Chapter Summaries

Princess learned that the First Prince had taken the equipment meant for Chu Qing and urged him not to travel to the Imperial Capital, but Chu Qing insisted on competing for a Martial Academy slot. Before leaving, Chu Qing visited Principal Shi Ji, who asked him to bring Ying Hongzhuang out of the palace and obtain the Acupoint Chart.

• Princess learned that the First Prince had requisitioned the equipment for the Ninth Princess, leaving Chu Qing without the armor he needed, and sent the provincial city's principal a letter advising against his trip.
• The mysterious principal told Chu Qing that the Great Figure who had supported him had been plotted against and suggested he postpone competing for a slot.
• Chu Qing declared that he would seize the Imperial Capital Martial Academy slot by defeating his competitors, and the mysterious principal agreed to travel with him the day after tomorrow.
• Chu Qing visited Principal Shi Ji in the slums and found him drawing detailed anatomical diagrams beside a box that someone knocked from within.
• Principal Shi Ji told Chu Qing to bring Ying Hongzhuang out of the Imperial Palace and ask her for the Acupoint Chart, which contained 366 acupoints.

Chu Qing prepared to leave for the Imperial Capital after asking Tang Wuming to collect strange pearls and giving him guidance and resources to strengthen his rule. As his departure approached, he spent the night practicing martial arts while Hua Yu wondered whether he would return.

• Chu Qing promised Hua Yu he would return, then told Tang Wuming to keep digging at Stone Ridge Mountain and save every strange pearl for him.
• Tang Wuming asked Chu Qing how to control the Rebel Army and its cities, and Chu Qing gave him a day of guidance on governing and building a following.
• Chu Qing left Tang Wuming a Silver Coin to improve farmland and more than a hundred Gold Coins to help him collect strange pearls.
• Chu Qing returned to the provincial city, where the Shi Residence packed carriages loaded with supplies and more than two hundred Three-legged Golden Toads for the journey.
• Chu Qing practiced the Eight Divine Hands through the night as Zhao Hongxiu watched, while Hua Yu asked her maid whether people who went to the Imperial Capital came back.

Chu Qing left Shi State for the Imperial Capital, while King Shiyu celebrated his departure until he learned the Princess Consort had secretly followed him. On the road, Chu Qing met the Cui Family Daughter, who was also heading to the Imperial Capital Martial Academy after opening the Heaven-Connecting Path.

• Chu Qing departed Shi State with an aristocratic escort, and King Shiyu hosted a feast to celebrate his leaving.
• King Shiyu learned that the Princess Consort had gone after Chu Qing, while she and the woman in red secretly followed the convoy.
• Chu Qing traveled toward the Imperial Capital with the mysterious headmaster, Martial Masters, Zhao Hongxiu, and several maids, as unseasonable snow began to fall.
• Chu Qing suspected the Millennial Tribulation was causing abnormal weather and wondered how Cui Moyang was faring in Great Zhou.
• Chu Qing's convoy encountered a much larger procession, and the Cui Family Daughter joined him on his carriage roof.
• The Cui Family Daughter told Chu Qing she had opened the Heaven-Connecting Path and asked how he had managed to open his with so little support.

Chu Qing confronted the Cui Family Daughter over her plan to travel to the Imperial Capital and serve a powerful prodigy, then easily defeated Ma Liu and demanded the two youths’ secret inheritance techniques. The Cui Family Daughter defended the youths as the carriage continued toward the Imperial Capital, while Chu Qing called them trash.

• The Cui Family Daughter told Chu Qing that he would be denied a Martial Academy quota and explained that Imperial Capital prodigies relied on provincial Heaven-Connecting Martial Artists to help them compete.
• Chu Qing accused the Cui Family Daughter of traveling ten thousand miles to become a prodigy’s dog, and Ma Liu and another youth arrived at his carriage.
• Ma Liu challenged Chu Qing, who beat him with the Great Hand Seal and Blood Hand Seal, breaking his arms and leaving him in a pit.
• Chu Qing ordered the long-haired youth to bring Ma Liu over and hand over their secret inheritances, while the Cui Family Daughter defended their potential to improve during the journey.
• After the long-haired youth returned with Ma Liu, Chu Qing asked whether the two of them were trash.

