Chapter Summaries

Tian Shi and the guards at a watchtower spotted a fleet approaching Jinxia City and realized its enormous lead vessel posed a serious threat. At Lugang Beacon Tower, Wen Xingyuan used his Bureau of Military Affairs credentials to get inside, then attacked the soldiers with a Gen Technique.

• Tian Shi saw more than ten ships approaching Jinxia City, and Wu Laoda sent Pan Houzi to warn the authorities and close the city gates.
• A huge, multideck vessel appeared among the fleet, prompting Wu Laoda to order the guards to light the Beacon Fire.
• Wen Xingyuan arrived at Lugang Beacon Tower disguised as a fifth-rank Fangshi investigating an Evil Spirit and showed the squad leader his jade token.
• Wen Xingyuan secretly prepared a Talisman and medicinal catalyst, then used the Gen Technique to impale several soldiers with earthen spikes.
• The squad leader turned toward Wen Xingyuan in shock, and Wen Xingyuan answered him with a short dagger.

Wen Xingyuan killed the guards at a beacon tower and saw the warning smoke rise, while an attack on Jinxia City was already underway. Wu Laoda and Tian Shi tried to alert the city and rally help, but an infiltrator killed them before they could escape the city wall.

• Wen Xingyuan killed the beacon tower guards, then saw bluish smoke rise over Yancheng and headed away from the tower.
• Tian Shi noticed Jinxia City's east gate remained open as Sea Bandits approached, while Pan Houzi reported that the officials were absent from the government office.
• Wu Laoda led the group and more than a hundred residents toward the east gate, where they found the gate mechanism smashed and blood nearby.
• Wu Laoda ordered the others to join the main force, then led them into a passageway to leave the wall and seek help from the Shenzhou Army.
• A short, straw-sandaled attacker ambushed the group, killed Wu Laoda, and fatally wounded Tian Shi as he charged to fight.

Zhao Dahai warned the officials at the Bureau of Military Affairs to flee after spotting a beacon signal, but the Ministry of Education alchemists rejected his warning. At Fengyang Mountain Villa, reports confirmed that Dong Sheng Kingdom’s forces had landed and seized Jinxia City’s East City Wall, and Princess Guangping asked Xia Fan what to do.

• Zhao Dahai and Li Xing saw the beacon smoke, realized key officials were missing, and ordered the Command Department members to gather at Fengyang Mountain Villa.
• Zhao Dahai warned the Ministry of Education alchemists to leave, but they mocked him and the tall alchemist threatened to report anyone who fled.
• Princess Guangping sent scouts to investigate while Xia Fan dispatched Li and Shanhui to locate the beacon’s source.
• At an emergency meeting, Xu Sanchong reported that enemy forces from Dong Sheng Kingdom had landed and captured the East City Wall while the government had made no move.
• He Guicai and Xu Sanchong urged Princess Guangping to hold her troops at the defensible villa until reinforcements arrived, and she asked Xia Fan for his opinion.

Xia Fan persuaded Ning Wanjun that defending Jinxia City’s people would win their trust and strengthen her rule, and she ordered her forces to meet the enemy before it entered the city. As the group prepared for battle and arranged aid for refugees, a rumbling sound rose from the horizon.

• Xia Fan asked what Ning Wanjun planned to do for Jinxia’s residents and argued that protecting them would distinguish her from the government and earn their support.
• Xia Fan explained how a ruler who kept promises to local people had gained their loyalty, and said Ning Wanjun could similarly win a renewed Jinxia City.
• Ning Wanjun ordered Xu Sanchong to prepare everyone for battle, explaining that she would not rely solely on Shenzhou reinforcements or abandon her subjects.
• Ning Wanjun told He Guicai to devise a rapid plan to meet the enemy, ordered Eunuch Li to prepare supplies and a refugee camp, and asked Xia Fan and the Bureau of Military Affairs to help counter Dong Sheng’s Qi Sense Users.
• Xia Fan agreed to help, and a series of rumbling sounds shook the air from the horizon.

A giant Dong Sheng Kingdom warship destroyed Jinxia City's northern defenses, revealing that the attack was far more than Wang Qingzhi’s planned Sea Bandit raid. The Masked Man said Dong Sheng intended to stay and wage war, leaving Wang Qingzhi to watch as the Shenzhou Army approached.

