Chapter Summaries

Zhou Yi watched Chan Master Miaojue attempt to subdue Huang Yuniang at the Duke's residence and secretly rescued her when the ritual exposed her. After Huang Yuniang thanked him for helping her avenge her wrong, Zhou Yi prepared to leave the capital and find her a suitable place.

• Zhou Yi observed Wei Kang wasting away as Huang Yuniang fed on his vital essence.
• Chan Master Miaojue arrived at the Duke's residence, demanded over two hundred thousand taels for a ritual, and began setting up an altar.
• Miaojue revealed Huang Yuniang with a bronze mirror and pinned her in place while his warrior monks attacked.
• Zhou Yi cut Miaojue's wrist with a strand of True Essence, freeing Huang Yuniang and causing Miaojue to collapse.
• Miaojue's monks left with the silver, and Huang Yuniang thanked Zhou Yi for saving her after she had avenged her wrong.
• Zhou Yi said he was leaving the capital and would help Huang Yuniang find a suitable place.

Zhou Yi forced Miaojue to surrender a Daoist scripture and reveal secluded places near Shenjing, then chose Longevity Mountain as a possible home for Huang Yuniang. He left to investigate the imperial mausoleums while studying the scripture and considering its cultivation method.

• Zhou Yi confronted Miaojue in the sedan chair, took his bronze mirror, and ordered him to retrieve and recite the Daoist scripture hidden at King Kong Temple.
• Miaojue explained the mirror's history and recited the Origin Returning Art, which Zhou Yi compared with the retrieved text before keeping it.
• Miaojue told Zhou Yi about several gloomy locations, including Longevity Mountain, and Zhou Yi warned him to keep silent before vanishing.
• Zhou Yi decided the imperial mausoleums at Longevity Mountain could contain Huang Yuniang safely away from the living.
• Zhou Yi traveled toward Longevity Mountain while reading the Origin Returning Art and weighing its cultivation method against his existing knowledge.

Zhou Yi sent Huang Yuniang’s jade hairpin into Emperor Chongming’s tomb, then continued cultivating in the Heavenly Prison. Lao Bai asked him to serve as best man at his marriage to Princess Rongchang, and Zhou Yi attended the lavish wedding.

• Zhou Yi placed Huang Yuniang inside Emperor Chongming’s mausoleum and sealed the entrance.
• After transforming his Innate True Essence into Mana, Zhou Yi caught Lao Bai sneaking into his room.
• Lao Bai revealed that he was marrying Princess Rongchang after Prince Dongyang’s household tracked him down, and he invited Zhou Yi to be his best man.
• Zhou Yi requested leave, and Zhu Xiaowei secured an invitation to the wedding.
• At the Bai Estate banquet, Zhou Yi accompanied Lao Bai as he toasted guests from princely and marquis households.

At Lao Bai’s wedding, Zhou Yi stopped two skilled women from attacking him and learned they were tied to powerful martial sects. He then overheard noble youths plotting to buy military posts in the Capital Garrison, before giving Lao Bai a blood-bound jade pendant and leaving amid signs of coming unrest.

• Zhou Yi sensed a hidden killing intent at the wedding and identified two young women in the small banquet hall as its source.
• Old Daoist recognized Zhou Yi as the Blood Prison Old Demon, then showed him respect after witnessing his precise control over wine.
• The Boundless Sword Sect’s senior sister and the Heavenly Demon Sect’s holy maiden attacked Lao Bai, but Zhou Yi disarmed them and they escaped the Prince’s Manor guards.
• Lao Bai told Zhou Yi who the two women were, and Zhou Yi regretted intervening in Lao Bai’s trouble with them.
• The son of Marquis Weiyuan and other noble youths discussed buying military posts, while Zhou Yi reflected on the court’s use of nobles and the brewing unrest.
• Zhou Yi gave Lao Bai a jade pendant bound to his blood and left the wedding.

