Chapter Summaries

Lin Su destroyed a black Gu Worm hidden inside Princess Yufeng’s Jade Pendant, then created a Timeless Ci that protected West Mountain Villa. He and Bi Xuanji concluded that the real Consort Xiang was alive and connected to Dark Fragrance, prompting Lin Su to call for the organization to be dismantled and driven underground.

• Lin Su entered Princess Yufeng’s bedchamber, shattered her Jade Pendant, and destroyed the black Gu Worm hidden inside it.
• Princess Yufeng asked Lin Su to stay because she was frightened, and he remained in her bedchamber until dawn.
• After Xie Xiaoyan caught Lin Su leaving the princess’s bedchamber, she asked him for a Ci, and he wrote the new tune “Lang Tao Sha: Rain on West Mountain,” which became Timeless and protected the villa.
• Lin Su promised Xie Xiaoyan a new song, then spoke privately with Bi Xuanji and told her about the Gu Worm in Princess Yufeng’s pendant.
• Lin Su urged Bi Xuanji to replace the Nine Halls’ masters, make her brother disappear, and take Dark Fragrance underground because he believed the real Consort Xiang was in the palace and could reclaim the organization.

Lin Su and Mei Wudong completed their plan to take Dark Fragrance from Consort Xiang, while Qu Feiyan cleansed his literary heart and prepared to target Lin Su once he left the capital. As Lin Su continued his routine in the city, he told Zhu Shiyun he would leave the next day after declining an invitation to debate at the Hanlin Academy.

• Lin Su explained to Bi Xuanji how replacing Dark Fragrance's branch masters and severing its contact chain would take the organization from Consort Xiang, and Bi Xuanji grasped the scheme.
• The Crown Prince concealed the Crown Princess's death and realized he had lost control of Dark Fragrance, while Consort Xiang discovered that the nine branch masters had vanished and reported the losses to the Emperor.
• Wu Xinyue used the Snowy Mountain Night Moon Painting to cleanse Qu Feiyan's literary heart, and Qu Feiyan agreed to use his power against Lin Su once Lin Su was three hundred li from the capital.
• Lin Su confirmed that Mei Wudong had transferred the lines connected to Dark Fragrance's nine branch masters to him, while Mei Wudong took on the identity of northern merchant Li Qingqiu and established a business partnership with Lin Su.
• As a flood crisis reached Lu Tiancong, Lin Su visited Zhu Shiyun, declined Chen Geng's invitation to debate at the Hanlin Academy, and said he would return home the next day.

Lin Su and Zhou Mei were caught in Qu Feiyan’s literary realm as they traveled down the Yangtze River. Lin Su shattered the realm and countered Qu Feiyan’s attacks, but Qu Feiyan then invoked a power that connected his literary realm to the real world, leaving the fight unresolved.

• Lin Su rejected the Hanlin Academy’s invitation and left the capital by boat, while Zhou Mei joined him and questioned him about his hidden secrets.
• Three illusory assassins appeared, and Lin Su and Zhou Mei discovered that Qu Feiyan had trapped them in his literary realm.
• Qu Feiyan revealed himself as a phantom and claimed Lin Su and Zhou Mei could not escape his realm.
• Lin Su revealed that he had broken through to the literary path and used “Rage and Crown” to shatter Qu Feiyan’s literary realm.
• Qu Feiyan counterattacked with his palm-held literary realm, but Lin Su blocked it with the Timeless War Azure Poem “Ballad of the Frontier.”
• Qu Feiyan invoked “Myriad Laws Merge with Heaven,” linking his literary realm to the real world and bringing Sacred Power into the battle.

Lin Su survived Qu Feiyan’s Sacred Treasure attack with the Weiyang Brush, then used feints to keep Wu Xinyue from striking while he was helpless. After recovering, he and Zhou Mei reached Haining, where flood preparations were underway and Bao Shan announced Lin Su’s return.

