they spotted a corpse beside the road.

• Fang Shuwen reasoned that the flower thief's flight from Zhou Qingmei suggested he feared her or knew her identity, making the abduction suspicious.
• Zhou Qingmei decided to contact the Pearl Pavilion and travel to Guangning City, and Fang Shuwen insisted on accompanying her.
• Zhou Qingmei sent a letter to the Pearl Pavilion through an escort agency, while Fang Shuwen left without informing the Four Seas Martial Hall or Mo Beidou.
• Fang Shuwen learned to ride as they traveled on horseback for half a day.
• When they stopped to eat after noon, Fang Shuwen noticed a corpse propped up in the bushes.

Fang Shuwen and Zhou Qingmei found a poisoned corpse holding a letter home and left the road to avoid a possible ambush. While sheltering from a storm, they heard digging in the woods and discovered an old woman with a shovel.

• Fang Shuwen and Zhou Qingmei examined a corpse and suspected someone had recently poisoned it as a trap.
• Zhou Qingmei removed and read the corpse’s letter, which revealed that Huaijin had been carrying a message and a pearl home to his wife, Jiaxiu.
• Fang Shuwen and Zhou Qingmei left their horses and traveled through the woods to avoid a possible ambush.
• Fang Shuwen and Zhou Qingmei took shelter in a hollow tree during a downpour and kept watch in turns.
• Fang Shuwen heard grunting while cultivating, and he and Zhou Qingmei followed the sound to find an old woman digging in the woods.

Fang Shuwen and Zhou Qingmei encountered an old woman digging a grave in the woods, and she revealed herself as a powerful practitioner of the Black Sha Demonic Art who intended to kill them. Fang Shuwen struck her into the grave she had dug, leaving her fate unclear.

• Fang Shuwen watched the old woman dig a grave and joked that she was preparing to bury herself.
• The old woman finished digging and revealed that the grave was meant for Fang Shuwen and Zhou Qingmei.
• Zhou Qingmei identified the old woman's black vapor as the Black Sha Demonic Art and warned Fang Shuwen to flee.
• The old woman unleashed her demonic art, disrupted Zhou Qingmei's True Qi, and lunged at them.
• Fang Shuwen pierced the black vapor with a forceful punch and knocked the old woman into her grave.

Fang Shuwen killed the old woman who attacked him and Zhou Qingmei, then searched her belongings with Zhou Qingmei. They found the [Black Sha Demonic Art] and began looking through it for external techniques while avoiding its blood-based internal art.

• Fang Shuwen punched through the old woman's chest and killed her before she could use the [Black Sha Demonic Art].
• Fang Shuwen and Zhou Qingmei searched the old woman's corpse and found the [Black Sha Demonic Art], over five hundred taels in banknotes, loose silver, and an opened letter.
• Fang Shuwen and Zhou Qingmei returned to their tree hollow, dried their clothes and the recovered items, and examined their spoils by firelight.
• Zhou Qingmei urged Fang Shuwen to destroy the demonic art, but he explained that he only wanted to check it for external techniques.
• Fang Shuwen told Zhou Qingmei that he was a disciple of the Four Seas Martial Hall and used the [Four Seas Dragon Fist] and [Plum Blossom Loose Hands].
• Fang Shuwen and Zhou Qingmei sat together and began reading the [Black Sha Demonic Art].

Fang Shuwen and Zhou Qingmei destroyed the Black Sha Demonic Art and traced their pursuers to a bank in Guangning City, concluding that the Black Sha Cult wanted to silence Zhou Qingmei. A letter revealed that the young cult leader had ordered her killed at any cost to protect a greater plan.

• Fang Shuwen and Zhou Qingmei read the Black Sha Demonic Art, learned it used women’s Innate Primordial Yin to cultivate Black Sha True Qi, and destroyed the manual.
• Zhou Qingmei offered to teach Fang Shuwen a palm technique she had found, and he accepted after clarifying that he would not risk his life for her.
• Fang Shuwen and Zhou Qingmei examined the banknotes, found the bank was in Guangning City, and inferred that the Black Sha Cult there had targeted Zhou Qingmei to avoid exposure.
• Zhou Qingmei offered Fang Shuwen the silver, and they opened a letter ordering her death at any cost because delay might jeopardize the greater plan.

Fang Shuwen and Zhou Qingmei traveled through the wilderness while he learned the Great Black Heaven Divine Palm. After reaching a home near dusk, they knocked on the gate and were greeted by an excited boy.

• Zhou Qingmei questioned Fang Shuwen about the Black Sha Cult's plans and the young cult master's attempt to kill her, but Fang Shuwen suggested they look for clues in Guangning City.
• Zhou Qingmei fell asleep while Fang Shuwen kept watch, then woke to find him returning with wild fruit.
• Fang Shuwen and Zhou Qingmei continued through the mountains, and Zhou Qingmei taught him the Great Black Heaven Divine Palm as they traveled.
• Fang Shuwen quickly mastered the palm technique and demonstrated its force by shattering a tree and defeating a brown bear.
• Fang Shuwen and Zhou Qingmei emerged from the wilderness and knocked at an inhabited home, where a boy called for his father to announce their arrival.

Fang Shuwen and Zhou Qingmei stayed at the Sun household, where Brother Sun abused his scarred and disabled wife while acting hospitable toward his guests. Zhou Qingmei warned Fang Shuwen that the food was drugged, but he ate a chicken leg anyway.