Li Wu entered the Heavenly Prison by choice, and Zhou Yi learned that he had imprisoned himself to prevent another war and repay Emperor Chongming’s kindness. As Shenjing’s officials and people reacted to his fall, Li Wu calmly drank poisoned wine, leaving Zhou Yi to ask about his last wishes.

• Zhou Yi brought Li Wu food and wine in Cell Block Nine and asked why he had surrendered himself to prison.
• Li Wu said he accepted responsibility for his clan and refused rebellion because it would plunge the kingdom into war; he also wished to honor Emperor Chongming’s kindness.
• Officials praised Li Wu publicly while privately scorned him, and the court quashed public outrage with rumors and arrests.
• Zhou Yi told Li Wu that people were already mourning him and asked whether he regretted his choice, but Li Wu said he had chosen it to spare lives.
• Zhou Yi discovered that Li Wu’s wine contained heavy poison, but Li Wu continued eating and drinking as Zhou Yi offered to help with his last wishes.

After Li Wu died, Zhou Yi promised to protect the Li family, but the family endured repeated attacks in Shenjing. When assassins nearly wiped out the Duke Who Pacifies the Nation’s Residence, Zhou Yi intervened, leaving Li Ye to seek an audience with the regent.

• Li Wu died in the Heavenly Prison, and Emperor Hongchang personally presided over his funeral despite objections from the court.
• On New Year’s Eve, black-clad assassins invaded the Duke Who Pacifies the Nation’s Residence while Prince Anhua’s Residence remained silent.
• Li Ye refused to flee, and the attackers’ recruited martial expert, Wu Yanwang, was killed by a Sword Qi strike from Zhou Yi.
• Zhou Yi secretly helped the Li family defeat the remaining invaders, then said he had repaid his debt to Li Wu and vanished.
• Li Ye told Commander Li that Zhou Yi had protected them through repeated raids and decided to request an audience with the Crown Prince Regent.

Zhou Yi reflected on his new strength and resolved to stay cautious, then used his prison-torture methods to question a corrupt official about more than ten million taels of missing silver. The prisoner revealed that the silver was with the powerful Lu Family of Jiangnan, leaving Zhou Yi to confront the danger behind the revelation.

• Zhou Yi returned to his usual appearance, considered the limits of his Innate Realm strength, and resolved to cultivate cautiously.
• On New Year's Eve, Zhou Yi went to the Heavenly Prison and thought about how the Li family's reputation and his own relatives had faded with time.
• Zhu Xiaowei asked Zhou Yi to question a corrupt official who had hidden more than ten million taels of silver.
• Zhou Yi tortured the prisoner with Mana until he revealed that the silver was with the Lu Family of Jiangnan.
• The prisoner asked whether Zhou Yi was afraid of the Lu Family and said fear had driven him to become corrupt.

Zhou Yi learned how the Lu Family’s control over local officials had turned a once-idealistic magistrate into a corrupt official, then reported the story to Zhu Xiaowei, whose suspicious concern over the stolen relief funds foreshadowed a major court scandal. The Crown Prince’s attempted rebellion was exposed, and Zhu Xiaowei was revealed as a recent member of Zhao Chi’s faction.

• A condemned official told Zhou Yi how the Lu Family diverted flood-relief silver and grain, ruined his efforts to help the people, and later made him its corrupt agent before framing him as a scapegoat.
• Zhou Yi reported the interrogation to Zhu Xiaowei, who denied his unusual interest in the money and hurried away, leaving Zhou Yi worried he might be entangled in a dangerous plot.
• In the first month of the eighteenth year of Hongchang, the Brocade Guard caught an imperial chef trying to poison the Emperor and found a dragon robe and the Imperial Jade Seal in the Eastern Palace.
• Crown Prince Regent Zhao Chi admitted to colluding with the Duke Who Pacifies the Nation’s estate in a rebellion after evidence showed he had been acting as Emperor.
• Hongchang ordered the Duke Who Pacifies the Nation’s estate surrounded and Crown Prince faction members hunted, placing Zhu Xiaowei among the newly implicated pawns.

