Chapter Summaries

Zhang Tie seized the Profound Nether Sea-Calming Blade amid a bandit attack and escaped into the mountains after killing a bandit who tried to stop him. He reached Hundred Heroes Stronghold to obtain traveling funds, but after its guards refused him, he charged the gate.

• Zhang Tie watched bandits attack the carriages and saw Young Master He exposed when First Boss smashed a carriage window.
• The Ghost-Headed Dual Saber Wielder and two companions fled into the mountain forest, drawing First Boss and the other bosses after them.
• Zhang Tie took the Profound Nether Sea-Calming Blade from a carriage and killed a bandit who charged him, frightening the remaining bandits into staying back.
• Zhang Tie crossed a mountain peak, found Hundred Heroes Stronghold, and asked its guards to lend him traveling expenses.
• The guards threatened Zhang Tie and shot arrows at him, so he charged the stronghold gate and rammed it with his shoulder.

Zhang Tie broke into Hundred Heroes Stronghold’s treasury and took banknotes, gold, and silver after confirming the bandits who had robbed the He family came from there. Unable to carry the treasure himself, he invited four guards to follow him; three agreed, while the fourth left to protect his family, and the chapter ended as Wang Jiu quietly suggested that the remaining men flee.

• Zhang Tie smashed through the stronghold’s gate, forced four watchtower guards to lead him to the treasury, and saw that the stronghold was mostly populated by elderly people, women, and children.
• Zhang Tie repeatedly rammed the black iron treasury doors until they broke open, then ordered the guards to search inside.
• The guards carried out six chests, and Zhang Tie took several dozen banknotes before finding four chests of silver and one of gold that he could not easily carry.
• Zhang Tie asked the four guards to leave with him; Wang Jiu, Li San, and Sun Liu agreed, while the fourth man pleaded to leave for his family.
• Zhang Tie gave the fourth man five gold ingots and let him go, then ordered the other three to find horse carriages.
• Wang Jiu quietly asked Li San and Sun Liu whether they should use the chance to run away.

Zhang Tie and his followers traveled to Qingshi County, where he gathered information and prepared to continue to Jinyuan City in search of news and opportunity. Lacking identity documents, he secretly entered the county yamen and seized an elderly man after knocking out a courtesan.

• Ling San, Wang Jiu, and Sun Liu decided to follow Zhang Tie after Ling San praised his loyalty and generosity.
• Zhang Tie examined the title deeds, then led the group away from the stronghold with their valuables in two carriages and a donkey cart.
• Zhang Tie stopped at a roadside tea stall, learned that Qingshi County was nearby, and checked into Yuebin Tower with his men.
• Zhang Tie bought new clothes and ordered his men to arrange different carriages and supplies while he questioned a storyteller and studied the local money house.
• Zhang Tie learned Qingshi County belonged to Mojunzhou and chose to head for Jinyuan City, but realized he needed identity documents to enter a prosperous city.
• Zhang Tie slipped into the county yamen after dark, knocked out a courtesan, and grabbed an elderly man by the neck.

Zhang Tie secured forged identity documents for his group and led them from Qingshi County toward Jinyuan City, using the journey to deepen his understanding of the Ice God Art. After boarding a river fleet, he was interrupted by a visitor asking to speak with him.

• Zhang Tie threatened the corrupt county magistrate into providing four genuine identity documents in exchange for gold.
• Three days later, Zhang Tie and his companions left Qingshi County with new clothes and identities, planning to travel by water from Fushui City.
• During the journey, Zhang Tie contemplated the Ice God Art and came to see it as a scripture for cultivating his state of mind.
• Zhang Tie's group arrived in Fushui City, sold their carriages, and bought supplies for the voyage.
• The four boarded a fleet bound for Jinyuan City, and a man soon knocked on Zhang Tie's door to ask for a conversation.

Zhang Tie met Shen Taiping, a Daoist from Luoxia Temple, and continued cultivating the Ice God Art during a long stretch aboard the vessel. The chapter left him wary as suspicious Zhao officials boarded the merchant ship to inspect it.

• Shen Taiping visited Zhang Tie, admitted he knew of no true Immortality Cultivators, and gave him a peace talisman and a travel journal in exchange for merit money.
• After Shen Taiping left, Zhang Tie returned to cultivating the Ice God Art and noticed a slight improvement in his body's recovery.
• More than twenty days passed, during which Zhang Tie rarely left his room and grew confident he could break the Hundred Heroes Stronghold's treasury gates with one blow.
• The vessel's crew warned passengers to stay in their rooms as two official Zhao ships approached.
• Zhang Tie spotted unusually corpulent soldiers among the officials, prepared his blade, and watched them secure the merchant ship and swarm aboard.

