Chapter Summaries

Ma Liangcai arrived at the Red Flower Camp with the Monarch’s decree appointing him military adviser and ordering him to take charge, but the soldiers resisted and Shuang Jing, Sun Gan, and Liu Er each claimed a close relationship with Mu Lan. As the standoff reached a deadlock, Mu Lan emerged from her tent, revealing that she had not been unconscious.

• The Monarch’s decree appointed Ma Liangcai military adviser of the Red Flower Camp and ordered him to assume its affairs while Mu Lan recovered.
• The Red Flower Camp soldiers gathered around Mu Lan’s tent and refused to obey Ma Liangcai, despite the imperial decree.
• Ma Liangcai urged the soldiers to accept his leadership, warning that defiance could endanger High General Manor and the army’s future.
• Shuang Jing and Sun Gan claimed Mu Lan had entrusted them with command, and Ning Zhuo prompted Liu Er to claim he was nearly engaged to her.
• Sun Gan and Shuang Jing also claimed intimate ties with Mu Lan, leaving the camp divided over who should command while Ning Zhuo suspected the Monarch sought to take control of the army.
• Mu Lan emerged from her tent and invited everyone inside to talk, surprising the gathered officers and soldiers.

Mu Lan challenged Ma Liangcai and the other generals to settle Red Flower Camp’s future through the General Testing Map, an old test tied to her father’s agreement with the Monarch. Inside the map, Ning Zhuo joined Liu Er’s forces and helped train their soldiers as they prepared to face Ma Liangcai.

• Mu Lan refused Ma Liangcai’s attempt to turn her against Liu Er, Sun Gan, and Shuang Jing, but the Royal Capital envoy persuaded Shuang Jing to withdraw his support and left Mu Lan cornered.
• Mu Lan demanded that Ma Liangcai produce the General Testing Map and explained how her father had used it to prove his right to command Red Flower Camp.
• Mu Lan proposed that all the generals enter the map and fight to decide Red Flower Camp’s future, and Liu Er, Sun Gan, and Shuang Jing agreed to participate.
• Ning Zhuo entered the map with Liu Er, Guan Hong, and Zhang Hei, then recommended scouting, coordination with Mu Lan, and training troops in additional battle formations.
• Ning Zhuo led the soldiers through the Little Thief Light Wind Array, described it as the Light Body Swift Wind Array, and demonstrated his Brave Warrior Return Technique, whose effect puzzled the generals.

Ning Zhuo led the Three Generals Camp through a brutal battle against Ma Liangcai and ultimately won the General Testing Map with Sun Lingtong’s help. Mu Lan then named Ning Zhuo as her husband, and he reluctantly accepted the arrangement as a temporary, nominal marriage.

• Ning Zhuo took command of the Three Generals Camp’s formation and helped it evade Ma Liangcai’s attacks until Mu Lan’s Red Flower Camp joined the battle.
• Ma Liangcai defeated Mu Lan, while Sun Gan and Shuang Jing attacked his camp; Ning Zhuo absorbed the Red Flower Camp’s scattered soldiers as the battle shifted.
• Ma Liangcai revealed his Divine Power, defeated Sun Gan, Shuang Jing, and the Three Generals Camp’s generals, but Ning Zhuo struck him down after Sun Lingtong used the Brave Warrior Return Technique.
• Ning Zhuo emerged as the sole victor, but Mu Lan, Ma Liangcai, Sun Gan, and Shuang Jing objected when he tried to assign the victory to Liu Er.
• Liu Er urged Ning Zhuo to accept Mu Lan’s proposal, and Ning Zhuo agreed to a nominal marriage with the understanding that they would divorce later.

After winning the marriage agreement through the final battle, Ning Zhuo hosted a lavish banquet to reconcile the rival camps before the coming war. Mu Lan invited him back to learn the Profound Gold Armor Piercing Art, but he refused and left with Liu Guan Zhang.