Chu Qing mastered Ma Liu’s Slaying Horse Saber and the long-haired youth’s Poison Dragon Leg before continuing to cultivate his Heaven-Connecting Path. As snow slowed the convoy near the Imperial Capital, he chose to travel ahead alone, leaving the Cui Family Daughter’s group behind.

• Chu Qing made Ma Liu and his companions fight while he practiced their secret inheritances, then reached Perfection in both arts and badly injured Ma Liu and the long-haired youth with their own techniques.
• Chu Qing fought the great dragon within his second Heaven-Connecting Path and observed that its nourishing power was changing his flesh and blood.
• Chu Qing decided to reach the Imperial Capital ahead of the snowbound convoy, and the mysterious headmaster agreed that they should travel light.
• Chu Qing reassured Zhao Hongxiu that the convoy’s Third Limit martial artists could protect her and said the maidservants’ lives and deaths were fated.
• Chu Qing parted from the convoy, to Ma Liu and the long-haired youth’s relief, while the Cui Family Daughter regretted losing the chance to use him to train them and assist a prodigy.

Chu Qing rejected the Cui Family Daughter’s plan to advance by serving an Imperial Capital lineage and hurried to the Imperial Capital to pursue a Martial Academy place on his own. Near the city, he learned about its vast scale and its deadly underground level, though he expected that Academy missions might eventually take him there.

• The Cui Family Daughter proposed that Chu Qing help an Imperial Capital Heavenly Pride enter the Martial Academy so they could rise within that person’s Lineage, but Chu Qing refused and left.
• Chu Qing traveled rapidly toward the Imperial Capital, determined to fight for a Martial Academy place rather than become someone’s subordinate.
• As they neared the capital, Chu Qing told the mysterious headmaster he needed to learn about the twelve departments and find a way to obtain their Recommendation Letters.
• Chu Qing and the mysterious headmaster reached the Imperial Capital and saw its enormous walls, while Chu Qing noted that the surrounding land was unusually lush.
• The mysterious headmaster explained that the Imperial Capital had an underground level filled with despair and death, and warned Chu Qing to stay away.
• The mysterious headmaster revealed that two-thirds of their missions concerned the Underground Imperial Capital, so they might have to enter it eventually.

Chu Qing and the mysterious dean arrived at the Imperial Capital and chose Vermilion Bird Gate, hoping Chu Qing’s connections would get them through its high-status entrance. After the dean nearly fought with a group of mocking young nobles, they reached the checkpoint without the required identity tokens or passes.

• The mysterious dean explained that Vermilion Bird Gate was the highest-class entrance, and Chu Qing insisted they use it because he claimed to have connections.
• At the gate, the dean warned Chu Qing about its powerful guards and explained that entrants needed identity plaques or special passes.
• A young woman and her companions mocked Chu Qing and the dean for being country bumpkins, then urged their horses toward them.
• The dean released his killing intent and threatened the group, but Chu Qing restrained him and reminded him to keep a low profile.
• The soldiers warned them that troublemakers would be killed, and the dean backed down after seeing Chu Qing’s displeasure.
• The young woman entered the city and watched as a soldier demanded that Chu Qing and the dean produce identity tokens or passes.

Chu Qing and the mysterious dean bribed their way through Vermilion Bird Gate, explored the Imperial Capital, and then headed toward Manager Zhao’s residence. The chapter left them in the city’s impoverished outskirts, where the mysterious dean said Zhao lived somewhere even poorer.

• Chu Qing paid the armored soldiers ten thousand black gold to obtain Identity Tokens for himself and the mysterious dean.
• Chu Qing and the dean entered the Imperial Capital, registered more detailed information, and surveyed the twelve ministries and the Imperial Capital Martial Academy.
• The dean warned Chu Qing to avoid the Imperial Palace, and Chu Qing reminded him to keep a low profile.
• Chu Qing took out the address for Manager Zhao’s residence, and the dean recognized the area and led him toward the outskirts.
• Chu Qing saw the crowded, filthy housing and destitute residents, then learned from the dean that Manager Zhao lived somewhere even poorer.

