Recaps

Stone Province absorbed hundreds of thousands of refugees into road-building and farmland reclamation, improving safety and prosperity while reducing the Rebel Army’s manpower. The Princess recognized the scale of Chu Qing’s plan, wrote him a detailed letter asking for guidance, and ordered an elite Jinxiutian squad summoned.

• Stone Province arrested beggars, vagrants, criminals, and troublemaking martial artists and put them to work building roads and reclaiming farmland.
• Merchants welcomed cleaner streets and safer roads, while refugees streamed into the provincial city for food and wages.
• A female official reported that the Princess’s instructions could turn refugees into an obedient labor force and future army.
• The Princess’s intelligence report revealed that more than six hundred thousand people had entered the provincial city in February, prompting her to consider the plan’s empire-wide consequences.
• The Princess spent a day writing Chu Qing a serious letter of thanks and questions, then ordered a squad of Jinxiutian’s most elite people summoned.

Chu Qing sent the Princess a bundle of improvised political and scientific theories, which Brocade World circulated and the Princess studied with unexpected seriousness. As the Princess grew troubled by political developments, Chu Qing returned to the Shi Residence, where Madam Jin emerged from seclusion with a transformed presence.

• Chu Qing advanced rapidly in flesh training but struggled to obtain the secret transmissions for the five viscera and six bowels.
• Chu Qing answered the Princess's questions about governance with a thick letter of theories, including the Theory of Relativity and assembly-line production, and told Brocade World that the contents concerned the Empire's foundation.
• A dispute among Brocade World's thirty-six-person squad left only thirty-five reaching the Princess, who investigated the incident and then opened Chu Qing's letter.
• Brocade World copied and distributed Chu Qing's letter, while the Princess studied its ideas, nearly went berserk over the Theory of Relativity, and considered the military potential of the assembly line.
• The Princess learned that only a little over thirty female-official candidates were worth attention and wondered why other main cities lacked recommendations from top Lineages.
• Madam Jin emerged from seclusion at the Shi Residence with a more imposing, otherworldly presence, leaving Chu Qing hesitant to approach her.

Chu Qing learned that Madam Jin might awaken an extraordinary bloodline, then received secret transmissions from Cui Moyang before she left for Great Zhou to grow stronger. After Nangong Xiao found news of Viscera Secret Transmissions brought to Stone Province, Chu Qing decided to buy their location from Human World.

• Madam Jin told Chu Qing that reading had awakened part of her ancestor's extraordinary bloodline, and he returned to the Martial Academy after spending the night with her and Madam Shi.
• Cui Moyang announced she was going to Great Zhou to kill people and strengthen herself, and Chu Qing and Nangong Xiao exchanged secret transmissions with her before she departed.
• Nangong Xiao grieved over Cui Moyang's departure, even after hydraulic forging began producing Thousand-Forged and Ten-Thousand-Forged Copper.
• Nangong Xiao told Chu Qing that secret transmissions, including several Viscera Secret Transmissions, had been found in a desert ruin and carried to Stone Province.
• Chu Qing learned the Thousand Eyes Alliance had no specific location for the transmissions and decided to buy information from Human World.

Chu Qing searched for the people from the Great Desert who supposedly carried the Five Viscera and Six Bowels secret transmission, but began to suspect their arrival and the leaked information were part of a plot. Outside the city, four men revealed they were using the secret transmission as bait to lure him into an ambush.

• Human World failed to locate the people from the Great Desert and ordered its agents to search the city and watch the roads.
• Chu Qing followed Human World's agents, but neither they nor Nangong found any trace of the strangers.
• Chu Qing reasoned that the Great Desert group had deliberately come to Stone Province and questioned whether the trail to their secret transmission was a trap.
• At a thatched tavern outside the city, four brawny men wrote messages in wine and discussed luring Chu Qing with the Five Viscera and Six Bowels secret transmission.
• The four men decided to leak more information after Chu Qing failed to take the bait.