• Ning Zhuo secured the marriage agreement with Mu Lan, while Liu Er struggled with jealousy and reminded Guan Hong and Zhang Hei that Ning Zhuo's success benefited the Three Generals Camp.
• Ning Zhuo invited the commanders to a costly banquet, where he urged them to set aside old grudges and unite against Thousand Peaks Forest.
• Mu Lan recognized Ning Zhuo's diplomatic skill as he eased relations between the Red Flower Camp, White Jade Camp, and Golden Halberd Army.
• Shuang Jing recited a poem comparing the banquet's bird dish to personal transformation, then left and drained the banquet's cheerful mood.
• Mu Lan offered to teach Ning Zhuo the Profound Gold Armor Piercing Art, but he declined and departed with Liu Guan Zhang.

Ning Zhuo used his status as Mu Lan’s husband to absorb national power from the National Power Bricks far more efficiently, rapidly advancing his cultivation. He reached the first stage of Foundation Establishment and began growing treasure medicine, leaving him in need of more bricks and careful cultivation across all three dantians.

• Ning Zhuo absorbed three National Power Bricks, filling his Three Dantians to their limits and gaining the equivalent of years of cultivation.
• Ning Zhuo purified his cultivation with the Three Sects Forefathers' Techniques and reached the Foundation Establishment stage of Opening the Field Unhindered.
• Ning Zhuo used the remaining National Power Brick to fuse the cultivation of Essence, Qi, and Spirit, producing the first shoots of treasure medicine.
• Ning Zhuo learned that his cultivation could grow more treasure medicine by drawing on all three dantians, but that this greatly depleted their reserves.
• Ning Zhuo resolved to obtain more National Power Bricks and determined to restore all three dantians before cultivating each one.

After breaking through to Foundation Establishment's sixth level, Ning Zhuo planned to pursue National Power Bricks, his mother's relics, and the Ten Thousand Miles Swimming Dragon while relying on Mechanism Art to make up for his weak cultivation. Liu Er secretly followed him and learned from his master that Mu Lan had been intended to become his wife, but the old man collapsed after ordering Liu Er to lend Ning Zhuo the Yin Yang One Qi Pot and prevent him from dual cultivating with Mu Lan.

• Ning Zhuo reflected on his breakthrough, his cultivation methods, and his desire to gain more National Power Bricks and recover his mother's relics through the Old Monster Stone identity.
• Ning Zhuo left the Three Generals Camp to repair the Ten Thousand Miles Swimming Dragon, while Liu Er secretly followed him into the mountain forest.
• The elderly Demon Cultivator contacted Liu Er and learned how Ning Zhuo had become Mu Lan's husband instead of Liu Er.
• Liu Er admitted that he suspected Mu Lan was the treasure his master had intended him to pursue, and the elderly Demon Cultivator confirmed his suspicion.
• The elderly Demon Cultivator told Liu Er to lend Ning Zhuo the Yin Yang One Qi Pot and ensure Ning Zhuo and Mu Lan did not dual cultivate, then collapsed into colored smoke.

The elderly Demon Cultivator discovered that Ning Zhuo was stealing Little Six’s fortune and tried to kill him with a curse. As Ning Zhuo chose an expensive repair for the Ten Thousand Miles Swimming Dragon, his fortune surged and caused the curse to fail.

• Liu Er believed his vanished Master had sacrificed himself, while the elderly Demon Cultivator re-formed and suspected his guidance of Little Six had provoked a powerful backlash.
• The elderly Demon Cultivator examined Three Generals Camp’s fortune and saw a shadowy left arm stealing fortune from Little Six’s heart, Guan Hong’s lung, and Zhang Hei’s kidney.
• The elderly Demon Cultivator concluded that Ning Zhuo was the thief behind Little Six’s failure and resolved to curse him to death.
• Ning Zhuo and Sun Lingtong assessed the damage to the Ten Thousand Miles Swimming Dragon, and Ning Zhuo chose the more expensive repair plan after his Mechanism Ring warned him of danger.
• The elderly Demon Cultivator began a curse against Ning Zhuo, but Ning Zhuo’s fortune surged, causing the curse to fail and making the old man spit blood.