Chu Qing found the Mingyue twins impoverished and hiding in the Imperial Capital’s Tenth Ring after local gangs ruined their Lineage and drove them from their home. He took them to confront the Blood Saber Gang, despite their warnings to avoid trouble, and arrived at the gang’s guarded Earth Tower.

• Chu Qing and the mysterious dean entered the Tenth Ring and hired children to guide them to Manager Zhao’s residence.
• Chu Qing reunited with the bedraggled Mingyue twins, who told him that Imperial Capital gangs had plundered their Lineage and that the River Gang had targeted them for refusing to become singing courtesans.
• The mysterious dean questioned several young men and learned they belonged to the Blood Saber Gang, which had five Third Limit experts.
• Chu Qing told the Mingyues to wash up at the Blood Saber Gang, ignored their warnings about provoking the gangs, and set out with them.
• The young men led Chu Qing and the Mingyues to the Blood Saber Gang’s Earth Tower, where ordinary martial artists guarded the entrance.

Chu Qing confronted the Blood Saber Gang to protect Mingyue and her friends, but the gang’s leaders refused to return a stolen painting and tried to seize the women. The chapter ended with Chu Qing rebuking the mysterious dean for urging him to keep a low profile.

• Chu Qing and his companions entered the Blood Saber Gang’s Earth Tower while the mysterious dean’s killing intent subdued the gang members.
• Chu Qing offered Han Fei and the other leaders black-gold notes to stop them harassing his friends, and they accepted the payment.
• Chu Qing offered another thousand black gold to retrieve the painting, but Han Fei said he had given it to his master, who planned to pursue the women depicted in it.
• Han Fei demanded that Chu Qing give the two women to his master as Attendants, so Chu Qing picked up the money and prepared to leave.
• Han Fei ordered Chu Qing to stop and demanded that the women and the money stay, prompting Chu Qing to blame the mysterious dean for telling him to keep a low profile.

Chu Qing slaughtered the Blood Saber Gang in the Earth Tower, freed Mingyue, and arranged for the starving locals to take over the gang’s possessions. He then traveled to the Fifth Ring to meet Jiang Wu and asked whether Jiang Wu’s contacts could find the woman who had mocked him.

• Chu Qing killed Han Fei and the other Blood Saber Gang members while Mingyue washed, then reunited with Mingyue as they fled the blood-filled Earth Tower.
• Chu Qing gave a hungry child gold notes and told him to gather people to clear out the tower and become the new Blood Saber Gang.
• Chu Qing sent the mysterious dean to buy provisions and stayed with Mingyue while they told him about the Imperial Capital.
• Chu Qing left Mingyue with the mysterious dean and traveled to Chinese Toon Alley in the Fifth Ring, where soldiers escorted him to Jiang Wu’s residence.
• Chu Qing introduced himself to Jiang Wu, who offered contacts that could find information, arrange an Imperial Capital identity, or quietly deal with an enemy.
• Chu Qing asked Jiang Wu whether his contacts could find the woman who had mocked him.

Chu Qing paid Jiang Wu to arrange revenge on the girl who had mocked him and to find lodging for his incoming friends, then secretly entered her household and caused everyone there to feel a sudden stab of chest pain. At the former Blood Saber Gang Earth Tower, he reunited with Manager Zhao and learned about the Imperial Capital’s strict status rules and recent rumors.

• Chu Qing paid Jiang Wu for information about the girl’s family and asked him to find discreet lodging for his friends arriving in the Imperial Capital.
• Chu Qing asked Jiang Wu about Human World, then went to the girl’s home in the Fourth Ring and covertly touched people throughout the manor.
• The girl killed her parrot after it repeatedly called for help, and an hour later everyone in the manor, including the livestock, felt a brief stab of chest pain.
• Chu Qing reached the former Blood Saber Gang Earth Tower, where Mingyue, the mysterious dean, and Manager Zhao were waiting.
• Manager Zhao told Chu Qing that Hongxiu was expected to reach the Imperial Capital near the end of the eleventh month and described the city’s rigid status hierarchy.
• Manager Zhao reported rumors that a Great Zhou imperial envoy had arrived and that major gangs had recently tightened control over ordinary people.