• Lin Su used the Weiyang Brush to destroy Qu Feiyan’s Sacred Treasure manuscript, but a snow mountain appeared and carried Qu Feiyan away before the Sacred Way force could kill him.
• Lin Su tricked Wu Xinyue into believing his exposed weakness might be a trap, and Wu Xinyue left with Qu Feiyan while Lin Su’s literary aura and true qi remained exhausted.
• Lin Su slept through the night with his head on Zhou Mei’s thigh, then recovered and shared fish and Baiyunbian with her.
• After seeing floating corpses and wreckage in the river, Lin Su and Zhou Mei abandoned their boat and flew toward Haining.
• Yang Wenze ordered the Haining embankment guarded against sabotage, while Bao Shan said Great Confucians were stationed along it.
• Bao Shan and Yang Wenze saw Lin Su return to the Lin Family, and Bao Shan exclaimed that he had come back alive despite Zhao Xun’s death.

Lin Su returned to the Lin Family, where he honored his father and reunited with his family before telling Luyi that her brother was alive. After the flood crest passed, Lin Su introduced blue-and-white porcelain through a song, drawing Mo Qing and Feng Wu to the Lin Family to claim his promised answer to the Circle-Square Problem.

• Lin Su returned home, confirmed that Zhao Xun was dead, and joined Lin Zheng in honoring their father at the ancestral hall.
• Lin Su reunited with Luyi, Cui Ying, and Sister Chen, then told Luyi that her brother was alive and doing well.
• The flood crest passed Haining's embankment, the rain stopped, and the river level began to fall.
• Lin Su sang “Blue and White Porcelain” for Sister Chen and gave her instructions for producing the new porcelain.
• Mo Qing and Feng Wu discussed their reactions to Lin Su's song and flew to the Lin Family to demand his promised solution to the Circle-Square Problem.

Lin Su solved the Circle-Square Problem, prompting Mo Qing to stay in Haining to study his arithmetic, while Cui Ying left to reunite with her family. Cui Ying learned that her mother had died, her brother was imprisoned, and her younger sister had been targeted by the Lei Family.

• Lin Su explained area and geometry to Mo Qing, then gave her the formula for calculating a circle’s area and solved the Circle-Square Problem.
• Golden lotuses appeared over Ting Yu Pavilion as Mo Qing bowed to Lin Su and decided to stay in Haining to study his arithmetic.
• Lin Su gave Mo Qing textbooks in arithmetic and language and asked her to prepare ten thousand copies for the students.
• Cui Ying left for Yishui North River after Xiao Xue summoned her, and reunited with her Uncle Deng.
• Cui Ying’s uncle told her that her mother had died, her brother had been imprisoned after wounding the Lei Family’s Second Young Master, and the family had tried to sell her younger sister, Cui Miao, to a brothel.

Cui Ying learned that her mother and younger sister were hiding in Great Liang Mountain while her brother had been arrested, and Lin Su set out with her to bring them back and help him. They reached the mountain and found Cui Ying’s mother and Miao’er living in an abandoned Daoist Temple.

• Cui Ying reunited with her uncle Duan Youjun, learned that her mother had fled to Great Liang Mountain and her brother had been arrested, and asked Chen Yao and Li Feng'er to care for him.
• Lin Su arrived, apologized to Cui Ying, and took her with him despite her fears that intervening might endanger him.
• Duan Youjun learned that Lin Su was a high-ranking official and wondered whether he would help the Cui family.
• Lin Su and Cui Ying traveled three thousand miles on the Weiyang Brush, and Lin Su assured her that he would protect her brother.
• Lin Su and Cui Ying reached Great Liang Mountain and found Cui Ying’s sick mother and scarred younger sister, Miao'er, sheltering in an abandoned Daoist Temple.

Lin Su reunited Cui Ying with Mother Cui and Cui Miao, healed their illnesses and scars, then went to the Prefectural Manor and secured Cui Yanzhou’s release from prison. The family sailed toward Haining while Prefect Cao Zheng warned Lei Zhengdao that Lin Su had come for the Cui family.