Zhou Yi visited Zhu Xiaowei and the imprisoned Li family, promising to help protect their families and preserve the Li bloodline. After learning the Blood Refinement of Spirit Weapons and teaching the Origin Returning Art to Li Wu’s sons, he discovered that Li Hong had an unusually strong aptitude for cultivation.

• Zhou Yi reassured Zhu Xiaowei that prison colleagues would help care for his family after his conviction and exile.
• Zhou Yi revealed to Li Ye that he had come to honor his promise to Li Wu by saving a Li family descendant.
• Li Ye admitted he had contacted the Crown Prince, said Emperor Hongchang had staged the rebellion, and offered the Blood Refinement of Spirit Weapons in exchange for Zhou Yi guiding his third brother.
• Li Ye taught Zhou Yi the secret art, which could refine a spiritual object into a weapon controlled like part of the body.
• Zhou Yi taught the Origin Returning Art to Li Ye and his three younger brothers and tested their cultivation aptitude.
• Li Hong alone sensed and drew in spiritual qi, revealing a strong cultivation aptitude that gave the Li family a potential successor.

Zhou Yi prepared to rescue Li Hong after the Li family was sentenced to exile, then followed their prison convoy toward Serpent Coil Mountain. As the escort entered the mountains, Zhou Yi watched from a nearby peak and hesitated to spill blood amid the grand scenery.

• Li Ye asked Zhou Yi to rescue Li Hong during the family's journey into exile, and Zhou Yi agreed to wait for the court's verdict.
• The court sentenced the Li family to extermination, but Emperor Hongchang changed their punishment to exile to preserve Li Wu's descendants.
• Zhou Yi left Shenjing, checked on Huang Yuniang at Emperor Chongming's mausoleum, and continued north while keeping the Imperial Guards' convoy in sight.
• Zhou Yi reached Serpent Coil Mountain ahead of the convoy and climbed an unnamed peak to watch the prison carts enter the mountains.
• Looking down at the winding convoy, Zhou Yi remarked that killing amid the mountain scenery would be unbecoming.

Zhou Yi rescued Li Hong from the massacre of the Li Lineage and took him to Barren City, where he used silver to seek out a man surnamed Wei and arrange easier work for him. The chapter ended with Steward Sun quoting a price to locate and register living prisoners.

• Zhou Yi disguised himself as a bandit while Imperial Guard Commander Yang Shou’s forces were ambushed and routed by a bandit force backed by the Jiangnan Aristocratic Families.
• Zhou Yi rescued Li Hong during the battle, leaving a disfigured bandit’s body in his place as the Li Lineage was slaughtered.
• Li Hong watched his relatives die and recognized several cousins whose faces his eldest brother had ordered destroyed to conceal his identity.
• Zhou Yi and Li Hong arrived in Barren City, where a gate official directed them to Liu San and Steward Sun to search for a man surnamed Wei.
• Zhou Yi learned that Steward Sun charged one thousand taels for each living person and another two hundred taels to register them in the household records.

Zhou Yi used his connections and money in Barren City to free the seven surviving descendants of Wei Chang from convict status and arrange them a home and work. The Wei family chose to remain on the northern frontier, while Zhou Yi left them in the care of local officials before heading back toward Shenjing.

• Zhou Yi learned from Steward Sun that Barren City officials secretly sold convicts new identities and household registrations for twelve hundred taels.
• Zhou Yi impressed the Revenue Office clerks and other officials with stories about Shenjing and Spring Breeze Pavilion.
• Bailiffs brought seven surviving members of the Wei family to the Revenue Office, and Wei Jun introduced himself as Wei Chang’s third son.
• Zhou Yi offered to help the Wei family return home or stay on the northern frontier, and Wei Jun said they would remain in Barren City.
• Zhou Yi paid Steward Sun to arrange a house and jobs guarding granaries for the Wei family, and local officials promised to look after them.

Zhou Yi helped the Wei family settle in Barren City and urged Wei Jun to preserve the Nameless Incantation for the family’s future revenge. As Li Hong chose to rebuild the city, defeated soldiers arrived with news that Great Yong had invaded and the northern frontier’s defenses were collapsing.