Ning Zhuo’s rising fortune twice turned the elderly Demon Cultivator’s curses back on him, prompting the old man to prepare the third curse with greater care. As the Mechanism Ring warned of danger, Ning Zhuo bought Mechanism Puppets in bulk to strengthen himself and helped Mu Lan secure her military supplies for free.

• The elderly Demon Cultivator’s first two minor curses backfired when Ning Zhuo’s fortune surged, injuring the old man and making him suspect Ning Zhuo was countering him.
• Ning Zhuo and Sun Lingtong finished repairing the Ten Thousand Miles Swimming Dragon, and Ning Zhuo chose the faster reinforcement plan when the Mechanism Ring warned him.
• The elderly Demon Cultivator delayed his third curse to gather rare materials and build a more powerful arrangement, while Ning Zhuo trusted the ring’s warning and decided to turn his wealth into strength.
• Ning Zhuo and Sun Lingtong returned to Green Forest Immortal City, where Ning Zhuo bought every available unit of three Mechanism Puppet models and the Mechanism Ring stopped shrinking.
• Ning Zhuo encountered Mu Lan bargaining for Red Flower Camp’s supplies and persuaded the shop manager to give her purchases to her for free.

Ning Zhuo tested ways to command his Mechanism Puppet army and use its losses to empower himself before seeking military slots at Red Flower Camp. There, he began treating Mu Lan’s injuries, and the chapter ended with the two alone in an intimate, awkward moment.

• The elderly Demon Cultivator concealed his Treasure Materials beneath an exploding fox pelt after noticing Ning Zhuo’s fortune rise sharply.
• Ning Zhuo planted Heart Seals in more than four hundred Mechanism Puppets, tested his control methods, and found that Life Hanging by a Thread could command them briefly by consuming mixed spirituality.
• Ning Zhuo tested the Brave Warrior Return Technique and concluded that destroying combat-ready puppets could empower him, though the method risked being countered and could strain his body.
• Ning Zhuo sought military slots for his puppet army at Three Generals Camp, but Liu Er refused, so Ning Zhuo went to Red Flower Camp, where Mu Lan agreed to provide slots.
• Zhang Chongyi urged Ning Zhuo to treat Mu Lan and gave him the Profound Gold Armor Piercing Art; during treatment, Zhang’s needle slipped, and Ning Zhuo stabilized Mu Lan’s injuries.
• Zhang Chongyi left Ning Zhuo and Mu Lan alone, and Ning Zhuo began breaking through Mu Lan’s final blockage as she blushed and moaned.

Liu Er overheard Mu Lan trying to persuade Ning Zhuo to dual cultivate and interrupted them by giving Ning Zhuo the Yin Yang One Qi Pot, which Ning Zhuo hoped to use to dual cultivate with himself. The elderly Demon Cultivator learned what Liu Er had done, forgave him, and invested more treasure in his effort to make Liu Er the victor over Ning Zhuo.

• Liu Er used his Spirit Sound Pulse Detection to overhear Ning Zhuo treating Mu Lan and became alarmed when she urged Ning Zhuo to dual cultivate and stay the night.
• Mu Lan offered Ning Zhuo Tang Jifeng's Hundred-Armed Arhat Armor and secret records to persuade him, but Liu Er barged into the camp and pulled Ning Zhuo away.
• Liu Er showed Ning Zhuo the Yin Yang One Qi Pot and gave it to him, and Ning Zhuo realized it might help treat Mu Lan's injuries and let him dual cultivate with himself.
• The elderly Demon Cultivator saw Ning Zhuo's fate energy surge after the pot reached him, then questioned Liu Er and learned why he had given it away.
• The elderly Demon Cultivator decided that Liu Er had acted correctly, increased his investment in treasure, and vowed to ensure Liu Er won against Ning Zhuo.

Ning Jiu Fan and Lin Bufan joined Meng Kui’s battle against the Ten Thousand Year Fire Essence, while Meng Kui secretly attacked Ning Jiu Fan’s fortune and the elderly Demon Cultivator cursed Ning Zhuo. Shen Lingshu restored Ning Jiu Fan’s fortune, linking its surge to Ning Zhuo; the elderly Demon Cultivator died, and Ning Zhuo crushed and absorbed the monkey-faced heart.