• A scout reported that a warship over two hundred chi long was approaching Jinxia, and Ning Wanjun warned that losing the city wall would put the city in serious danger.
• The Victory bombarded the northern wall, destroying its defenses and driving the surviving guards to flee.
• The Masked Man showed Wang Qingzhi the Victory, and Wang Qingzhi protested that their agreement had not called for such an obvious attack by Dong Sheng Kingdom’s navy.
• The Masked Man reminded Wang Qingzhi that he had agreed not to interfere and said Dong Sheng was returning to its homeland rather than preparing to leave.
• Wang Qingzhi warned that the Shenzhou Army could reach Jinxia within a day, but the Masked Man said the delay arranged by the Bureau of Military Affairs was preparation for war.
• The Masked Man told Wang Qingzhi that Dong Sheng would need him to produce all of Shenzhou’s salt once it took control.

As Sea Bandits set Jinxia City ablaze, Fang Xiandao watched the chaos and tried to avoid becoming involved in the unfolding divination. Qian Zhi attacked three Blade-wielding pursuers, and the chapter ended with soldiers bearing the princess’s and Bureau of Military Affairs’ flags marching toward the East District while directing residents to safety.

• Fang Xiandao and Qian Zhi watched fires spread across Jinxia City as residents fled the East District.
• When three Blade-wielding men chased a bloodied crowd, Qian Zhi rushed in and killed them with her speed and Frost Binding technique.
• Fang Xiandao scolded Qian Zhi for interfering with his divination, then decided they should leave the city.
• Fang Xiandao spotted ranks of soldiers advancing toward the East District under the princess’s and Bureau of Military Affairs’ flags.
• Soldiers announced that Jinxia City had been invaded and urged residents to take refuge in the outskirts of the West District, promising the princess would protect them.

Ning Wanjun led the Qi forces toward Jinxia Granary while Xia Fan and the others faced Dong Sheng Kingdom troops in the streets and on the rooftops. The fighting began, and Xia Fan’s rooftop group came under attack from samurai and masked swordsmen.

• Ning Wanjun split her forces, sending Xu Sanchong toward the South District armory while she led the main force east toward Jinxia Granary.
• Scouts reported around two hundred enemy troops at the entrance to Ancient Street, and Ning Wanjun ordered her soldiers to halt and prepare to charge.
• Ning Wanjun led the frontal assault as Qiuyue used her bow to pick off enemies from elevated positions.
• Xia Fan spotted Dong Sheng Kingdom samurai with light crossbows approaching across the rooftops, led by two masked swordsmen.
• Luo You'er cast Xun Technique Guichen, Fuliu as the rooftop enemies raised their crossbows.

Xia Fan and his allies defeated an ambush force in Jinxia City, while Beitiao Zuo reinforced the granary defenses after learning the advancing force included a powerful sorcerer. Ning Wanjun reunited with Xia Fan after the fight, and the enemy’s final stand at the granary remained ahead.

• Luo You'er shielded the sorcerers from crossbow fire with the Willow-Waving Technique while Xia Fan’s Improved Flowing Light Spell struck several enemies and forced the rooftop attackers to retreat.
• Ning Wanjun and the others routed the ambush force as archers joined the fight and the surviving attackers fled east.
• Beitiao Zuo reinforced the granary’s defensive line after learning that Sakurai’s ambush had suffered heavy losses and that the enemy might have a Qi State Sentinel using a Zhen Technique.
• Ning Wanjun returned to Xia Fan, explained that the enemy squad had fought tenaciously, and credited his rooftop advantage with reducing their casualties.

Xia Fan and Ning Wanjun learned that the Dong Sheng Kingdom was seizing grain, abducting residents, and bringing troops into Jinxia City, suggesting a much larger invasion. When the princess’s vanguard reached the granary and faced a fortified battery of cannons, she revealed that Xia Fan’s force would break the enemy formation.

• Xia Fan and Ning Wanjun learned from fleeing residents that the invaders were blockading northern streets, abducting people, and taking grain and flour from homes.
• Li volunteered to lead her subordinates to rescue residents trapped in the North District and reported that abducted residents had been taken north.
• Ning Wanjun’s vanguard approached the granary but withdrew under cannon fire from eight guns guarding the open ground.
• He Guicai advised Ning Wanjun to avoid the cannon fire, and she said Xia Fan’s force would lead the attack instead.

Xia Fan used Mo Yun’s prototype Mechanical Beast to bring his Guide Rail within range of Beitiao Zuo’s forces and fired a high-speed projectile at their cannons. The shot wrecked an Iron Cannon and devastated the soldiers around it, leaving Beitiao Zuo’s formation in chaos.

• Mo Yun delivered the wooden Mechanical Beast to Ning Wanjun and Xia Fan and warned them that it was only a prototype.
• Xia Fan explained that the best way to counter a cannon was with a longer-range cannon, then took control of the Mechanical Beast.
• Xia Fan drove the Mechanical Beast through the street-side houses to reach a position overlooking the enemy without being noticed.
• Xia Fan loaded a specially made projectile into the Guide Rail and fired it across the open ground.
• The projectile pierced the sandbag wall, smashed an Iron Cannon, and killed or injured many of Beitiao Zuo’s gunners and spearmen.

