Chapter Summaries

Jiang Qinghe visited Jiang Ziyue at Hui Chun Pavilion and saw how eagerly she had taken to alchemy under Zheng Borui. As he left, Ziyue gave him a rare Marrow Cleansing Pill to help him break through to the next realm.

• Jiang Ziyue welcomed Jiang Qinghe and told him she had enjoyed learning alchemy from Zheng Borui.
• Zheng Borui inspected Jiang Ziyue's first batch of Blood Activating Powder and praised her exceptional skill while warning her not to become complacent.
• Jiang Ziyue reassured Jiang Qinghe that she was balancing alchemy with martial cultivation, and he felt relieved to see her thriving at Hui Chun Pavilion.
• As Jiang Qinghe prepared to leave, Jiang Ziyue secretly gave him a Marrow Cleansing Pill she had obtained from Zheng Borui.
• Jiang Qinghe accepted the precious pill, thanked his sister, and left Hui Chun Pavilion after urging her to keep studying.

Jiang Qinghe used the Marrow Cleansing Pill to break through into the Marrow Cleansing Realm, enduring a night of agonizing transformation. After succeeding, he assessed his increased strength and lifespan and resolved to advance toward Blood Replacement.

• Jiang Qinghe prepared himself before swallowing the Marrow Cleansing Pill and circulating the Marrow Cleansing Guidance Chapter.
• The pill's power forced open passages into his marrow, where his old marrow was ground away and new marrow formed through hours of intense pain.
• At dawn, Jiang Qinghe entered Marrow Entry, and his Marrow Cleansing Guidance Chapter proficiency increased by 100 points.
• Jiang Qinghe found that his physical strength had reached a hundred thousand jin and that he could rival an ordinary Blood Replacement Martial Practitioner in the second stage of Marrow Cleansing.
• Jiang Qinghe noticed his Lifespan had increased by only ten years and suspected future increases would come with each Marrow Cleansing minor realm.
• Jiang Qinghe decided to stabilize his realm and steadily advance toward Blood Replacement.

Jiang Qinghe refused Liu Gong’s bribe and threats when the Nishang Pavilion steward sought leniency for Liu Gun’s Drunken Soul Grass trafficking. Liu Gong left empty-handed, while Jiang Qinghe remained confident that the case would proceed under Commander Yi Mingrui’s approval.

• Jiang Qinghe finished recovering from his breakthrough and went to his duty room.
• Liu Gong arrived at the Demon Slaying Division to plead for his younger brother, Liu Gun, and offered Jiang Qinghe gold notes.
• Jiang Qinghe rejected the bribe and said the law left no room for personal considerations in the Drunken Soul Grass case.
• Liu Gong threatened Jiang Qinghe, but Jiang Qinghe remained unmoved and ordered him to leave.
• Liu Gong left with his servant, and Jiang Qinghe reflected that Commander Yi Mingrui had approved his handling of the case.

Yin Ping grew furious after Jiang Qinghe exposed his illicit income and removed his associates from the patrol squad. At the Demon Slaying Division’s tournament, the Commander and Deputy Commanders assembled to judge the competitors as the event began.

• Yin Ping emerged from cultivation having reached Marrow Entry, then learned that Jiang Qinghe had caught Liu Gun and seized the evidence.
• Yin Ping learned that Jiang Qinghe had purged his lackeys from the patrol squad and vowed revenge.
• City Guards and reserve City Guards gathered at the training ground for the Division’s twice-yearly tournament.
• Commander Yi Mingrui and the three Deputy Commanders took their seats, and Yin Hong briefly looked toward the Xuanhua Street patrol squad.
• The tournament began, allowing City Guards to challenge one another or even a Patrol Commander while the leaders judged their performances.

The division’s skills contest drew broad attention when Yin Ping challenged Jiang Qinghe, hoping to defeat him publicly and undermine Commander Yi Mingrui. As they faced off, Yi Mingrui sensed that Jiang Qinghe had reached the Marrow Cleansing Realm and wondered how he had advanced so far.

• City Guards fought successive bouts in the contest until a newly advanced Jade Viscera Realm guard challenged a City Patrol Inspector and lost to his spear technique.
• Yin Ping entered the arena and requested permission to fight Jiang Qinghe, drawing everyone’s attention.
• Yi Mingrui sensed that Yin Ping had reached the Marrow Cleansing Realm and realized Yin Hong had likely provided him with a Marrow Cleansing Pill.
• Yi Mingrui granted Yin Ping’s request, while Yin Ping planned to defeat Jiang Qinghe and damage Yi Mingrui’s standing.
• Jiang Qinghe entered the arena, and Yi Mingrui sensed that his blood and qi had also penetrated into the marrow, with even greater density than Yin Ping’s.
• Jiang Qinghe calmly invited Yin Ping to begin, and Yin Ping called him arrogant.

