Recaps

Zhao Hongming cultivated the Eight Desolations Eternal Youth Technique, gained powerful martial skills, and secretly killed a Han assassin who targeted him inside the palace. As palace security tightened and Chen Xuerong took on a protective role, Zhao Hongming continued to conceal how strong he had become.

• Zhao Hongming chose the Eight Desolations Eternal Youth Technique at the Martial Repository Pavilion and began cultivating it with Chen Xuerong’s guidance.
• Zhao Hongming opened his first meridian, advanced rapidly with Wish Stones and medicines, and discovered that a rare silver fish soup reduced National Destiny’s suppression of his cultivation.
• As tensions rose between Great Wei, Chu, Han, and Zhao, Zhao Hongming mastered the Heaven and Earth Severing Slash and broke through to the Aperture Opening Realm.
• Zhao Hongming trained the Eight Desolations Secret Travel and explored the palace unnoticed, where he discovered that security around his residence was weaker than around other princes’ homes.
• Zhao Hongming overheard Miao Muwang impersonate Dai Gongzheng and learned that the Han assassin planned to kill him, so he killed Miao Muwang with the Heaven and Earth Severing Slash.
• Wan Youqing and Zhao Yongxu investigated the palace murders, reinforced Zhao Hongming’s guards, and ordered Chen Xuerong to continue visiting and protecting him.
• Zhao Hongming sparred with Chen Xuerong and showed that his skill and strength could match or surpass hers, but an interruption let her wooden sword strike and injure his arm.

Zhao Hongming advanced to the Innate Realm and forged Wrathful Fist as Wei entered a war against Chu, Zhao, and Han. The princes left the palace for safety, but Chu’s forces ambushed Zhao Hongli’s convoy and killed him and Gu Wei before turning toward Zhao Hongming.

• After Huo Xianshui’s proposed match with Zhao Hongming collapsed, Zhao Hongming advanced to the sixth rank of the Aperture-Opening Realm and continued training with Chen Xuerong.
• Chu, Zhao, and Han declared war on Wei after Chu’s envoys were killed, while Wei discovered that the Seven Stars Heaven Severing Formation had been sabotaged.
• Zhao Hongming broke through to the Innate Realm, learned Wrathful Mountain Skill, and combined it with Mountain Shaking Fist to create Wrathful Fist.
• As the princes prepared to leave the palace, Chen Xuerong secured permission to escort Zhao Hongming on the journey.
• Chu soldiers ambushed Zhao Hongli’s convoy, and Zhang Biao killed Crown Princess Gu Wei and Crown Prince Zhao Hongli.
• Shen Xishan agreed to lead the Chu force toward Zhao Hongming’s convoy, with orders to withdraw if they met a formidable opponent.

Zhao Hongming survived a Chu ambush, reached the Zhengyi Sect, and became entangled in court succession politics and Li Shengnan’s pursuit. Chen Xuerong confessed her feelings, the Jian'an Emperor crushed an uprising in Great Liang City, and the Zhengyi Sect began investigating Wei Country’s God-Demon Weapon and the Crown Prince’s death.

• Zhao Hongming defeated Shen Xishan and Zhang Biao, then captured or killed the remaining Chu soldiers and learned they had entered Wei Country with outside help.
• Feng Dabao reported Zhao Hongli’s death and Zhao Hongming’s apparent breakthrough to the Jian'an Emperor, who concealed the news and later crushed an uprising led by Li Yangchun and Lin Cang.
• Zhao Hongming reached the Zhengyi Sect, where the Jian'an Emperor placed Wu Qi’s guards under his command and Princess Wu Yin invited him to a banquet.
• At the banquet, Li Shengnan offered to marry Zhao Hongming, but he refused, and the Dragon Steed knocked Zhao Hongli down before throwing Gong Ji into a pool.
• The Dragon Steed approached Zhao Hongming, but he rejected it, and Chen Xuerong later confessed her feelings while confronting Li Shengnan over her pursuit of him.
• The Jian'an Emperor killed nearly ten thousand people in Great Liang City, and the princes began considering their claims to the vacant Eastern Palace while Zhao Hongming continued practicing his saber.
• Bi Lingjun revealed that Wei Country’s God-Demon Weapon had taken shape and ordered Li Zhiwu to investigate the Crown Prince’s attack and the disappearance of the Chu Army.
• Han Shi told Gong Liangyi that Gong Ji’s injuries had left him little chance of advancing further in Martial Arts, devastating Gong Liangyi.

Zhao Hongming survived Li Zhiwu’s attempt to destroy him, grew stronger, and prepared to leave the palace for his fief. The arc ended with Zhao Hongming riding toward Ying Commandery under Imperial Guard escort as a woman in black watched from a hillside.

• Zhao Hongming created Heaven Opening after witnessing Bi Lingjun test Wei’s newly forged God-Demon Weapon, while Li Zhiwu began investigating the Fifth Prince’s role in the Chu Army’s attack.
• Zhao Hongming learned Li Shengnan’s father might target him, killed Li Shengnan and her maid, and escaped Zhengyi Sect with Chang Wubing and the others.
• Zhao Yongxu protected Zhao Hongming from Li Zhiwu’s accusations, but Zhao Hongming later pursued the injured elder and killed him, then eliminated three of his men in Great Liang City.
• Zhao Yongxu arranged to ease tensions with Zhengyi Sect, while Zhao Hongming began cultivating Gao Yanshi and continued advancing his own Martial Arts.
• After ten months of training, Zhao Hongming fused his skills into Mountain Shattering, Demon Suppression, and Mountain Moving, then chose to leave the palace and take a fief.
• Zhao Yongxu named Zhao Hongming the Martial King and granted him Ying Commandery, while Bi Lingjun arranged for Zhengyi Sect martial artists to protect him.
• Zhao Hongming prepared to depart, entrusted Clear Breeze Pavilion to Wang Bao, renewed his pact with Zhao Hongguang, and rode toward Ying Commandery as a woman in black watched.