Chu Qing arranged for Zhao Wuji to manage the Earth Tower, then planned how to secure Recommendation Letters while cultivating his second Heaven-Connecting Path. As his companions began carrying out his orders, people in a wealthy Fourth Ring household started coughing for no apparent reason.

• Chu Qing gave Zhao Wuji secret transmissions and told him to manage the Earth Tower, while Mingyue served tea and Zhao Wuji left.
• Mingyue told Chu Qing she had broken through the limit and mentioned that Wang Yinyang had reached the Third Limit, puzzling Chu Qing.
• Chu Qing told Mingyue they would return home at year's end, then watched her and the others perform a saber dance.
• Chu Qing asked the mysterious dean to investigate who controlled Recommendation Letters, and the dean said he would consult the Ancient People.
• Chu Qing kept trying to open his second Heaven-Connecting Path as Zhao Wuji recruited young men in the Tenth Ring, Mingyue assisted, and the mysterious dean gathered information.
• People in a wealthy Fourth Ring household began coughing in the snow, but the martial artists found no cause.

The mysterious dean sought the Princess’s help for Chu Qing and then asked an old friend to seek their former master’s support, unaware the friend planned to betray him. Meanwhile, Chu Qing disguised himself to join the Brocade Division and discovered its easiest missions involved finding a lost cat and capturing a runaway wet nurse.

• The Princess agreed to provide Chu Qing with a Recommendation Letter and advised that he seek another from the Ministry of Works, while warning him to retreat if the slot competition became too dangerous.
• The mysterious dean asked his old friend to help secure their former master’s support, but the friend planned to take the dean’s resources and redirect the support to his own grandson.
• The mysterious dean returned to District Ten and learned that Mingyue and Zhao Wuji had recruited several hundred youths into a gang, while Chu Qing’s whereabouts remained unknown.
• Chu Qing learned from Han Fei that Brocade Division missions awarded points exchangeable for Recommendation Letters, then disguised himself and went to its headquarters.
• A female Brocade Envoy directed Chu Qing to the easy-mission window, where Xiao Juan showed him tasks to find a white cat or capture a runaway wet nurse.

Chu Qing demanded better missions at the Brocade Division, used the Witness Technique against Xiao Juan, and later wiped out her household after she threatened him. He then went to the Anomaly Division to learn about its missions, where eager black-robed figures surrounded him.

• Chu Qing pressured Xiao Juan into giving him a booklet of higher-point missions and left the Brocade Division with it.
• After Chu Qing looked at her, Xiao Juan lost consciousness, and a Brocade Division leader warned her that Chu Qing had used the Witness Technique.
• Xiao Juan threatened to buy Chu Qing's information and have his eyes gouged out, then later became a living corpse after the effect of his technique overwhelmed her consciousness.
• Chu Qing passed through Xiao Juan's home that night and killed everyone there except Xiao Juan before continuing to the Anomaly Division.
• At the Anomaly Division, black-robed figures rushed to recruit Chu Qing, and he asked them to explain the organization, warning them not to deceive him.

Chu Qing learned how the Anomaly Division worked, studied anomaly classifications and handling methods, and decided to use his Golden Toad Money to hunt anomalies for points. He accepted an easy mission and received a token that let him requisition ten Gray Livestock.

• Chu Qing learned that the Anomaly Division's points could be exchanged for anything, and that its Black Robes handled anomalies beyond the Imperial Capital.
• Chu Qing joined as a Temporary Worker, received a Black Robe, and was directed to the library by a White Robe.
• Chu Qing studied the library's books, learned about different anomaly types, and concluded that Golden Toad Money might let him handle them without conventional tools.
• Chu Qing asked the White Robe for a mission instead of spending days preparing, and the White Robe told him to choose one from a book.
• The White Robe gave Chu Qing a token that allowed him to command ten Gray Livestock.