• Meng Kui trapped the Ten Thousand Year Fire Essence in a grand array, but it escaped his Sleeve Universe and endangered Zhou Nong Ying.
• Ning Jiu Fan and Lin Bufan entered the array; Ning Jiu Fan froze Zhou Nong Ying with the Ice Heart Jade Kettle, and Yuan Lao caught the Fire Essence while Lin Bufan and the Zhou Family Ancestors helped restrain it.
• Meng Kui used the Frost Locking Life Art to weaken Ning Jiu Fan’s fortune as the elderly Demon Cultivator repeatedly struck Ning Zhuo’s fortune with the Third Line Qi Breaking Minor Curse.
• Ning Zhuo’s Buddha Heart Demon Seal restored his fortune after the elderly Demon Cultivator’s final curse scattered it, and Shen Lingshu returned fortune to Ning Jiu Fan, causing both men’s fortunes to surge.
• Ning Zhuo’s surge killed the elderly Demon Cultivator; his left arm then crushed and absorbed the monkey-faced earthy-yellow heart.

Ning Jiu Fan captured the Ten Thousand Year Fire Essence after it killed a Zhou Family Golden Core cultivator, weakening the Zhou Family and shifting the balance of power in Fire Persimmon Immortal City. Meanwhile, Ning Zhuo designed and assembled a mechanical body for Meng Yehu, who awakened and called him “Father God.”

• Meng Kui secretly tried to use the Ten Thousand Year Fire Essence to harm Ning Jiu Fan, but Ning Jiu Fan hesitated, the Zhou Family Golden Core Ancestor was killed, and Ning Jiu Fan sealed the weakened essence.
• Zhou Nong Ying considered the Zhou Family’s worsening position, while Shen Lingshu and Zhu Xuanji decided to strengthen their support for the Ning Family.
• Liu Er fell when his exhausted horse stepped into a hidden pit, then resumed training the Three Generals Camp while worrying about Ning Zhuo’s absence.
• Ning Zhuo designed a mechanical body for Meng Yehu, accidentally found a promising combination of plans, and bought the needed Treasure Materials in Green Forest Immortal City.
• Jin Li arranged for his artifact-refining assistants to process the materials, and Ning Zhuo assembled the components overnight into Meng Yehu’s mechanical body.
• Ning Zhuo placed Meng Yehu’s spirit sphere inside the new body, and Meng Yehu activated and bowed to him, calling him “Father God.”

Ning Zhuo inspected his new Golden Core-level puppet while events around his allies reshaped the balance of power in Fire Persimmon Immortal City. As Lin Bufan departed with the Ten Thousand Year Fire Essence and armor, Shen Lingshu maneuvered Zhu Xuanji into an imperial assignment to support the coming battle in Thousand Peaks Forest.

• Ning Zhuo examined Meng Yehu, the Nether Shadow Edge Night Tiger, gave him a Night Walking Tattoo Diagram to study, and began refining the Spirit Division Mirror.
• Ning Chen helped refine his armor with One-Armed Craftsman and discovered a Jade Essence hidden inside its Jade Nurturing Profound Steel.
• Ning Yong defeated his opponent at Small Contention Peak by guessing the true body behind the Three Treasures Avatar Technique three times, while Lin Shanshan and Hua Gu Zi went to spar.
• Lin Bufan bid Ning Jiu Fan farewell and left with the Ten Thousand Year Fire Essence and Jade Steel Heavy Armor for Ning Zhuo, as Fire Persimmon Immortal City recognized the Ning Family's rising power.
• Shen Lingshu stopped Zhu Xuanji from sending Ning Zhuo a letter, then revealed that she had recommended him for an imperial decree ordering him to support the forces in Thousand Peaks Forest.