Xia Fan used the Mechanical Beast’s Railgun to devastate the Dong Sheng Kingdom’s position, allowing Ning Wanjun’s forces to seize the Granary with little resistance. Mo Yun realized the weapon could make her invention famous, while the fleeing grain convoy escaped north.

• Beitiao Zuo rallied his soldiers and ordered two artillery teams to fire on the houses where Xia Fan had attacked.
• Xia Fan moved to another position and fired the Railgun at Beitiao Zuo’s troops, accidentally striking an Iron Cannon and igniting the ammunition nearby.
• Ning Wanjun sounded the horn and led her army into the enemy position after the explosion crippled most of its defenders.
• Ning Wanjun’s forces overwhelmed the remaining resistance, and the grain transport convoy fled north.
• Mo Yun watched the victory and realized the Railgun mounted on her Mechanical Beast could bring her invention widespread recognition.

Li and Shanhui rescued residents in Jinxia City's North District and opened an escape route to the west as fighting and fires spread through the city. They left the fleeing crowds to continue evacuating while the battle for Jinxia City raged.

• Li and Shanhui found four Dong Sheng samurai harassing a woman beside a slain man and a little girl.
• Li used her Innate Technique to immobilize the samurai, and Shanhui killed them before Li directed the woman and girl toward the West District.
• Li decided that she and Shanhui should reveal their Yao Beast forms and make enough noise to alert residents that the streets were open.
• Li and Shanhui transformed into giant beasts, damaged houses, and shouted for residents to flee west.
• A man convinced the frightened residents that the beasts were Spirit Beasts sent by Her Highness the Princess, and the North District's residents began escaping west.

Li and Shanhui helped North District residents escape the blockade and met Fang Xiandao, who warned that a great disaster would strike Jinxia City before nightfall. Li rejected his advice to flee and resolved to use the warning to prepare and intervene.

• Shanhui and Li found that North District residents were leaving west, with several intersections already cleared of Dong Sheng Kingdom guards.
• Li and Shanhui met Fang Xiandao and Qian Zhi, and Fang said he had seen Li and her true form before.
• Fang denied helping the escape or fighting the samurai, though Qian Zhi revealed that she had taken credit for protecting him.
• Fang warned that his divination foretold an unprecedented disaster in Jinxia City and urged Li to leave before nightfall.
• Li questioned why Fang had not foreseen Xia Fan and the princess entering the city, then decided that his warning could help them prepare and change the outcome.

Wen Xingyuan confronted Wang Qingzhi at the Wang Family Residence and learned that Wang Qingzhi expected Jinxia City to change hands to Dong Sheng Kingdom. A masked man revealed that he had overheard their plans, and Wen Xingyuan attacked him with Fudo Myoo, apparently caving in his chest.

• Wen Xingyuan stormed into the Wang Family Residence and accused Wang Qingzhi of letting the Donghai Gang's attack spiral out of control.
• Wang Qingzhi argued that he could serve Dong Sheng Kingdom if Jinxia City changed masters and offered Wen Xingyuan a powerful position.
• Wen Xingyuan denounced Wang Qingzhi as a traitor and prepared to execute him.
• A masked man appeared beside Wang Qingzhi and revealed that he had overheard Wen Xingyuan's secret talks.
• Wen Xingyuan used Fudo Myoo and struck the masked man in the chest, blasting him backward.

The Masked Man used the An Clan’s Heavenly Dao Technique, Xingtai, to kill Wen Xingyuan and harvest his Talisman. He reassured Wang Qingzhi that Jinxia City would return to its former master when the appointed hour arrived the next day.

• The Masked Man trapped Wen Xingyuan in Xingtai, where he endured torment in a blood-red desert until he died.
• The Masked Man collected Wen Xingyuan’s Talisman, and Wang Qingzhi agreed to burn the body.
• Wang Qingzhi feared the Masked Man’s power and asked whether he was satisfied with the Talisman.
• The Masked Man said the Talisman could serve as a catalyst, lamented the stalled campaign, and promised that the war would end and Jinxia City would welcome back its former master the next day.

After withdrawing to Jinxia City’s western defenses, Ning Wanjun organized the evacuation of nearly a hundred thousand residents and secured grain from Gaoshan County. She left the people rallying behind her as the army prepared to continue the fight, while Xia Fan noticed the evening glow had disappeared.