• Cui Ying reunited with Mother Cui and Cui Miao in the ruined Daoist Temple, and Lin Su used the Spring Revival Seed to heal Mother Cui and remove Cui Miao’s scars.
• Cui Miao told Cui Ying that the Lei Family had tried to seize her for a brothel, and she had scarred her own face to avoid being sold.
• Mother Cui saw Cui Ying happy with Lin Su and accepted their relationship; Lin Su promised to bring Cui Yanzhou out of prison.
• Lin Su revealed his identity at the Prefectural Manor, and Prefect Cao Zheng released Cui Yanzhou and sent the family aboard a ship to Haining.
• Lei Zhengdao confronted Cao Zheng about Cui Yanzhou’s release, and Cao revealed that Lin Su had come to take the Cui family away.

Lin Su rescued Cui Ying’s family, learned that the Lei Family might face his retaliation, and agreed to tutor Cui Yanzhou. After the ship reached the capital, he sent images of Zhang Jingguan and five Medicine King Mountain members to the capital before the ship continued toward Quzhou.

• Cao Zheng warned Lei Zhengdao that Lin Su might retaliate against the Lei Family for its past persecution of the Cui Family.
• Cui Ying told Mother Cui and Cui Yanzhou that Lin Su was a fourth-rank official and the Great Cang Top Scholar, while Mother Cui urged her to secure his favor by bearing him a son.
• Zhou Mei told Lin Su that Zhang Jingguan, an Eighth Elder of Medicine King Mountain, was aboard the ship with five other members, and Lin Su suspected they were connected to Dark Fragrance’s breakaway.
• Lin Su offered to tutor Cui Yanzhou, then gave him twenty policy essays and wrote a new copy of the Sacred Word Interpretation.
• When the ship reached the capital, Lin Su watched Zhang Jingguan and the five Medicine King Mountain members disembark and sent their images to the capital using a Demon Race Communication Talisman.

Lin Su brought Cui Ying’s family to Haining Riverbank, where they settled into the Lin Family’s new homes and learned how influential he had become. Aboard King Chen’s boat, Lin Su revealed that Qu Feiyan had attacked him on the Yangtze and that he had used the time he gained to break through to the Literary Path Realm.

• Li Qingquan learned that Medicine King Mountain’s Eighth Elder had entered the capital to provoke a conflict with Wujianmen, while Bi Xuanji mistakenly read a remark about a brother-in-law as referring to herself.
• Cui Ying and Mother Cui arrived in Haining, where Cui Ying explained that the elegant Haining Riverbank had once been a refugee settlement and promised to build her mother a house there.
• Lin Su revealed that Sister Chen had arranged homes for the Lin Family and its companions, then took Sister Chen to meet King Chen aboard his pleasure boat.
• Mother Cui learned of Lin Su’s close ties to King Chen and of Cui Ying’s influence over Haining Riverbank and the soap trade, while Cui Yanzhou devoted himself to studying the Analects Commentary.
• King Chen questioned Lin Su about his dangerous actions in the capital, and Lin Su revealed that Qu Feiyan had attacked him on the Yangtze River.
• Lin Su told King Chen and Sister Chen that he had gained twenty days by staining Qu Feiyan’s literary heart and had used that time to break through to the Literary Path Realm.

Lin Su learned that Qu Feiyan had tried to assassinate Zhou Zhang and that Great Cang might secretly be preparing to let Great Corner retake the northern garrisons. After recovering his Spacetime Law insights, Lin Su asked the Peach Demon how to activate his Dao root and learned that his mastery of rules might let it sprout.

• Lin Su told King Chen that he had reached Literary Rank and defeated Qu Feiyan, then learned that Qu Feiyan had tried to kill Zhou Zhang with an attack made of words.
• King Chen warned Lin Su that the envoy to Great Corner might have made a secret agreement and that Minister of War Ding Jiye could help Great Corner retake the Four Garrisons of the North.
• Lin Su returned to the western courtyard, merged the insights of his two Primordial Spirits, and strengthened his mastery of the Spacetime Law.
• Lin Su visited the Peach Demon and asked how to activate his Dao root before the Jade Pool Gathering.
• The Peach Demon explained that Lin Su's comprehension of rules had caused a Dao root to faintly appear and described three ways to activate it.
• Lin Su asked what cultivation level the female cultivator would need for the dual-cultivation method.