Jiang Qinghe weathered Yin Ping’s Shadowless Sword Technique and overwhelmed him with the Earth Splitting Three Transformations, leaving Yin Ping unconscious. The match ended with the venue stunned by Jiang Qinghe’s decisive victory.

• Yin Ping unleashed the Nine Nether Illusory Shadows, surrounding Jiang Qinghe with sword strikes.
• Jiang Qinghe blocked every strike by combining Mountain-Shattering Momentum with his saber technique.
• Jiang Qinghe counterattacked and drove Yin Ping backward with a relentless series of powerful slashes.
• Jiang Qinghe changed his final strike to the back of his saber and knocked Yin Ping unconscious.

Jiang Qinghe defeated Yin Ping in the martial examination and won the Xuanhua Street City Patrol position. Yi Mingrui formally appointed him, while warning him to beware of Yin Hong, and Jiang Qinghe received a City Patrol’s Hundred-Patterned Blade.

• Jiang Qinghe defeated Yin Ping, leaving Yin Hong furious but unable to challenge the result.
• Yi Mingrui declared Jiang Qinghe the winner, and the Xuanhua Street City Guards celebrated their City Patrol’s victory.
• Yi Mingrui praised Jiang Qinghe’s strength, warned him that Yin Hong might retaliate, and said he would entrust Xuanhua Street to him.
• Yi Mingrui’s personal guard delivered Jiang Qinghe’s formal appointment document, making him the rightful City Patrol of Xuanhua Street.
• Jiang Qinghe exchanged his waist token at the armory, where Old Wu presented him with a Hundred-Patterned Blade.

Jiang Qinghe received a superior Hundred-Patterned Blade and tested how well it carried his strength, while his appointment and assessment results changed his standing among the inspectors. He declined their sudden overtures and focused on training, ending with his resolve strengthened and his cultivation panel updated.

• Old Wu gave Jiang Qinghe a Hundred-Patterned Blade forged from Hundred-Forged Profound Steel and explained its quality.
• Jiang Qinghe practiced Earth Splitting Three Transformations with the new blade and found that it transmitted his strength smoothly.
• After Jiang Qinghe’s appointment and assessment, the other inspectors reassessed him as a promising third-tier fighter and began seeking his favor.
• Jiang Qinghe politely declined invitations and matchmakers, deciding that only strength could protect what he valued.
• Jiang Qinghe trained beneath the moon and saw his cultivation panel show Marrow Entry, improved technique progress, and zero Potential Points.

After Yin Ping lost to Jiang Qinghe and lost the Circuit Inspector position, Yin Hong promised to handle the matter and secretly met with Dark Crow of the Path of Rebirth. Dark Crow tried to recruit Yin Hong with the promise of advancing to the Innate Martial Venerable realm and gave him a mysterious purple crystal as proof of their sincerity.

• Yin Ping raged over his public defeat and insisted that Jiang Qinghe had to die for him to claim the Circuit Inspector position.
• Yin Hong told Yin Ping to recover and promised to take care of everything, while Yin Ping buried his hatred and agreed to wait.
• Yin Hong secretly slipped into an abandoned residence in Guangming Ward to meet Dark Crow.
• Dark Crow pressed Yin Hong to join the Path of Rebirth and tempted him with the chance to advance to the Innate Martial Venerable realm.
• Dark Crow gave Yin Hong a purple crystal that released a trace of pure, gentle energy into his body.

Yin Hong accepted the Path of Rebirth's offer of a Purple Crystal Stone and agreed to cooperate in bringing Drunken Soul Grass into Guangming Ward. He asked Dark Crow to arrange Jiang Qinghe's death, while Dark Crow privately dismissed Yin Hong as an idiot.

• Dark Crow gave Yin Hong a Purple Crystal Stone and promised a better one if their plans succeeded.
• Yin Hong accepted the Path of Rebirth's offer after considering the crystal's help in breaking into the Innate Realm.
• Dark Crow described a plan to sell Drunken Soul Grass through Guangming Ward and suggested Yin Hong could rise to rival or replace Yi Mingrui.
• Yin Hong asked the Path of Rebirth to kill Jiang Qinghe, explaining that Jiang had disrupted its Drunken Soul Grass operation on Xuanhua Street.
• Yin Hong and Dark Crow agreed on ways to communicate and initial routes and handover details for the Drunken Soul Grass trade.
• After Yin Hong left, Dark Crow watched him disappear and quietly called him an idiot.

Jiang Qinghe learned that Liu Gun had been released after the Drunken Soul Grass evidence and escorting suspects vanished during transfer to the Prison Department, and suspected an inside conspiracy. Liu Gong had secured his brother’s release by agreeing to use Nishang Pavilion’s freight network to distribute Drunken Soul Grass, leaving him committed to a dangerous criminal operation.