• Ning Wanjun ordered the troops to retreat to the West Gate and burn the remaining grain in the captured granary.
• The army held Jinxia City’s southwestern walls, equipped its soldiers from the armory, and evacuated nearly a hundred thousand residents to a camp outside the city.
• He Guicai reported that the Shenzhou Army had not appeared and worried that the evacuees would soon run out of food, but Ning Wanjun dismissed his self-blame.
• A grain convoy arrived from Gaoshan County after Ning Wanjun used Xia Fan’s name to rally local support.
• Ning Wanjun distributed meat porridge to the evacuees, who praised her, while Xia Fan watched the banners and saw no evening glow over Jinxia City.

After hearing Fang Xiandao’s warning of a coming disaster, Xia Fan and Ning Wanjun planned cautiously rather than abandoning Jinxia City. They focused on how to neutralize Dong Sheng Kingdom’s warship, and Mo Yun proposed an upstream gunpowder trap.

• Li told Xia Fan that Fang Xiandao had warned him to leave Jinxia City, but would seek a way out if Xia Fan stayed.
• Xia Fan reported Fang Xiandao’s warning to Ning Wanjun, who decided it justified caution but not withdrawing the army.
• Ning Wanjun ordered Qiuyue to gather everyone and formulate a battle plan for the next day.
• Qiuyue showed the group a drawing of Dong Sheng Kingdom’s warship, and Xia Fan identified it as a Sailing Ship of the Line and described its weak approach angles.
• Xu Sanchong said the army lacked usable boats and swimmers, while Xia Fan explained that Mechanical Beasts were unlikely to sink the ship without hitting its ammunition stores.
• Mo Yun proposed using unexploded gunpowder from the captured granary to make impact-detonated Booby Traps and release them upstream against the warship.

Mo Yun devised remotely guided explosive boats to attack Dong Sheng Kingdom’s warship, and Ning Wanjun’s forces put the plan into motion at dawn. As the Thunderstrike Team waited within the ship’s range, Ning Wanjun’s army advanced through Jinxia City’s North District to draw the enemy’s attention.

• Mo Yun proposed building four person-sized, Xun-guided explosive boats, and Ning Wanjun approved a strategy pairing them with a frontal advance to draw cannon fire.
• The plan assigned Luo You'er to guide the explosive boats, with Li, Shanhui, and a hundred soldiers protecting the team while Xia Fan held back against a possible Evil Spirit Art threat.
• At dawn, Li, Shanhui, and Luo You'er took a fishing boat within range of the enemy warship, which ignored them, and prepared to guide the explosive boats from the cabin.
• Luo You'er grew nervous about the mission, but Li and Shanhui reassured her as she thought of her senior sister.
• Ning Wanjun led her troops through a third defensive line, killed the enemy commander, and drove the vanguard into the North District.

Ning Wanjun confronted An Yourang at the fourth line of defense, where he revealed a monstrous face and unleashed an Immortal Art that plunged the city into darkness and brought Mei crawling from the earth. As Ning Wanjun’s troops charged, the Mei attacked both armies, and An Yourang declared his intention to claim the princess as a collectible.

• Ning Wanjun questioned why the Dong Sheng Kingdom forces were resisting so stubbornly and ordered Qiuyue to watch the enemy from the bell tower.
• An Yourang introduced himself as the Dong Sheng Kingdom’s Magistrate of Arcane Arts and insulted Ning Wanjun by suggesting she marry into the An Clan.
• Ning Wanjun rejected An Yourang’s offer, and he revealed his face, half of which had been replaced by writhing black mist, and described the An Clan’s puppet-making secret art.
• Ning Wanjun ordered her troops to charge, while Qiuyue shot an arrow at An Yourang that he caught in his bare hand.
• An Yourang cast the Talisman art Great Wilderness, darkening the sky and summoning Mei that attacked both armies.
• An Yourang told the soldiers to fight for survival and declared that Ning Wanjun would become his first collectible after he returned home.

During the Great Desolation Evil Night, Li abandoned the booby-trap mission and led Luo You'er and the soldiers toward safety by torchlight. Across Jinxia City, the battle descended into chaos as Ning Wanjun fought An Yourang, who revealed that he no longer considered either of them human.

• Li recognized the darkness as the Great Desolation Evil Night and ordered Luo You'er and the squad to abandon the mission and retreat into the city.
• Luo You'er took responsibility for ending the mission, and the squad leader led his men after Li while keeping everyone within torchlight.
• Mei overwhelmed fighters in the North District, but warnings from Wei Wushuang and Sun Haotian helped the army light torches and avoid total destruction.
• Ning Wanjun wounded An Yourang in their duel, while he adapted to her fighting style and healed his injuries with black mist.
• An Yourang killed a squad leader who tried to help Ning Wanjun and said that neither he nor Ning Wanjun belonged to humanity anymore.