Chapter Summaries

Nalan Ye returned to Anyuan City and discovered that a newly founded Morning Dawn Empire was competing for the snake-people’s alliance. As Luo Heng offered Yue Mei all of Chuyun in exchange for Gamma, Nalan Ye challenged her not to choose short-term gain over their existing plan.

• Nalan Ye, Little Fairy Doctor, and Ling Ying arrived in Anyuan City and noticed the snake-people guards seemed to be watching them.
• In the Council Hall, Nalan Ye introduced Little Fairy Doctor to Yue Mei as the Poison Sect Master, and Yue Mei greeted her cautiously.
• Luo Heng introduced himself as an envoy of the Morning Dawn Empire, founded by the rebellious Chuyun troops and their allies.
• Luo Heng offered the snake-people all of Chuyun in return for an alliance and the Gamma Empire’s territory.
• Nalan Ye realized Luo Heng’s proposal could undermine his plan and asked Yue Mei whether she wanted to be like a rat, seeing only the benefits in front of her.

The narrator pressured Yue Mei to honor her alliance with the Gamma Empire, and she rejected Luo Heng’s offer to join the Morning Dawn Empire. Yue Mei ordered Luo Heng executed, leaving the alliance intact and the Morning Dawn Empire as an enemy.

• The narrator challenged Yue Mei to choose between immediate gains and continued loyalty, and Yue Mei dismissed Flower Snake before reaffirming the Snake-People Tribe’s alliance with the Gamma Empire.
• Luo Heng urged Yue Mei to ally with the Morning Dawn Empire and threatened war if she refused.
• Yue Mei invoked the Snake-People Tribe’s honor and bloodline authority to silence dissent among the elders.
• Yue Mei called the Morning Dawn Empire rebels and ordered the guards to drag Luo Heng out and behead him.

Yue Mei had Luo Heng executed after rejecting his claim to be an envoy of the Morning Dawn Empire, strengthening her authority among the Snake-People. She agreed to aid the Gamma Empire and appointed Qi Lin to lead a hundred thousand troops there.

• Luo Heng begged for his life, but the narrator exposed the Morning Dawn Empire as an unrecognized rebel state.
• Yue Mei's guards subdued Luo Heng and killed him, and his severed head silenced the Snake-People elders.
• The narrator judged that Yue Mei's decision to choose him had reinforced her authority and helped secure a trustworthy ally for the Snake-People.
• The narrator asked Yue Mei to send reinforcements to the Gamma Empire, and she agreed to help suppress the war.
• Yue Mei appointed Qi Lin commander of a hundred thousand Snake-People troops bound for the Gamma Empire, and Qi Lin accepted.

After the armies departed Anyuan City to encircle the Chuyun forces, the narrator joined the Snake-People reinforcements with Little Fairy Doctor and Ling Ying. As the army marched south, intelligence revealed that the Chuyun Empire’s Eastern Border, a key supply base, had fallen to the Chu Yun Rebels.

• The Xing Army and Zhong Army set out, followed two days later by the main force departing Anyuan City.
• The narrator challenged Qi Lin’s dismissive attitude, and she left to command the Snake-People army after seeing Little Fairy Doctor and Ling Ying behind him.
• Little Fairy Doctor proposed acting separately and asked whether they could spread a plague among the Chuyun army, but the narrator explained that military discipline and specialists would limit its spread.
• The narrator, Little Fairy Doctor, and Ling Ying traveled with the Snake-People army and discussed the difficulties of their long march.
• The narrator told Qi Lin that the Chuyun Empire’s Eastern Border, which supplied its seven hundred thousand soldiers, had fallen under the Chu Yun Rebels’ control.

Nalan Ye urged Qi Lin to secure Le City before attacking Qian City, but Qi Lin ordered a direct assault and only reluctantly agreed to let him lead a detachment against Le City. The next morning, Qi Lin told him that the Xing Army had already taken Qian City.

• Nalan Ye studied the map and learned that the Snake-People could not swim across the Qi River, leaving Qianqi Ferry as the nearest crossing.
• Qi Lin dismissed Nalan Ye’s concerns and ordered three thousand Xing Army troops to approach Qian City, with ten thousand Zhong Army troops to join them for an attack.
• Nalan Ye advised capturing Le City first as a secure base, and Qi Lin eventually agreed to let him lead a detachment there the next day.
• Nalan Ye reflected on his first chance to formally command troops in battle and understood some of Qi Lin’s excitement.
• After sunrise, Qi Lin told Nalan Ye that the Xing Army had taken Qian City during the night.

The snake-people army reached Qian City, but the Chu Yun Rebels had burned the city and cleared the northern bank of boats and timber, leaving the Qi River as a major obstacle. After repeated rebel raids were repelled, the chapter ended as the Chu Yun Rebels launched a sudden, large-scale attack across the river.