Chu Qing followed rumors of a secret transmission from the desert people to Grass Head Mountain, where martial artists had gathered amid suspicious clashes and rising fireworks. He disguised himself and joined the crowd as rival groups rushed into the mountains and began fighting.

• Chu Qing searched the thatched huts outside the city for people from the desert and learned that others were also asking about them.
• Chu Qing reached a burning tavern, healed a wounded child, and heard from the widow that guests had fought over a secret transmission before fleeing west toward Grass Head Mountain.
• Chu Qing suspected the desert arrivals had deliberately drawn attention, then disguised himself and joined a group heading for Grass Head Mountain.
• At the mountain’s foot, Big Brother Leader proposed sharing copies of the secret transmission, but other martial artists mocked him.
• As battle cries and fireworks rose from Grass Head Mountain, teams charged inside and began killing one another before locating the secret transmission.

Chu Qing’s squad fought its way toward the Viscera Secret Transmission on Grass Head Mountain while Chu Qing observed the hidden agendas among his companions and tested his growing strength. Elsewhere, Daoist Master Zi Qing and a young man awaited Chu Qing, who hoped to kill him and claim the Golden Inlaid Jade.

• Big Brother led Chu Qing’s squad through the mountains, urging them to capture scholars and copy the secret transmission while Chu Qing noticed a bald man secretly sending carrier pigeons for reinforcements.
• At the central mountain, Chu Qing killed a masked attacker and watched ambushes replace half the squad, while Big Brother kept pushing the group toward the summit.
• In a prefectural-city Taoist temple, Daoist Master Zi Qing discussed Chu Qing’s chances of arriving with a young zither player who planned to kill him and win his mother’s praise.
• King Shiyu’s armored soldiers blocked the squad, but Big Brother led everyone around them; Chu Qing judged the soldiers easy to defeat, though he stayed with the group.
• The squad fought through aristocratic servants, losing seven or eight people before reaching the chaotic mountaintop, where several teams battled amid scattered corpses.

Chu Qing and the gathered martial artists fought over the secret inheritance, but four supposedly desert experts proved overwhelmingly powerful. Big Brother Leader challenged them and was badly wounded, then recognized them as members of the Round Moon Demonic Palace.

• Big Brother Leader persuaded the gathered martial artists to stop fighting one another and attack the four curved-saber wielders for the secret inheritance.
• Chu Qing suspected the four men were not from the desert and prepared to fight for the original inheritance as they cut down more than a hundred martial artists.
• Several concealed First Limit Experts attacked the four men but were swiftly wounded, and the crowd learned their opponents were Second Limit Experts.
• Big Brother Leader revealed his Brocade Clothes and Miao Dao, then fought the four men while Chu Qing and the bald man watched.
• The four curved-saber wielders emerged uninjured while Big Brother Leader was left bleeding, and he recognized them as people from the Round Moon Demonic Palace.

Chu Qing confronted four saber experts from the Round Moon Demonic Palace, who had used the Five Viscera and Six Bowels secret transmission as bait to lure him out. He killed one of them with a single spear assault and demanded the secret transmission from the survivors.

• The Round Moon Demonic Palace’s arrival terrified the gathered martial artists, and several chose death over resisting or fleeing.
• Chu Qing walked through the group’s oppressive aura and demanded that the four saber experts hand over the Five Viscera and Six Bowels secret transmission.
• The saber experts revealed that the secret transmission was only bait to lure Chu Qing, whose path to obtaining it had supposedly been cut off.
• One saber expert attacked Chu Qing and shattered his Full Moon Saber against Chu Qing’s spear.
• Chu Qing killed the saber expert with a flurry of spear thrusts, crushed his head underfoot, and demanded the secret transmission from the remaining three.

Chu Qing fought his way toward the provincial city to seize the Viscera Secret Transmission, carrying a wounded Round Moon man who claimed it was hidden in a Taoist Temple. As Chu Qing approached the temple, Daoist Master Zi Qing and the young zither player sensed him coming and prepared for a possible fight.