• The Barren City yamen registered the Wei family under new names, and Zhou Yi attended a feast with county magistrate Zhao Tai.
• The Wei family settled in an abandoned estate, where Wei Jun told Zhou Yi about his father’s cultivation arts and his adopted son who had learned the Nameless Incantation.
• Zhou Yi urged Wei Jun to protect the incantation and gave him money to redeem his adopted son from the mines.
• Li Hong refused to leave Barren City, saying he would restore its prosperity, and revealed that he had refined his first strand of Mana.
• Liang Ying arrived with hundreds of fleeing soldiers and warned that Great Yong had taken much of Yi Province and was advancing toward Barren City.

Zhou Yi left Barren City after warning Li Hong to put his survival first and consider buying a military rank. On the road south, he found Chen Family Village massacred by routed soldiers and killed the raiders, then questioned their commander.

• Zhou Yi told Li Hong that the northern frontier's collapse could help him rise in rank, advised him to buy the title of Guerrilla General, and departed for Shenjing.
• Three days later, Zhou Yi reached Chen Family Village and smelled blood near the village entrance.
• When soldiers ordered Zhou Yi to leave and the commander ordered archers to shoot him, Zhou Yi killed more than two hundred men.
• Zhou Yi summoned the village's ghosts with the House-Protecting Talisman, but the military formation's Killing Intent protected the commander from them.
• Zhou Yi used Lion's Roar to calm Chen Family Village's aggrieved soul and kept the commander alive for questioning.
• The commander admitted that his routed troops had gone without food for seven or eight days and had plundered villagers because the court provided no orders, pay, or provisions.

After Emperor Hongchang died, Chancellor Zhang Zhengyang betrayed his regency edict and joined Prince Qin Zhao Yuan in a coup to seize the throne. Their troops stormed Shangyang Palace, where Zhang revealed that his elderly appearance had been a disguise.

• Zhang Zhengyang told Zhao Yuan that Emperor Hongchang had died and that the late Emperor had appointed four regents to assist the Sixth Prince.
• Zhang Zhengyang urged Zhao Yuan to take the throne, and Zhao Yuan agreed, promising to keep Zhang as Chief Minister.
• Zhao Yuan gathered more than a thousand men and entered the imperial palace through its eastern gate with Commander Lin’s help.
• At Shangyang Palace, Imperial Concubine Sun, Eunuch Wang, Duke Cheng, and Zhang Zhengyang waited for the morning court to announce the edict.
• Prince Qin and Chancellor Zhang’s troops forced their way into the palace and killed those they encountered.
• Zhang Zhengyang removed the false aged skin from his face, revealing his true appearance.

Zhao Yuan seized the throne after killing Consort Sun and Zhao Yi, while Zhou Yi helped the ghosts of Chen Family Village bury their dead. He found the orphaned Chen Ya'er alive and decided to take her to Shenjing to find her a good family.

• Feng Zhong revealed himself as a palace eunuch, and Zhao Yuan entered the palace with soldiers and Chancellor Zhang to claim the throne.
• Zhang Zhengyang urged Zhao Yuan to eliminate Consort Sun and Zhao Yi, and Zhao Yuan ordered them and the attendants at Shangyang Palace killed.
• Feng Zhong read an edict naming Zhao Yuan as successor, and the officials acknowledged him as emperor.
• Zhou Yi collected the villagers' corpses and buried them in a spiritually blessed place, after which many of their souls dispersed.
• Zhou Yi found two-year-old Chen Ya'er alive beneath her parents' corpses and promised Old Man Chen to take her to Shenjing and find her a good family.

Zhou Yi honored the slain Chen clan and granted Old Man Chen’s request to end his soul before riding to Shenjing with Chen Ya’er. At the city gates, he entered amid strict Imperial Guard searches and rumors challenging the new emperor’s accession, as unrest gathered beneath the surface.