Zhang Tie killed the disguised water bandits’ leader and drove the raiders from the merchant ship, then urged the crew to flee before reinforcements arrived. After collecting silver notes from the dead leader, he returned to his room, unaware that someone had watched him and slipped away.

• The long-faced man ordered everyone onto the deck, and Zhang Tie killed the armored young leader before warning the passengers that the soldiers were water bandits.
• Zhang Tie killed the long-faced man and leaped onto the pirate ship, smashing a hole in its deck to disrupt the bandits’ attack.
• Zhang Tie drove most of the water bandits into the river, cut down the mast, and forced the rest to jump overboard.
• Zhang Tie returned to the merchant ship, removed the chains linking the vessels, and told the steward to set sail before reinforcements arrived.
• Zhang Tie took silver notes from the young leader’s body and returned to his room while an unseen watcher vanished from a second-floor window.

Zhang Tie arrived in Jinyuan City and found that the residence listed on his deed was occupied by the Ma family. After its servant refused them entry, Zhang Tie went to the government office to file a complaint.

• In Wang Manor, the middle-aged prince learned that Zhang Tie had killed General Sun and Huihui, and he assigned the young man in purple to seek revenge.
• After half a month at sea, Zhang Tie and Sun Liu's group arrived at Jinyuan City and rested at an inn before setting out to inspect the residence.
• Zhang Tie found a large estate bearing the plaque “Ma Residence,” and its servant rudely refused to let the group inside.
• Zhang Tie decided to seek help from the authorities, had a legal clerk write a complaint, and sent Sun Liu to beat the grievance drum.
• A Yamen Runner came out and asked Zhang Tie's group what grievance they wished to report.

Zhang Tie rescued Sun Liu from a corrupt magistrate and then confronted the Qingtian Gang in Jinyuan City. He asked its leader, Mo Qingtian, whether he wanted to rise up and become a great ruler.

• Sun Liu accused the Ma Residence of seizing his home, but the magistrate called him a thief and ordered him imprisoned.
• Zhang Tie rushed into court, seized Sun Liu and the deed, and escaped with him while blocking the Yamen Runners with stone lions.
• After settling Sun Liu and the others at an inn, Zhang Tie visited a theater and pawnshop before going to a gambling house.
• Zhang Tie turned one hundred taels into more than seventy thousand taels, then defeated the Qingtian Gang thugs who tried to stop him.
• Zhang Tie broke the scarred man's saber and asked him to summon Mo Qingtian.
• Zhang Tie asked Mo Qingtian whether he had ever considered rising up to become a great ruler.

Zhang Tie learned that five Super Grade experts ruled the martial world and that two lived in the imperial palace, then set out for the Capital City to meet them. He left Sun Liu and the others money and instructions before departing the inn.

• Zhang Tie told Mo Qingtian he wanted to raise a rebellion together, but Mo Qingtian explained that the imperial court was protected by two Super Grade experts.
• Mo Qingtian described the martial ranks and the Super Grade experts’ Protective Dao Light, which Zhang Tie suspected could help him leave this world.
• Zhang Tie learned the two nearest Super Grade experts lived in the imperial palace and asked Mo Qingtian for the fastest route to the Capital City.
• Zhang Tie vanished from the courtyard at tremendous speed, and Mo Qingtian’s masked companion judged that he surpassed most First Grade experts.
• Zhang Tie returned to the inn, told Sun Liu and the other two he was leaving on a distant trip, gave them a thousand taels of silver, and departed.

Zhang Tie reached Xihua City and broke into the imperial palace at night, heading for the Hengyu Star-Picking Tower to confront a Super Grade expert. After defeating a palace guard who falsely claimed to be one, Zhang Tie was struck by a powerful attack from an unseen opponent.

• Zhang Tie traveled by merchant ship to Xihua County, bought a black thousand-li horse, and rode to Xihua City while studying the Ice God Art.
• After resting at the Drunken Immortal Tower, Zhang Tie slipped past the curfew patrols and entered the imperial palace.
• Zhang Tie attacked the guards at the Hengyu Star-Picking Tower, knocking them down and killing three by mistake.
• A short, fat man in a four-clawed python robe confronted Zhang Tie, but Zhang Tie seized him and smashed him into the ground.
• As Zhang Tie stepped toward the tower, an unseen attacker blasted a hole through his clothes and forced him back three steps.