• Chu Qing killed two Round Moon men, forced the last survivor to reveal that the Viscera Secret Transmission was in a Taoist Temple in the provincial city, and took him along as a guide.
• A bald man sent carrier pigeons urging the Great Figures to intercept Chu Qing, and warning signals spread to King Shiyu's Mansion.
• Chu Qing charged through the heavily armored soldiers at the city gate, killing and maiming those in his path.
• Chu Qing demanded directions from the dying Round Moon man, who pointed toward the Taoist Temple and begged for secret medicine.
• Daoist Master Zi Qing swallowed the incense smoke as the young zither player sensed someone approaching at 2.2 times the speed of sound and hoped it was Chu Qing.

Chu Qing fought the zither-playing youth and demanded the Viscera Secret Transmission, but learned that Daoist Master Zi Qing was the true leader of the group. Zi Qing challenged Chu Qing’s right to demand his prized secret transmission, and Chu Qing answered by mocking him and ordering him to hand it over.

• Chu Qing shattered the zither player's sound attacks and blocked his Tenth String technique with the sun and moon, leaving the youth shocked by his strength.
• The zither-playing youth offered Chu Qing secret transmissions, including high-grade ones, in exchange for working for him, but Chu Qing said he could take them by killing him.
• Chu Qing recognized Daoist Master Zi Qing as the group's core and demanded the Viscera Secret Transmission from him.
• Daoist Master Zi Qing praised the youth for traveling beyond Great Zhou, then challenged Chu Qing to name his ability and boasted about his secret transmission.
• Chu Qing mocked Zi Qing by guessing that he had knelt and handed over the secret transmission to survive, then demanded that he hand it over.

Chu Qing fought Daoist Master Zi Qing, whose terrifying aura and Golden Toad Secret Transmission made him a formidable opponent. Their battle remained deadlocked as it destroyed the Daoist temple and spread into the street.

• Daoist Master Zi Qing threatened Chu Qing, but Chu Qing resisted his aura and challenged him to a fight.
• Chu Qing attacked with his Overbearing Spear and Eight Divine Hands: Thousand Arms, while Daoist Master Zi Qing blocked his rapid strikes.
• Chu Qing's Thousand Arms Cannot Defend progress increased as Daoist Master Zi Qing repeatedly stopped his attacks.
• Daoist Master Zi Qing activated the Golden Toad Secret Transmission, prompting the qin-playing youth to warn Chu Qing that the technique strengthened his realms.
• Chu Qing demanded Daoist Master Zi Qing reveal his secret transmission, and the two fought to a deadlock that collapsed the temple and wrecked the surrounding street.

Chu Qing fought Daoist Master Zi Qing while onlookers speculated about his extraordinary foundation and strength. As Zi Qing sought to seize Chu Qing’s Golden Inlaid Jade, Chu Qing perfected Thousand Arms Cannot Defend, grew even stronger, and overwhelmed him.

• Third Limit experts recognized Daoist Master Zi Qing and learned that his opponent was Chu Qing, whose deeds and low realm astonished them.
• The experts speculated about Chu Qing’s strength and fortuitous encounter, unaware that his foundation came from a real dragon sinew and Exotic Golden Bone.
• Daoist Master Zi Qing envied Chu Qing’s Golden Inlaid Jade and fought to defeat him for power, reputation, and the future of his lineage.
• Chu Qing’s Thousand Arms Cannot Defend reached Perfection, advancing Eight Divine Hands: Thousand Arms to Proficient and increasing his speed and power.
• Chu Qing’s attacks became faster and stronger, leaving Daoist Master Zi Qing unable to defend himself and despairing over having helped Chu Qing break through.

Daoist Master Zi Qing fled from Chu Qing across the empire, but Chu Qing relentlessly pursued and wounded him until he reached Peace Inn in the desert. Believing its rules and the powerful expert behind it would protect him, Daoist Master Zi Qing confronted Chu Qing as he entered the inn.