• The narrator and Qi Lin found Qian City burned out and learned the garrison had taken all boats and timber to the southern bank.
• Qi Lin ordered soldiers to fell trees and build boats, while the Chu Yun Rebels raided the scattered woodcutters and killed more than a hundred snake-people soldiers before retreating.
• The narrator and Qi Lin strengthened riverbank defenses and stationed guards to protect the soldiers gathering timber.
• The Chu Yun Rebels made several more failed landing attempts, then stopped attacking as the snake-people army prepared to cross the river.
• At dawn on the fifth day, the Chu Yun Rebels sent hundreds of warships and smaller craft across the Qi River toward the northern bank.

Nalan Ye suspected the Chu Yun Rebels’ noisy fleet was a feint meant to distract the Snake-People while reinforcements crossed the Qi River elsewhere. He arranged to take ten thousand troops to intercept them, but Ling Ying returned without finding any reinforcements.

• Little Fairy Doctor told Nalan Ye that a fleet had appeared on the Qi River and seemed to be attacking.
• Nalan Ye recognized the fleet’s early charge and conspicuous drums and lamps as a likely diversion for reinforcements crossing elsewhere.
• Nalan Ye warned Qi Lin and proposed taking ten thousand troops to attack the reinforcements during their crossing or ambush them after they landed.
• Qi Lin approved the plan, gave Nalan Ye a Gilded Silver Token, and assigned a Snake-People commandant to follow his orders.
• Ling Ying returned from scouting near Qianqi Ferry and told Nalan Ye he had found no reinforcements.

Nalan Ye discovered that Ling Ying had found no Chu Yun reinforcements and abandoned his proposed ambush, then struggled to understand the rebels’ movements. By evening, repeated false attacks revealed that the fleet was using fatigue warfare to keep the Snake-People army constantly on alert and prevent it from building ships.

• Ling Ying reported that he had searched the river and found no Chu Yun reinforcements, so Nalan Ye gave up on the ambush plan.
• Nalan Ye felt embarrassed in front of Qi Lin after his predictions proved wrong, while Little Fairy Doctor stayed beside him.
• Qi Lin and Nalan Ye watched the rebel fleet beat its drums without advancing, then send a general to read a proclamation before sailing away.
• The Snake-People army recalled its troops after the fleet withdrew, but another fleet arrived that evening and repeated the false attack.
• Nalan Ye recognized the rebels’ strategy as fatigue warfare, which forced the Snake-People to remain vigilant and hindered their shipbuilding.

As the snakefolk army prepared to cross the Qi River, the narrator arranged a surprise attack on the enemy fleet with the Little Fairy Doctor and tasked Ling Ying with eliminating the enemy expert. Ling Ying recognized the Little Fairy Doctor as a Calamity Poison Body and warned that she could poison the entire army if she lost control, while the narrator claimed he had a way to resolve her condition.

• The narrator urged Qi Lin to review military supplies, then learned that the snakefolk had enough ships for eight thousand soldiers and expected to have enough for ten thousand by nightfall.
• The narrator noticed that the enemy fleet patrolling the Qi River had dwindled from hundreds of ships to several dozen and asked the Little Fairy Doctor to attack it before dawn.
• The narrator told Qi Lin that the army would cross the river at dawn after the Little Fairy Doctor surprised the fleet, and Qi Lin agreed to summon the generals for a war council.
• The narrator instructed the Little Fairy Doctor to use fire oil against the ships and suppress her cultivation to the Dou Wang level, then asked Ling Ying to ambush the enemy expert.
• Ling Ying identified the Little Fairy Doctor as a Calamity Poison Body and warned that losing control could kill the entire army, but the narrator said he could resolve her condition in the future.

The narrator and Little Fairy Doctor launched a night attack on the Chu Yun Rebels’ fleet, setting floating lamp oil ablaze and damaging ships as Little Fairy Doctor fought beneath the water. At dawn, ten thousand elite snakefolk crossed the Qi River on crude rafts, clearing a scout patrol as they advanced toward the southern bank.

• The narrator and Little Fairy Doctor waited until just before dawn, then Little Fairy Doctor headed for the river while the snakefolk camp prepared for action.
• Little Fairy Doctor spread lamp oil upstream of the Chu Yun Rebels’ fleet, and the narrator’s forces set it alight, throwing the ships into chaos.
• Little Fairy Doctor smashed the flagship and another vessel, then fought underwater as the elderly general ordered Da Dou Shi to pursue her.
• Ten thousand elite snakefolk emerged from hiding upstream and crossed the Qi River on rafts under a commandant’s orders.
• A Dou Ling snakefolk ambushed a Chu Yun Rebel scout patrol and killed every scout.