Zhang Tie fought the imperial palace’s super-grade expert, Yuyangzi, whose protective barrier absorbed his attacks. Zhang Tie eventually battered Yuyangzi until the barrier shattered and seized him by the throat, leaving him ready to question the defeated expert.

• Zhang Tie introduced himself to Yuyangzi and challenged his claim that Zhang Tie had killed his subordinate without cause.
• Yuyangzi attacked Zhang Tie, and their punches collided before Yuyangzi’s white barrier absorbed Zhang Tie’s strikes.
• Yuyangzi’s nimble movements and protective light film kept Zhang Tie from hurting him, while Zhang Tie’s tough body endured their exchange.
• Zhang Tie grabbed Yuyangzi and repeatedly slammed him into the ground until Yuyangzi begged him to stop.
• Yuyangzi’s protective light film shattered, and Zhang Tie lifted him by the neck, declaring that they could now talk.

After defeating Yuyangzi, Zhang Tie learned that Wen Dao Yuan was the perilous route to reaching Transcendent Grade and decided to go there. Yuyangzi agreed to guide him, and they rode east from Xihua City the next morning.

• Zhang Tie restrained Yuyangzi and demanded to know how First Grade experts reached Transcendent Grade.
• Yuyangzi told Zhang Tie about Wen Dao Yuan, a valley filled with deadly Wind Blades where First Grade experts could seek a breakthrough.
• Zhang Tie asked Yuyangzi to guide him to Wen Dao Yuan, and Yuyangzi agreed.
• Yuyangzi arranged new clothes and a palace feast for Zhang Tie before they agreed to meet outside Xihua City at dawn.
• Zhang Tie met Yuyangzi outside the city, and the two rode east toward Wen Dao Yuan.

After nearly two years of travel, Zhang Tie entered the Dao-Listening Abyss to comprehend the laws of heaven and earth and break through to the transcendent realm. More than thirty years later, he had mastered a way to deflect the Wind Blades and approached a colossal black tornado deep within the abyss.

• Yuyangzi escorted Zhang Tie to the Dao-Listening Abyss, then left him to venture farther inside alone.
• Zhang Tie sensed the Indestructible Pearl absorbing gray aura and suspected it was connected to witchcraft and comprehending the Heavenly Dao.
• Zhang Tie sat among the Wind Blades to study the Ice God Art, enduring their attacks as he tried to comprehend the laws of ice.
• After months of adapting and advancing deeper, Zhang Tie formed drifting snowflakes that redirected the Wind Blades, while the Indestructible Pearl gradually turned pale violet.
• More than thirty years after entering the abyss, Zhang Tie formed ice armor and approached an enormous black tornado at its depths.

Zhang Tie entered the calm inner space of the towering tornado and spent seventeen years recovering while the Indestructible Pearl replenished its energy. After the Pearl restored his body, he flew toward the darkness above, where he sensed an exit.

• Zhang Tie failed to force his way through the tornado’s outer wind wall, then ran with its rotation and slipped into the dark space within.
• Zhang Tie sensed that the exit and the gray energy were above him, but repeated attempts to climb the wind wall failed.
• Zhang Tie decided to remain in the inner space, comprehend the Ice God Art, and let the Indestructible Pearl recover.
• After about seventeen years, the Indestructible Pearl fully recovered and repaired Zhang Tie’s injuries, though his divine sense remained weak.
• Zhang Tie transformed into a golden streak of light and flew upward into the darkness.

Zhang Tie returned to Xihua City after more than forty years and reunited with Yuyangzi atop the Star Picking Tower. He learned that Yuyangzi was nearing the end of his lifespan and left after asking him to locate two mysterious artifacts.

• Zhang Tie abandoned the dark cave entrance, suppressed his cultivation to the Aperture Opening Realm, and traveled back to Xihua City without finding any power of fortune there.
• Zhang Tie sensed Yuyangzi atop the Star Picking Tower and appeared behind him, startling him with the revelation that Zhang Tie was alive.
• Yuyangzi congratulated Zhang Tie on reaching the Transcendent Realm, then revealed that his own lifespan had less than twenty years remaining and that no imperial cultivator had succeeded him.
• Zhang Tie stopped Yuyangzi from making an unreasonable request and asked him to find the Profound Heaven Spirit Extermination Shovel and a black, rune-covered chain.
• Zhang Tie promised to help Yuyangzi once if he found the items quickly, then flew away from Xihua City.

Zhang Tie returned to Jinyuan City and found the aged Sun Liu, who told him what had happened to the three men after Zhang Tie left. Sun Liu began revealing a hidden truth behind the robbery that destroyed their lives.