• The watching experts feared Chu Qing after Daoist Master Zi Qing fled, and they considered escaping in case Chu Qing killed him.
• Daoist Master Zi Qing tried to outrun and hide from Chu Qing, but Chu Qing repeatedly caught him and inflicted severe wounds during their battles.
• After a day and a night of pursuit, Daoist Master Zi Qing reached the desert and followed directions to Peace Inn, where the innkeeper promised him protection under its no-fighting rules.
• The attendants and innkeeper told Daoist Master Zi Qing that a powerful expert had enforced the inn's rules by killing Old Ancestor Wutian and hundreds of others.
• Chu Qing entered the inn with a bloodstained spear, and Daoist Master Zi Qing declared that the inn's expert would stop him from killing there.

Chu Qing forced Daoist Master Zi Qing to surrender the Golden Toad Method, fused it with Toad Skill, and gained the incomplete Golden Toad Swallows the Moon. He spared Zi Qing, who gave him the remaining half of the transmission and asked to stay at the Peace Inn.

• The Peace Inn welcomed Chu Qing, and the innkeeper and its residents recognized him as Master Qing.
• Chu Qing demanded the Viscera Secret Transmission from Daoist Master Zi Qing and persuaded him to hand it over in exchange for his life.
• Chu Qing learned the Golden Toad Method, fused it with Toad Skill, and received the incomplete Golden Toad Swallows the Moon, which strengthened him under moonlight.
• Daoist Master Zi Qing revealed that he had planted a flaw in the transmission, but Chu Qing spared him and ordered him not to appear again.
• Daoist Ziqing gave Chu Qing the remaining half of the Golden Toad Secret Transmission and asked the innkeeper if he could stay at the inn.

Chu Qing returned to Shi State City with Daoist Master Zi Qing’s human-skin secret transmission, but he, Madam Shi, and Nangong could not decipher its codes. Madam Jin recognized that one phrase referred to the eyes, giving Chu Qing hope that she could help unravel the transmission.

• Chu Qing returned to Shi State City and told Nangong and Madam Shi how Daoist Master Zi Qing had ended up cooking at Peace Inn.
• Shi State’s Third Limit experts and aristocratic families heard that Chu Qing had returned and plotted to block his access to secret transmissions and eventually kill him.
• Chu Qing, Madam Shi, and Nangong studied Daoist Master Zi Qing’s secret transmission but failed to understand its coded phrases.
• Madam Shi offered Chu Qing a different top-tier Viscera Secret Transmission, but he refused because he wanted one that could greatly increase his combat strength.
• Madam Jin noticed the phrase about the sun and moon revolving and suggested it meant the turning of the eyes, helping Chu Qing begin to decipher the transmission.

Madam Jin deciphered the Golden Toad Swallowing Heaven Method, and Chu Qing cultivated it, discovering it could grant three traits. Madam Shi and Nangong agreed to learn it and struggled to offer something in return, while Madam Shi slaughtered witnesses to protect the secret.

• Madam Jin deciphered the secret transmission, and Chu Qing initiated the Golden Toad Swallowing Heaven Method, which promised three traits and required him to swallow a Three-legged Golden Toad and forge a hundred-ton bronze one for promotion.
• Chu Qing told Madam Shi, Madam Jin, and Nangong that the method granted three traits, prompting Madam Shi to kill everyone she could find within five hundred meters of the Shi Residence who might have heard the secret.
• Chu Qing offered to teach the method to the three women without asking for payment, but Madam Jin declined because she wanted to awaken an Otherkin bloodline.
• Nangong offered to marry Chu Qing, while Madam Shi countered by pledging the Armored Soldier Sect as his vassal; Chu Qing refused to demand anything in return.
• Madam Shi sang opera for Chu Qing, and Nangong resolved to seize more branches of the Thousand Eyes Alliance to give him.

Princess learned that Qingzhou faced a famine and, unable to decide how to help its people, wrote to Chu Qing for advice. Meanwhile, Chu Qing ordered a ten-ton Golden Toad forged, and the blacksmiths asked to use his blood.