Nalan Ye watched the snakefolk capture Qi City and promised Little Fairy Doctor that he could cure her Calamity Poison Body. The chapter ended with him embracing her as she feared her poison would hurt him.

• Little Fairy Doctor blasted open Qi City's northern gate, and the snakefolk army captured the city.
• Nalan Ye wondered why no Dou Wangs or Dou Huangs had come to defend Qi City as Qi Lin ordered the army to build a pontoon bridge.
• Little Fairy Doctor threw a stone across the river, and Nalan Ye revealed that he knew about her Calamity Poison Body.
• Nalan Ye claimed Ling Ying knew how to prevent the condition from losing control, and Ling Ying played along as a knowledgeable master.
• Little Fairy Doctor warned Nalan Ye that her poison could kill him, but he reassured her and pulled her into an embrace.

Nalan Ye embraced Little Fairy Doctor by the Qi River, mistook her warning about poison for a real poisoning, and watched her leave after she knocked away his antidote pills. Ling Ying warned him that the Calamity Poison Body made trust dangerous, but Nalan Ye chose to believe Little Fairy Doctor and called after her.

• Nalan Ye hugged Little Fairy Doctor at Qianqi Ferry and breathed in her poisonous fragrance before she warned him.
• Little Fairy Doctor said she carried no antidote, then knocked Nalan Ye's Detoxification Pills to the ground and walked into the Reed Swamps.
• Ling Ying examined Nalan Ye and found no poison in his body.
• Ling Ying warned Nalan Ye that people with Calamity Poison Bodies could be unpredictable and that he could not safely know whether Little Fairy Doctor had poisoned him.
• Nalan Ye recalled Little Fairy Doctor's future and shouted that he believed in her.

Nalan Ye chased Little Fairy Doctor into the Reed Swamps, where he survived an attack by a Chu Yun Rebel before confronting her about her lies and refusing to leave her. As they faced an onrushing white line on the Qi River, Little Fairy Doctor recognized that something was wrong.

• Nalan Ye entered the Reed Swamps after Little Fairy Doctor and was attacked by a Chu Yun Rebel seeking his wealth.
• Nalan Ye dodged the rebel’s saber strikes, and Little Fairy Doctor emerged from the reeds and killed him with poison.
• Nalan Ye confronted Little Fairy Doctor about lying over the fragrance and told her he would stay by her side despite her Calamity Poison Body.
• Nalan Ye asked Little Fairy Doctor to walk the road of cultivation with him, and she began to respond before sensing danger.
• Little Fairy Doctor flew above the reeds with Nalan Ye and saw a huge white line surging down the Qi River.

The narrator discovered that the Chu Yun Rebels had lured the snake people into crossing the Qi River before releasing a giant wave and bringing in a massive fleet. With retreat impossible and Qi City still contested, he prepared to destroy the pontoon bridge and fight on the riverbanks.

• The narrator spotted the approaching giant wave and realized the Chu Yun Rebels had raised the water upstream to strike the snake people crossing the pontoon bridge.
• The narrator flew to Qi Lin, warned her of the trap, and saw the Chu Yun Rebel fleet advancing behind the wave.
• Qi Lin ordered the snake people on the bridge to withdraw to both banks, while Little Fairy Doctor and Ling Ying said they could not quickly eliminate Qi City's defenders.
• The narrator concluded that retreat would leave the army without supplies and decided to hold the riverbanks against the fleet.
• The narrator ordered Elder Ling to pour oil on the pontoon bridge and burn it.

Ling Ying set fire to the pontoon bridge as a flood carried the Chu Yun fleet to Qianqi Ferry, where its forces launched a coordinated landing against the Snake-People. The chapter ended with tens of thousands of Chu Yun soldiers singing as they charged the shore, while the outnumbered Snake-People prepared to defend their line.

• Ling Ying poured fire oil over the pontoon bridge, and the bridge caught fire as the flood swept into Qianqi Ferry.
• Thirty armored warships smashed through the burning bridge, followed by nearly a thousand ships whose soldiers attacked Snake-People in the water.
• Qi Lin ordered the Dragon Hunting Crossbows to fire, while the narrator learned that the Chu Yun fleet had nearly sixty thousand troops and planned landings along a forty- or fifty-li stretch of shore.
• Ling Ying reported sensing two Dou Wang auras but no Dou Emperors among the Chu Yun forces.
• The Chu Yun fleet began simultaneous landings, leaving Qi Lin's twenty thousand defenders badly outnumbered at each site.
• The Chu Yun soldiers sang as they advanced toward shore, and the narrator watched their fury unsettle the Snake-People defenders.

The Little Fairy Doctor joined the snake people's assault on Qi City, but a concealed Dou Huang Peak expert named Xie BiYan ambushed and badly injured her. After her poison forced him to halt his pursuit, Xie BiYan invited her to join his plan to establish a nation ruled by Poison Masters.