Ning Zhuo installed Spirit Division Mirrors in more than four hundred mechanism puppets and practiced controlling them at the Red Flower Camp. With Sun Lingtong’s help, he formed the Light Body Swift Wind Array, leaving Mu Lan impressed by his talent and the army’s potential.

• Ning Zhuo and Sun Lingtong fitted more than four hundred mechanism puppets with Spirit Division Mirrors, allowing Ning Zhuo to control them through repeated divine-sense projection.
• After resting, Ning Zhuo visited the Red Flower Camp and asked Mu Lan to let him drill his mechanism puppets.
• Ning Zhuo used Heart Seals alongside divine sense to control the puppets more efficiently, then added magic-power threads to sharpen some of their movements.
• Sun Lingtong joined the drill and helped Ning Zhuo control the mechanism army as they practiced together.
• Ning Zhuo and Sun Lingtong formed the Light Body Swift Wind Array, and Mu Lan recognized the mechanism army as a promising new force.

Sun Ning and Sun Lingtong improved their mechanical army through repeated drills while Ning Zhuo prepared to repair its puppets and attended a military auction with Mu Lan. The auction ended with the Mechanical Princess Shuang Ling publicly exposing Mu Lan and Ning Zhuo as husband and wife, shocking the hall.

• Sun Ning and Sun Lingtong refined the mechanical army's battle array, while Ning Zhuo decided to stockpile materials and buy Mechanical Platforms to repair battle-damaged puppets.
• Ning Zhuo obtained an auction recommendation letter from Mu Lan, and they attended the City Lord's auction with Shuang Jing, Xu Dali, Sun Gan, and others.
• Ning Zhuo outbid Sun Gan and Shuang Jing for eighty Rhododendron Flower Demon Dao soldiers and gave them to Mu Lan to support the Red Flower Camp.
• Ning Zhuo fiercely bid against a masked female cultivator for the Skillful Hand Cabinet, and she revealed herself as the Mechanical Princess Shuang Ling.
• Shuang Ling rebuked Shuang Jing for his poor performance and declared that Mu Lan was Ning Zhuo's wife, causing an uproar among the auction guests.

Shuang Ling exposed Ning Zhuo and Mu Lan’s secret marriage, then used her influence to block Ning Zhuo from buying Mechanical Platforms as he prepared for war. After the rear army reached Wood Wheel Town, Ning Zhuo met Marshal Du Tiechuan, and a midnight alarm ended with news that Du had been ambushed and seriously injured by Young Master Flourishing Weakness.

• Shuang Ling revealed Ning Zhuo and Mu Lan’s political marriage before a crowd, then outbid Ning Zhuo for the Mechanical Creations he wanted at the auction.
• Mu Lan urged Ning Zhuo not to confront Shuang Ling, while privately hoping their marriage would become real and tie him to High General Manor.
• Shuang Ling bought up every Mechanical Platform in Green Forest Immortal City, and Ning Zhuo reasoned that her preparations pointed to an imminent return to the front lines.
• Three days later, the rear army marched to Wood Wheel Town, where Du Tiechuan summoned Three Generals Camp and treated Ning Zhuo with deference as Mu Lan’s husband.
• At midnight, alarm bells rang across Wood Wheel Town, and military orders revealed that Du Tiechuan had been ambushed and seriously injured by Young Master Flourishing Weakness.

After Du Tiechuan ordered four armies to attack Thousand Peaks Forest, Ning Zhuo led Three Generals Camp through abandoned Giant Wood Mountains and used his Mechanism Army to engage an enemy camp. When the Barbarian Race ambushed both forces, Ning Zhuo’s battle formation strengthened him as his puppets and the enemy suffered losses.