• Princess read a report on Chu Qing’s successful policies in Shi Province and considered promoting them elsewhere.
• Princess learned that Qingzhou’s grain prices had soared and people were starving, then decided to ask Chu Qing for help.
• Chu Qing inspected Nangong’s bronze workshop and ordered ten tons of bronze for a project.
• Chu Qing had the Cui family’s blacksmiths begin forging a ten-ton Golden Toad.
• The blacksmiths nervously asked Chu Qing if they could use his blood.

Chu Qing traded blood with the blacksmiths for a scroll containing Eight Divine Hands: Earth Fiend, bringing him closer to mastering all eight moves. After a young blacksmith revealed the secret transmission’s identity, Chu Qing killed him and ordered the blacksmiths to dispose of his body.

• The blacksmiths offered Chu Qing a centuries-old half-secret transmission in exchange for his blood, and he agreed.
• Chu Qing opened the box and learned Eight Divine Hands: Earth Fiend, leaving him with five of the eight moves mastered.
• The young blacksmith warned the others that the secret transmission was too valuable to trade, and Chu Qing realized he knew its significance.
• Chu Qing filled a jade box with his blood, and the blacksmiths thanked him while the young blacksmith protested that the trade was unfair.
• The young blacksmith began to reveal the transmission’s identity, so Chu Qing killed him and told the blacksmiths to burn his body in the furnace.

Chu Qing’s blood helped the blacksmiths forge an extraordinary longsword, and the servant who received it gained the Earth Fiend technique through his dreams. After learning about his new technique and returning to the Martial Academy, Chu Qing discovered that admissions were about to begin.

• The blacksmiths used Chu Qing’s blood on a longsword, producing a weapon with patterns like three dragons and a trace of divine-weapon traits.
• The blacksmiths urged Chu Qing to stay so they could use his blood to forge more weapons, but he left and they presented the longsword to a Great Figure of the Cui family.
• The Great Figure gave the longsword to a servant, who dreamed of learning blacksmithing and the Earth Fiend technique and found that cultivating it improved his realm.
• Chu Qing brought Eight Divine Hands: Earth Fiend to Nangong and Madam Shi, then studied the technique and its promotion condition.
• Chu Qing returned to the Martial Academy and learned from a female student that new students would be admitted in three days.

Chu Qing buried himself in a pit to cultivate, turning the little grove into a forbidden ground for Martial Academy students. As new students arrived and asked why the grove was off limits, senior students began explaining its strange reputation.

• Chu Qing had senior students bury him in a pit, then sealed his breathing and cultivated underground, increasing his Earth Fiend progress.
• Students learned that Chu Qing was cultivating in the mound and began avoiding the grove, which became known as a forbidden ground.
• Chu Qing advanced through Iron Flesh, Bronze Flesh, and Silver Flesh while cultivating underground, but found Golden Flesh much slower to refine.
• New students arrived at the Martial Academy, including geniuses from prefecture cities, county towns, and the Rebel Army.
• Senior students led the newcomers around the grove and warned them not to enter, prompting them to ask what made it a forbidden ground.

A Senior Student told the newcomers how Chu Qing’s extraordinary exploits had made the grove a forbidden ground. When a Rebel Army prodigy challenged the grave there, Chu Qing emerged and brutally defeated the Rebel Army members who tried to stop him, dragging their companion toward the academy gates.

• The Senior Student recounted Chu Qing’s deeds and explained that the grove became forbidden after he buried himself there.
• A Rebel Army prodigy dismissed Chu Qing’s reputation, entered the grove, and challenged the grave mound.
• Chu Qing emerged carrying the prodigy and used him to smash through trees as he left the grove.
• Chu Qing ignored the Rebel Army members’ demands, dragged their companion onward, and crushed the fingers of one who attacked him.
• Chu Qing broke another attacker’s leg and fought off the remaining Rebel Army members, crippling them one after another.