• The Little Fairy Doctor left the snake people to attack the archers and crossbowmen defending a gatehouse in Qi City.
• A Black-Robed Old Man hiding in the gatehouse revealed himself as a Dou Huang Peak expert and struck the Little Fairy Doctor through the gatehouse and into a courtyard wall.
• The Black-Robed Old Man pursued the injured Little Fairy Doctor and fired a ball of gray-black light at her, but she dodged it.
• The Little Fairy Doctor detonated a poison pellet that began melting the Black-Robed Old Man's Poison Dou Qi Armor, forcing him to stop pursuing her.
• The Black-Robed Old Man identified himself as Xie BiYan of the Ten Thousand Scorpion Gate and invited the Little Fairy Doctor to help establish a nation ruled by Poison Masters.

Little Fairy Doctor and Ling Ying faced Xie BiYan and his reinforcements while Nalan Ye watched from Qi City. As the battle along the Qi River worsened, Qi Lin led the remaining reserves to reinforce the front, and Nalan Ye joined her before the Holy Sword Knight Order appeared on the horizon.

• Little Fairy Doctor rejected Xie BiYan's offer to unite the Poison Masters, so he attacked and overwhelmed her with his Dou Techniques.
• Ling Ying ambushed Xie BiYan, but Xie BiYan used an explosion to throw him back and escaped unharmed; Little Fairy Doctor broke free and joined Ling Ying.
• Two Dou Wangs arrived from the Chuyun fleet and joined Xie BiYan in surrounding Little Fairy Doctor and Ling Ying.
• Nalan Ye warned Qi Lin that a riverbank was about to fall, and Qi Lin led her last five hundred reserves to reinforce it.
• Nalan Ye caught up with Qi Lin and offered to fight beside her as thousands of riders from the Holy Sword Knight Order appeared from the east.

As the Holy Sword Knight Order arrived at Qi City, Nalan Ye learned that the Chuyun Imperial Family wanted to surrender to him personally. He accepted the offer, leaving the fate of the empire and its forces in his hands.

• Nalan Ye warned Qi Lin that the Holy Sword Knight Order had arrived and urged her to gather and withdraw the Snake-People troops.
• Qi Lin organized a retreat while the Holy Sword Knight Order halted near Qi City and sent a delegation toward the river.
• Prince Wei Yi introduced himself to Nalan Ye and announced that the Chuyun Empire wished to surrender.
• Wei Yi clarified that the emperor was willing to abdicate and surrender the empire to Nalan Ye rather than to the Gamma Empire.
• Nalan Ye realized the imperial family had inferred the extent of his influence and told Wei Yi he would accept Faris Lai Ni's surrender.

Anthony Moreyni recognized that Ling Ying’s disciplined combat style pointed to a powerful force behind Nalan Ye, and he concluded that the Chuyun Imperial Family had to surrender. After Wei Yi returned with Nalan Ye’s agreement, the Snake-People army continued gathering west of Qi City.

• Anthony Moreyni and Zoe Moreyni watched Ling Ying fight Xie BiYan and realized Ling Ying’s balanced Earth-tier techniques and soldier-like style suggested powerful backing.
• Zoe inferred that Nalan Ye was likely the local representative of the force behind Ling Ying, and Anthony speculated that the force valued Nalan Ye’s ability to handle affairs.
• Wei Yi returned and reported that Nalan Ye had agreed to the surrender, then questioned why the Chuyun Imperial Family should submit to him.
• Zoe rebuked Wei Yi, and Faris explained that a great force stood behind Nalan Ye and that Chuyun had no better option than surrender.
• Anthony looked west of Qi City and saw the Snake-People army gathering as the Chu Yun Rebels took the abandoned riverbanks along the Qi River.

After the Holy Sword Knight Order turned against the Chu Yun rebels, it captured Qi City and helped surround Xie BiYan. Ling Ying killed Xie BiYan with a Heaven Rank Dou Skill, but the technique left Ling Ying badly injured as the battle ended.

• Qi Lin sent a squad to the Holy Sword Knight Order, and its troops attacked Qi City after declaring the defenders rebels and offering them a chance to surrender.
• The exhausted defenders lost their will to fight, allowing the Holy Sword Knight Order to enter Qi City, while two of its experts joined the battle above the city.
• Two Chuyun Dou Wangs withdrew from the conflict, leaving Xie BiYan surrounded by Little Fairy Doctor, Ling Ying, Anthony, and Zoe.
• Xie BiYan attacked Little Fairy Doctor, then tried to flee after falling into a disadvantage, but Ling Ying intercepted him.
• Ling Ying used the low-grade Heaven Rank Dou Skill Stab to kill Xie BiYan, then suffered chaotic Dou Qi and barely landed safely.