• Zhang Tie searched Jinyuan City and found Sun Liu tending a flowerbed at the former Ma Residence.
• Sun Liu recognized Zhang Tie, wept, and was taken by him to a tavern to talk.
• Sun Liu explained that he, Wang Jiu, and Li San had started a cart-hauling business, but a Huntian Gang leader framed them and stole their cart.
• The three later split their time between waiting for Zhang Tie in the city and settling in a nearby county, until the Huntian Gang robbed households that had paid its birthday tax.
• Wang Jiu was killed, Li San lost his money, and Sun Liu's wife and children were murdered; Sun Liu later lost his home and farmland to drinking and gambling.
• Sun Liu told Zhang Tie that he had discovered another hidden truth behind the robbery.

After learning that the Huntian Gang had killed his wife and child, Sun Liu was beaten and left disabled when he tried to report the crime, then spent decades waiting for Zhang Tie at the Ma Residence. When Zhang Tie returned, he took Sun Liu to confront the Qingtian Gang and demanded that Mo Qingtian come out.

• Sun Liu overheard Qian Laohei confess that the Huntian Gang had committed the robbery that killed his wife and child.
• Sun Liu reported the confession to the yamen, but the yamen runners dismissed him for lack of evidence.
• The Huntian Gang ambushed Sun Liu, broke his leg, and left him permanently disabled.
• After Sun Liu nearly died outside the Ma Residence, the fifth young master took him in and gave him work tending flowers.
• Decades later, Zhang Tie returned and promised to help Sun Liu settle his grievances.
• Zhang Tie and Sun Liu went to the Qingtian Gang, where Zhang Tie demanded Mo Qingtian appear and shattered a stone lion with one punch.

Zhang Tie helped Mo Qingtian seize Jinyuan City and establish the Qingtian Army, which gained support by cutting taxes and aiding refugees. As the army grew and fortune gathered to help restore Zhang Tie’s sorcery, an unexpected visitor arrived.

• Zhang Tie summoned Mo Qingtian and promised to help him take Jinyuan City, on the condition that he provide relief to disaster victims.
• Zhang Tie and Mo Qingtian destroyed the Huntian Gang and killed the chief official in the city yamen during a night of fighting.
• Mo Qingtian’s Qingtian Gang took control of Jinyuan City, renamed itself the Qingtian Army, and declared the city independent from the Great Xi Dynasty.
• The Qingtian Army cut taxes, opened porridge stations, and settled refugees, growing from more than ten thousand members to over two hundred thousand.
• Zhang Tie cultivated atop the Qingtian Army’s administrative hall and absorbed the fortune gathering from the army’s policies and growing support.
• An unexpected visitor arrived while Zhang Tie was cultivating.

Zhang Tie intimidated Jinfeng Bao into keeping the Jin Family out of mortal affairs, then traveled to the Great Zhao Kingdom to retrieve a black chain from its imperial palace. The chapter ended with him taking the chain from a carriage brought by a middle-aged woman.

• Zhang Tie froze Jinfeng Bao in ice and warned him not to interfere in mortal affairs, prompting Jinfeng Bao to promise the Jin Family would stay within its bounds.
• Three months later, Zhang Tie learned from Yuyangzi that the Profound Heaven Spirit Extermination Shovel had been found, but the nine-foot black chain was in the Great Zhao Kingdom's imperial palace.
• Zhang Tie traveled to Zhaoyang City and threatened the palace, destroying a hall with a golden palm print as he demanded the chain.
• A middle-aged woman told Zhang Tie the chain had been placed in the imperial mausoleum and went to retrieve it.
• The woman returned the next evening with a carriage, and Zhang Tie used his power to draw the black chain into his hands.

Zhang Tie left the realm for Wen Dao Yuan, hoping to return to the void, but the passage disappeared and a devastating wave forced him into a spatial crack. The chapter left his fate unknown as the void was torn apart behind him.

• Zhang Tie gave the middle-aged beautiful woman a blue longsword in exchange for the carriage, then flew away.
• Zhang Tie decided to leave the realm and headed directly for Wen Dao Yuan, considering his debt to Yuyangzi repaid.
• After more than two months, Zhang Tie reached Wen Dao Yuan's depths, released his full cultivation, and entered the black opening.
• Zhang Tie emerged into the boundless void, but the passage vanished and his divine sense extended only two li.
• When a destructive wave swept toward him, Zhang Tie rushed into the nearest large spatial crack just before the void shattered.