• Zhou Yi buried the 327 souls of Chen Family Village and carved their names’ memorial into a stone stele.
• Old Man Chen asked Zhou Yi to destroy his soul before the yin aura corrupted him, and Zhou Yi granted his request.
• Zhou Yi rode toward Shenjing with Chen Ya’er after hearing that Emperor Hongchang had died and a new ruler had ascended.
• Imperial Guards searched travelers and goods at Shenjing’s western gate, arresting people and confiscating prohibited items.
• The commander recognized Zhou Yi as the Blood Prison Old Demon, let him enter with Chen Ya’er, and sent word to his superior.
• Rumors spread that the Second Prince’s accession was illegitimate and that he had killed Imperial Concubine Sun and the Sixth Prince.

After returning to Shenjing, Zhou Yi rejected offers to serve powerful households and arranged for Lao Bai to care for Chen Ya'er. As recruiters and intruders continued to pursue him, Zhou Yi made clear that he wanted to remain in the Heavenly Prison, and the pressure finally eased.

• Zhou Yi found that visitors had recently searched his courtyard, then hired wet nurses to care for Chen Ya'er.
• Lao Bai offered Zhou Yi a position as an Attendant at Prince Dongyang's manor, but Zhou Yi declined and asked Lao Bai to take Chen Ya'er to Jiangnan with his family.
• Zhou Yi returned to the Heavenly Prison, declined Captain Lu's suggestion that he seek advancement, and accepted tea from him as a colleague.
• Zhou Yi turned down repeated recruitment offers and beat back experts who broke into his home, revealing his formidable body-tempering skill.
• Zhou Yi announced that he wanted neither glory nor power and would rather grow old in the Heavenly Prison, after which the recruiters left him in peace.

Emperor Yongxing consolidated his hold on the court and the Capital Garrison while planning to lure his rivals into the open. Meanwhile, Zhang Zhengyang met with the deposed Crown Prince Zhao Xian and warned him about the mistakes that had weakened his claim.

• Zhang Zhengyang begged for an audience with Emperor Yongxing at Shangyang Palace, but left after receiving no answer.
• Emperor Yongxing learned that Zhang Zhengyang had departed and discussed rumors accusing him of murdering his sixth brother with Li Defu and Xie Wei.
• Liang Dong assured Emperor Yongxing that he had taken control of the Capital Garrison and dispersed the Sun Family's officers and soldiers.
• A white-robed monk delivered the captured assassin Touching the Sky, whom Emperor Yongxing ordered sent to the Imperial Prison and whose family he condemned to military exile.
• Emperor Yongxing announced that he would feign being a fatuous ruler to draw his opponents out, while Zhang Zhengyang advised Zhao Xian to remain calm and criticized his alliance with the Li family.

Zhang Zhengyang explained how he planned to make Zhao Yuan destroy the rival princes so Zhao Xian could claim the throne, then Prince Chu’s failed assassination attempt left the court in turmoil. In Heavenly Prison, Zhou Yi warned Captain Lu that the purge was only beginning.

• Zhang Zhengyang told Zhao Xian to wait until Zhao Yuan eliminated the princes of Chu, Han, and Jing, then overthrow him as the late emperor’s only surviving descendant.
• Zhang Zhengyang revealed that he had planted martial experts in the palace and the princes’ residences, and that an expert from Prince Chu’s Residence would soon attempt to assassinate Zhao Yuan.
• Zhang Zhengyang explained that he had obtained the Heaven Devouring Demon Art and promised to give its complete version to Zhao Xian so the Royal Family could raise Innate Grandmasters.
• In early July, an Attendant of Prince Chu’s Residence wounded Emperor Yongxing in an assassination attempt, and the Brocade Guard found dragon robes and an imperial seal at the residence.
• Emperor Yongxing ordered Prince Chu’s line exterminated, but the Court of the Imperial Clan secured a reduced punishment of exile and loss of title; authorities arrested the prince’s associates and relatives.
• In Heavenly Prison, Captain Lu thanked Zhou Yi for refusing to join Prince Chu’s household, and Zhou Yi warned him that worse events were coming.