• Liu Er, Guan Hong, Zhang Hei, and Ning Zhuo received news of Flourishing Weakness Young Master’s attack on Du Tiechuan and the Vanguard Army’s encirclement by poisonous miasma.
• Ning Zhuo analyzed Du Tiechuan’s strategy, then joined Three Generals Camp as it marched toward Thousand Peaks Forest under orders to probe the enemy.
• Ning Zhuo warned Liu Er against taking spirit mushrooms left behind on an abandoned mountain, and Three Generals Camp continued across several empty Giant Wood Mountains.
• At the fourth mountain, Liu Er, Guan Hong, and Zhang Hei attacked the camp at its foot while Ning Zhuo led his Mechanism Army toward the camp halfway up the mountain.
• The Barbarian Race sprang a two-camp ambush, trapping Three Generals Camp below and engaging Ning Zhuo’s Mechanism Army on the mountainside.
• Ning Zhuo used Five Elements Spells and the Brave Warrior Return Technique to grow stronger as his puppets were destroyed and the Barbarian Race took losses, forcing their Golden Core cultivator to order a retreat.

Ning Zhuo’s mechanism army joined the Three Generals Camp to break the barbarian forces at the foot of the mountain, turning the fight into a rout. The surviving barbarians retreated up the mountain while Ning Zhuo, Guan Hong, and Zhang Hei pursued them.

• Ning Zhuo halted his mechanism army outside the barbarian camp after sensing a warning, then sent fifty puppets inside, where a blood-sacrifice Dao Array trapped them in purple-black smoke.
• Sun Lingtong suspected the smoke was tracking Ning Zhuo through military power, so Ning Zhuo burned it and the camp away with the Nine Heavens Fire Dragon Art.
• Ning Zhuo led his surviving mechanism puppets down the mountain and reached the Three Generals Camp, trapping the double-axe Golden Core cultivator’s forces between the two armies.
• Ning Zhuo’s spells and mechanism army broke the Wilderness Hunting Array, while the Three Generals Camp switched to the Iron Bucket Formation and Zhang Hei and Guan Hong charged into battle.
• Guan Hong killed one barbarian Golden Core cultivator and Zhang Hei killed another, prompting the remaining barbarians to retreat as Ning Zhuo, Guan Hong, and Zhang Hei pursued them.

Liu Er and the Three Generals Camp fought the Dice Bone Demon God after the barbarians summoned it, but its dice-powered dojo turned the battle against them. Ning Zhuo won six consecutive contests, defeated the demon god, and received its six-dice bracelet.

• Liu Er recognized that the barbarian cultivators had sacrificed themselves to summon the Dice Bone Demon God, which appeared and attacked Zhang Hei, Ning Zhuo, and their forces.
• The Dice Bone Demon God split into six bodies and ambushed the army, but Guan Hong froze three with Purple Beard Startling Goose and Zhang Hei smashed them apart.
• The demon god reunited its bodies and trapped the soldiers inside its dojo, where dice rolls altered the fighters' strength and Liu Er was severed at the waist.
• Ning Zhuo repeatedly rolled six and drove the demon god back, while Liu Er revealed that six consecutive losses would make it wager itself.
• Ning Zhuo won six contests in a row, causing the Dice Bone Demon God to collapse into a bracelet of six dice that slipped onto his wrist.

After the Dice Bone Demon God submitted to Ning Zhuo, an arrogant messenger tried to take the demon god away on Marshal Du's orders. Ning Zhuo drugged and killed the messenger, then learned of a convoy carrying Mechanical Creations that might replenish Three Generals Camp's losses.

• The Dice Bone Demon God explained that losing six rounds in a row forced its submission, and Ning Zhuo questioned it about the principles of its dao field and the influence of luck.
• An iron-feathered eagle messenger ordered Ning Zhuo to hand over the Dice Bone Demon God and return to report to Marshal Du, but Ning Zhuo delayed the demand by offering wine and a place to rest.
• Ning Zhuo served the Iron Eagle Hongmen Wine, which suppressed its mana, then had summoned Barbarian Race cultivators kill it and arranged for Three Generals Camp to blame the death on enemy troops.
• Liu Er agreed with Zhang Hei and Guan Hong to conceal the messenger's real fate, and Three Generals Camp began resting at Dice Bone Giant Wood Mountain while treating the wounded and drilling.
• Ning Zhuo repaired Mechanism Puppets with Sun Lingtong and learned from the Dice Bone Demon God that a Two Injections Country convoy carrying Mechanical Creations was nearing No Thief Valley.