Chu Qing chose to pursue a Recommendation Letter through the dangerous Anomaly Division, while Jiang Ziliu investigated the massacre of Xiao Juan’s family and closed the case to avoid offending powerful forces. Wei Sheng then learned that a hidden technique had left him with only eleven days to live.

• Chu Qing told Mingyue and the mysterious principal that he would focus on the Anomaly Division to secure a Recommendation Letter for the Imperial Capital Martial Academy.
• Chu Qing wore more than a hundred Golden Toad Money coins woven into his clothes and hair as he prepared to handle the Anomaly Division’s task.
• Jiang Ziliu led Martial Enforcement Division officers to investigate the slaughter of Xiao Juan’s family and deduced that a near-New Realm expert had used a Witness Technique.
• Jiang Ziliu learned that Xiao Juan had recently clashed with a Masked Man, then chose to close the case and send her to the Rescue Division.
• Wei Sheng diverted Xiao Juan from the Rescue Division and arranged to settle her elsewhere, then visited a clinic for his worsening symptoms.
• A physician told Wei Sheng that a hidden technique was destroying his organs and that he would die in eleven days.

Chu Qing went to the Anomaly Division to recruit Gray Robes for a mission and chose the ten highest-ranked inmates, paying each with a secret inheritance. He left the underground level with Gray Robes No. 1 through No. 10, while the others doubted he would survive the mission.

• Chu Qing arrived at the Anomaly Division and learned that Gray Robes lived on the first underground level, where lower numbers indicated stronger and more unruly recruits.
• Chu Qing inspected the numbered Gray Robes and found that the top hundred had exceptional foundations and secret inheritances.
• Chu Qing offered No. 1 a secret inheritance in exchange for joining his mission, then gave different inheritances to No. 2 and No. 3.
• The other Gray Robes crowded around Chu Qing, eager to be chosen after seeing how generously he paid.
• Chu Qing said he would select only Gray Robes numbered before ten and promised to return for them in the future.
• Chu Qing led Gray Robes No. 1 through No. 10 away as the remaining inmates regretted not being chosen.

Chu Qing led ten Gray Robes to investigate a dry well in Nigou Village that compelled anyone who heard its crying to jump in. The Gray Robes were trapped in a cycle of jumping until Chu Qing approached the well, silencing the anomaly and leaving them free but confused.

• Chu Qing told the Gray Robes that their flesh and blood would serve as materials, then chose a ten-point mission involving a crying well.
• The Gray Robes selected the mission in Nigou Village and rode there with Chu Qing, where villagers warned them that the well drove people to suicide.
• The Gray Robes heard the crying and felt compelled to jump into the well, while Chu Qing could hear nothing and watched them repeatedly leap in and climb out.
• Gray Robe No. 1 joined No. 8 in the well, and eventually all ten Gray Robes took turns jumping as Chu Qing studied the anomaly.
• Chu Qing approached the well, causing the crying to vanish and restoring the Gray Robes' control; he then asked why they had stopped jumping.

Chu Qing and the Gray Robes investigated a dry-well anomaly, then went to Peach Blossom Mountain to investigate the disappearances there. Gray Robe No. 8 was ensnared by colorful smoke, but Chu Qing appeared in the mist and destroyed it.

• Gray Robe No. 1 slapped a companion for peeking beneath her skirt, and the Gray Robes found a woman's skeleton and yellow eels at the bottom of the dry well.
• Chu Qing realized his Golden Toad Money had likely destroyed the well anomaly and led the Gray Robes to Peach Blossom Mountain.
• Chu Qing spotted mist that the Gray Robes could not see and warned them it was likely responsible for the disappearances.
• Gray Robe No. 8 entered the mountain, chased the colorful smoke, and began turning transparent as it engulfed him.
• Gray Robe No. 8 fought the smoke with his limit-breaking power, but it continued to surround him until Chu Qing appeared and made the mist collapse.