• Brother Sun welcomed Fang Shuwen and Zhou Qingmei into his home and refused payment for their stay.
• Fang Shuwen heard Brother Sun curse and apparently strike his wife after she struggled to slaughter a chicken.
• Fang Shuwen found Brother Sun choking his wife in the backyard and distracted him so he could check on her.
• Brother Sun's wife warned Fang Shuwen to leave, while the boy glared at her and obeyed his father.
• At dinner, Brother Sun took a chicken leg Fang Shuwen had offered the boy and returned it to Fang Shuwen's bowl.
• Zhou Qingmei warned Fang Shuwen that the food was drugged, but Fang Shuwen ate the chicken leg.

Fang Shuwen and Zhou Qingmei discovered that the Sun family had drugged their food and planned to kill Fang Shuwen and sell Zhou Qingmei. As the family tried to smoke them out, two eerie strangers broke through the gate and seized Brother Sun.

• Fang Shuwen explained that he had noticed the knockout powder and suspected the Sun family wanted to exploit them.
• Zhou Qingmei and Fang Shuwen pretended to rest while the Sun family discussed killing him and selling her.
• Fang Shuwen blocked the bamboo tube as Brother Sun prepared to blow knockout smoke into their room.
• A steady knock sounded at the gate, and Brother Sun shouted for the visitor to identify himself.
• Two black-robed figures broke through the gate, and one caught Brother Sun with a grappling claw and demanded to know why he had not opened the door.

Fang Shuwen and Zhou Qingmei faced two men who had tracked them to the Sun family and demanded to know who had killed Black Granny. Fang Shuwen overpowered one attacker and threatened the other for information, while the child remained a hostage.

• One green-faced man killed the eldest Sun brother, and Old Master Sun died of fright as his companion seized the boy.
• The attackers called Zhou Qingmei out and asked who had helped her kill Black Granny, while suspecting Fang Shuwen was the expert they sought.
• Zhou Qingmei and Fang Shuwen realized an eagle might have been tracking them for the Black Sha Cult.
• After Fang Shuwen told the hostage-taker to kill the boy if he wished, the man broke the child's arm to force an answer.
• Fang Shuwen struck one attacker, grabbed him by the throat, and demanded that the other explain whether the eagle was spying for them.

Fang Shuwen captured and defeated two Black Sha Cult members who had come to seize Zhou Qingmei, despite one using a child as a hostage. After the fight, the Sun family’s surviving matriarch found her grandson dead and took her own life.

• Fang Shuwen captured one Black Sha Cult member, then killed him after he threatened the boy.
• Fang Shuwen mocked the remaining cult member for failing to kill the hostage, leaving him unsure who was the true demonic heretic.
• The remaining man struck the boy toward Fang Shuwen and escaped with a grappling hook, but the boy’s body crashed into him in midair and killed the child.
• Fang Shuwen caught the injured cult member, broke his arm and pipa bones, and crippled him before handing him to Zhou Qingmei.
• Old Madam Sun saw her husband, son, and grandson dead, then charged into a stone wall and died.

The disfigured woman recounted how the Sun Family had ruined her life, then refused Fang Shuwen and Zhou Qingmei’s offer to take her home. The two left her to her choice and turned to question their captive Black Sha Cult member.

• The disfigured woman told Fang Shuwen and Zhou Qingmei how the man surnamed Sun had crippled, abused, and disfigured her after she sought help escaping.
• Fang Shuwen offered to take the woman home, but she firmly refused and returned to her room.
• Zhou Qingmei questioned why Fang Shuwen had not persuaded the woman again, and he explained that taking her home might only deepen her suffering.
• Zhou Qingmei accepted that the woman had made her choice, then stabbed the captive Black Sha Cult member and demanded to know whether the cult was in Guangning City and what it was plotting.

After Fang Shuwen failed to make a captured Black Sha Cult member talk, he and Zhou Qingmei worried that the cult’s plans could cause disaster. That night, Fang Shuwen began experimenting with a thread of True Qi that might let him inflict pain without injury, hoping to use it on a future captive.

• Fang Shuwen tortured the Black Sha Cult member, but the man refused to reveal anything, so Fang Shuwen killed him and buried him with the other body.
• Zhou Qingmei worried that the Black Sha Cult’s planned undertaking could lead to disaster, and she told Fang Shuwen about the lost [Pain-Person Sutra].
• After Zhou Qingmei fell asleep, Fang Shuwen reasoned that he might imitate the sutra by stimulating acupoints with internal force.
• Fang Shuwen practiced condensing his True Qi into a thread, eventually sending it into a wall without damaging it.
• Fang Shuwen decided to test the technique on a future Black Sha Cult captive.

Fang Shuwen and Zhou Qingmei reached Guangning City in disguise and planned to investigate the Fang family and the Black Sha Cult. While waiting for Zhou Qingmei to bathe, Fang Shuwen heard about a series of assaults and approached locals to learn more about the Fang family.

• Fang Shuwen and Zhou Qingmei arrived in Guangning City disguised as farmers after avoiding the Black Sha Cult's surveillance.
• Fang Shuwen and Zhou Qingmei planned to visit the Fang family that night to learn whether its young miss fit the Black Sha Cult's requirements.
• Fang Shuwen and Zhou Qingmei agreed to wait for Zhou Qingmei's fellow disciple before investigating the Great Xuan Bank, but to investigate it themselves if the disciple was delayed.
• Fang Shuwen went to the inn's main hall while Zhou Qingmei prepared to bathe, and overheard diners discuss six assaults on young women and the Fang family's rescued daughter.
• Fang Shuwen brought wine to the diners and asked them about the Fang family.