• Zhou Yi told Jiang Qinghe that the Prison Department had released Liu Gun for insufficient evidence after the Drunken Soul Grass disappeared from its crate and the escorting suspects vanished.
• Jiang Qinghe suspected that someone had tampered with the case transfer and considered Yin Hong, Liu Gong, and prison inspector Liu Feng as possible conspirators.
• Jiang Qinghe told Zhou Yi to file the Prison Department’s paperwork and set the matter aside for now.
• Liu Gong watched his crippled younger brother and recalled that he had joined the Drunken Soul Grass distribution network in exchange for Yin Hong’s help securing Liu Gun’s release.

Jiang Qinghe used a fifty-year Blood Ganoderma from Jiang Ziyue to begin the painful Blood Replacement stage of cultivation. After a night sealed in a blood-scab cocoon, he awoke as the cocoon began to crack.

• Jiang Qinghe reflected on the Demon Slaying Division’s cultivation resources and the advantages he gained through Jiang Ziyue’s connection to the Spring Return Branch Pavilion.
• Jiang Qinghe received a fifty-year Blood Ganoderma that Jiang Ziyue had obtained from Zheng Borui.
• Jiang Qinghe consumed the Blood Ganoderma and endured old blood being expelled as new blood formed in his marrow.
• Jiang Qinghe spent the night guiding the Blood Replacement process while a thick cocoon of blood scab covered him.
• At dawn, cracks spread across the cocoon, and Jiang Qinghe opened his eyes and straightened his body.

After breaking through to Blood Replacement, Jiang Qinghe assessed his increased strength and lifespan, then went to the garrison and found a bounty notice for a masked criminal in Guangming Ward. The reward drew attention, but the criminal’s strength and vague description left Jiang Qinghe and the other officers unsure how to pursue him.

• Jiang Qinghe broke through to Blood Replacement, raising his strength to 150,000 jin and increasing his lifespan to 45 years.
• Jiang Qinghe checked his panel, noted that his daily Potential Point limit had risen, and worried that his money was running low.
• Jiang Qinghe assigned duties to the City Guards and noted that Yin Ping remained absent while still visiting Hongxiu Zhao; he continued to suspect Yin Ping and Yin Hong had ties to Liu Gun’s case.
• Jiang Qinghe saw a Bounty Notice offering one hundred merit points for capturing a masked fiend accused of theft and assaulting women in Guangming Ward.
• The city patrol officers hesitated to pursue the Blood Replacement Realm suspect because his description was vague and the crowded ward would be difficult to search, and Jiang Qinghe left the notice board.

While patrolling Xuanhua Street, Jiang Qinghe was ambushed by Night Owl, a Flawless Realm assassin whose cultivation was powerful but poorly founded. Jiang Qinghe defeated and killed him, ending the chapter with Night Owl pinned to a wall by the Hundred-Patterned Blade.

• Jiang Qinghe encountered a masked attacker wielding a Double-edged Sickle near Zui Feng Tower.
• Jiang Qinghe recognized the attacker as Night Owl from the Bounty Notice and assessed that his Flawless Realm strength was unstable.
• Night Owl realized the intelligence about Jiang Qinghe's Marrow Entry cultivation was wrong as Jiang Qinghe's counterattacks overwhelmed him.
• Jiang Qinghe disarmed Night Owl and broke his chest with an elbow strike when Night Owl tried to attack at close range.
• Jiang Qinghe threw the Hundred-Patterned Blade into Night Owl's back, pinning him to a wall and killing him.

Jiang Qinghe killed a masked fiend who ambushed him and discovered the man shared a mysterious marking with another criminal. After learning the marking belonged to the Path of Rebirth, Jiang Qinghe received recognition and merit points from Yi Mingrui and headed to the Division treasury.

• Jiang Qinghe searched the masked fiend's body, found the same strange marking seen on a criminal connected to Drunken Soul Grass, and ordered the City Guards to record it.
• Jiang Qinghe examined his spoils and found ten thousand taels of gold, the Spirit Shadow Severing Void blade manual, and the Snow Treading Without Trace movement manual.
• The Demon Slaying Division identified the dead man as a wanted fiend and revealed that he had been a Flawless Realm expert whom Jiang Qinghe killed.
• Jiang Qinghe reported the ambush to Yi Mingrui, who realized Jiang Qinghe had entered the Blood Replacement Realm.
• Yi Mingrui identified the marking as belonging to the Path of Rebirth and awarded Jiang Qinghe an additional hundred merit points.
• Jiang Qinghe left to visit the Division treasury while his colleagues watched him with astonishment.