Chu Qing killed a rebel prodigy, collected his Red Copper Golden Toad, and continued cultivating while the rebels discovered that his injuries could leave their fighters crippled. He learned the Earth Fiend method’s promotion requirements and planned to temper his five viscera before attempting them.

• Chu Qing dragged a rebel prodigy to the Martial Academy gates, killed him in front of the crowd, and went to the Cui family's Blacksmith Shop for his Red Copper Golden Toad.
• The blacksmiths loaded the ten-ton golden toad onto a specially made carriage, and Chu Qing cultivated flesh tempering as it was transported.
• The rebel prodigies reported Chu Qing to the Rebel Army, but a pharmacist found that their wounds would heal only if their strength caught up to his.
• Chu Qing reviewed the Earth Fiend method’s promotion conditions and concluded that he needed Earth Fiend qi after spending ten days buried in the earth.
• Chu Qing expected to perfect flesh tempering within two months, then planned to temper his five viscera and deal with the Three-legged Golden Toad.

Chu Qing threw the red-copper Golden Toad into the moat and clashed with Lan Yichen, a powerful Holy King Army general. He fulfilled the Golden Toad Swallowing Heaven Method’s second condition, but both men were wounded, and Chu Qing returned to the Martial Academy determined to grow stronger.

• Chu Qing ordered his men to throw the Golden Toad into the moat, where Lan Yichen arrived with the Pipa Woman and challenged him on behalf of the Holy King Army.
• Chu Qing lifted the ten-ton Golden Toad and smashed it at Lan Yichen’s boat, while Lan Yichen countered with Sword Qi that cut deeply into Chu Qing’s palm and cracked his Exotic Golden Bone.
• Chu Qing used three forms of Eight Divine Hands to suppress Lan Yichen’s Sword Qi and destroy the boat with the falling Golden Toad, completing the method’s second condition.
• Lan Yichen escaped with the Pipa Woman and revealed his name, while Chu Qing assessed his wound and returned to the Martial Academy to focus on flesh-tempering.
• Lan Yichen told the Pipa Woman that Chu Qing’s Eight Divine Hands had injured him and would take three to five days to heal.

After surviving Lan Yichen’s failed attempt to kill him, Chu Qing trained to recover and strengthen his martial arts, then sent the Princess advice on stabilizing grain prices. Impressed by his scheme, the Princess issued orders and summoned Mi Mei, a talented female official sought by powerful figures at court.

• Lan Yichen vowed to heal and kill Chu Qing, while the Pipa Woman urged him on after recruiting him to avenge her lover.
• Chu Qing practiced martial arts and consumed gold and jade to improve his Golden Inlaid Jade Secret Transmission and gain more Limit-Breaking Skills.
• Nangong delivered a letter from the Princess, and Chu Qing replied with a plan to buy grain from other cities and use outside merchants to pressure local grain merchants.
• Chu Qing sparred with Nangong, noticed her improvement, and continued training for three days.
• The Princess praised Chu Qing’s grain-price strategy, issued orders, and asked about outstanding female officials.
• After learning that the Emperor, Empress, and imperial consorts wanted Mi Mei, the Princess decided to speak with the Emperor and Empress and summoned Mi Mei.

Chu Qing advanced his cultivation while Nangong trained with him for nearly a month, then told him she was leaving to compete in the Thousand Eyes Alliance trial for Holy Maiden. She left the Martial Academy, determined to grow alongside Chu Qing rather than be left behind.

• Chu Qing spent five days practicing Limit-Breaking Skills, improved Golden Inlaid Jade to the proficient level, and found that his flesh refinement was progressing faster.
• Nangong cultivated the Heavenly Demon Strategy with Chu Qing for nearly a month, and both of their strength increased.
• Nangong told Chu Qing that she would leave to take part in the Thousand Eyes Alliance trial and compete for the Holy Maiden position, despite the danger.
• Nangong explained that she wanted to grow because Chu Qing was advancing so quickly, and she feared he would eventually look down on her as she did on Ximen.
• Nangong left the Martial Academy, where several old women met her, and she declared that she was the best person Chu Qing had ever met.