Jiang Qinghe entered the Treasury’s inner core and exchanged 200 merits for the difficult-to-master defensive art Primordial Chaos Armor. After several days of training, he noticed his growing experience with diverse martial arts was improving his comprehension.

• Jiang Qinghe entered the Treasury’s core area and searched its martial arts collection for a technique to address his needs.
• Old Wu explained that Primordial Chaos Armor could withstand an Innate Martial Venerable’s strike at its peak, but its extreme cultivation difficulty had driven previous practitioners to abandon it.
• Jiang Qinghe exchanged 200 merits for Primordial Chaos Armor, confident he could overcome its slow progress with Potential Points.
• Several days later, Jiang Qinghe saw that Primordial Chaos Armor and other newly acquired martial arts had reached Beginner, and he realized that studying many techniques was deepening his martial comprehension.

Dark Crow and the Path of Rebirth prepared to spread Withered Gu through Drunken Soul Grass across the Northern District of Cangfeng City. With the Withered-Prosperity Mother Gu close to hatching, they aimed to hold hundreds of thousands of residents hostage, and Dark Crow imagined extending the scheme across the entire Outer City.

• Dark Crow reported to the Protector that Drunken Soul Grass had infiltrated several Northern District wards and that more deliveries would provide enough to spread the Withered Gu.
• The Protector warned the Path of Rebirth members to guard the hidden chamber and said he would return to oversee the Mother Gu’s imminent hatching.
• Dark Crow’s plan relied on Drunken Soul Grass carrying Withered Gu into human bodies, where the Child Gu would remain dormant until activated by the Mother Gu.
• The Path of Rebirth intended to use the Mother Gu to drain the lives of hundreds of thousands and force the City Lord’s Mansion and Inner City powers to bargain.
• Dark Crow lamented that their limited supply of Withered Gu could cover only the Northern District and laughed at the prospect of infecting the entire Outer City.

Yin Hong realized Dark Crow had tricked him with a nearly depleted Purple Crystal Stone, leaving him short of the power he needed and at greater risk of exposure. Meanwhile, Jiang Qinghe advanced his training and brought his cultivation method to the threshold of the Flawless Realm.

• Yin Hong discovered that the Purple Crystal Stone Dark Crow had given him was genuine but nearly drained of Spiritual Qi, and he raged at being deceived.
• Yin Hong recognized that he had helped the Path of Rebirth spread Drunken Soul Grass throughout Guangming Ward and feared his actions would be exposed.
• Jiang Qinghe reviewed his rapid progress in martial techniques, his cultivation, and his difficulty finding Origin Magnetic Sand for Primordial Chaos Armor.
• Jiang Qinghe spent his 300 Potential Points on the Marrow Cleansing Guidance Chapter, raising it to 790/800 and nearing the Flawless Realm.

Jiang Qinghe noticed Drunken Soul Grass appearing across numerous cases just as Commander Yi Mingrui summoned all City Patrols to announce its spread throughout the Northern District and its connection to the Path of Rebirth. The Division began a district-wide investigation, while Yin Hong and his faction feared their past efforts to conceal the contraband could implicate them in a capital crime.

• Jiang Qinghe reviewed case files that showed Drunken Soul Grass surfacing across Xuanhua Street and recalled his stalled investigation into Liu Gun's supplier.
• A messenger ordered all City Patrols to gather, and Hu Lei said an urgent report had reached Yi Mingrui before dawn.
• Yi Mingrui announced that Drunken Soul Grass had spread across several Northern District wards and that an organization was behind its circulation.
• Yi Mingrui revealed the Path of Rebirth insignia and ordered City Patrols to investigate every Drunken Soul Grass transaction and report anyone bearing the mark.
• Yin Hong and his faction grew uneasy because they had previously ignored or concealed suspicious goods that turned out to be Drunken Soul Grass.

After the Path of Rebirth’s connection to Drunken Soul Grass alarmed Guangming Ward’s patrol commanders, their crackdown quickly uncovered only low-level distributors. The Path’s Protector waited anxiously for the Mother Gu to mature, and the chapter ended with a worried Ziyue arriving alone at Jiang Qinghe’s residence.

• Yi Mingrui warned the patrol commanders that the Path of Rebirth investigation was serious and dismissed the meeting.
• Hu Lei asked Jiang Qinghe to share clues and cooperate, while Jiang Qinghe wondered why the Path was distributing Drunken Soul Grass.
• The Protector and Black Crow waited beside the blood pool as the Mother Gu failed to hatch despite the widespread spread of Child Gu.
• Patrol commanders across the Northern District eagerly investigated Drunken Soul Grass for promised merit points, and Jiang Qinghe’s officers uncovered several dens but captured only minor distributors.
• After returning to his official residence, Jiang Qinghe opened the door to find a worried Ziyue, who had come alone.