Lin Su took Luyi to the capital so she could reunite with her sister Bi Xuanji after thirteen years, then visited Zhou Mei’s family and used the Spring Revival Seed to heal her mother. He learned that Zhou Zhang had named his pavilion in memory of the regrets and separation he shared with Zhou Mei’s mother.

• Lin Su traveled to the capital with Luyi, and Zhou Mei followed them invisibly on the Weiyang Brush.
• Luyi and Bi Xuanji reunited at Lingyin Temple and wept together after thirteen years apart.
• After merging his Primordial Spirits, Lin Su sensed Zhou Mei’s invisible presence and offered to visit her family to treat her injured mother.
• Zhou Mei brought Lin Su to her home, where he used the Spring Revival Seed to heal her mother’s wounds.
• Zhou Zhang told Lin Su that he had named Horizon Pavilion after the regrets he and Zhou Mei’s mother shared over their long separation.

Zhou Zhang learned that Lin Su had defeated Qu Feiyan inside a Literary Realm and realized Lin Su might possess a Peerless Literary Heart. Lin Su then proposed a plan to set Medicine King Mountain and Wujianmen against each other, while Bi Xuanji brought Luyi to West Mountain Villa, where she met Princess Yufeng and Xie Xiaoyan.

• Zhou Zhang warned Lin Su that he could choose a quiet life or continue confronting powerful opponents, and Lin Su left after saying Qu Feiyan had courted death.
• Zhou Mei told Zhou Zhang that Lin Su had broken through the Literary Path and beaten Qu Feiyan, prompting Zhou Zhang to suspect Lin Su had a Peerless Literary Heart.
• Lin Su proposed that Dark Fragrance impersonate Medicine King Mountain and attack Wujianmen's strongholds to provoke a conflict between the two powers.
• Lin Su left for the capital and entrusted Luyi to Bi Xuanji, who took her to West Mountain Villa.
• Luyi met Princess Yufeng and Xie Xiaoyan, who welcomed her and invited her to stay at the villa.

Luyi secured a steady supply of alkali from Princess Yufeng, while Lin Su stunned the capital by invoking the Holy Hall’s rules to challenge White Deer Academy to a Literary Dao Grand Battle. The academy gathered its elders and masters to prepare, as Lin Su’s apparent aim of forcing Qu Feiyan to face him remained imminent.

• Luyi asked Princess Yufeng for alkali for Haining Soap Factory, and they agreed to ship one boatload every three months.
• Lu Youwei arrived and warmly greeted Luyi before giving perfume to the women.
• Lin Su rang the Literary Dao Bell and declared a Grand Battle against White Deer Academy, prompting the Night Watchman to order the battle to begin in half an hour.
• Zhang Haoran, Qiu Mochi, Huo Qi, and Li Yangxin concluded that Lin Su had challenged the academy to force Qu Feiyan to accept a confrontation.
• Zhou Zhang explained that winning would let Lin Su make a demand of White Deer Academy, potentially allowing him to expel Qu Feiyan.
• Three hundred and sixty White Deer Academy elders gathered as its Great Elder demanded that the academy decide how to arrange the trials.

White Deer Academy chose arithmetic as Lin Su’s first trial, expecting its hardest problems to exhaust him, but he solved all ten with ease. He passed through the gate after mocking the academy’s arithmetic scholars and praising the mathematical arts class at Haining Academy, leaving them furious and astonished.

• White Deer Academy’s elders selected arithmetic as Lin Su’s first trial and prepared ten difficult problems, hoping to drain his mental strength.
• Lin Su answered the first five arithmetic questions almost immediately, while the women at West Mountain watched and the Little Monk misunderstood the first problem as a warning not to eat.
• Lin Su solved the remaining questions, including the final Chicken and Rabbit in a Cage problem, and passed the arithmetic trial in less than a quarter of an hour.
• Lin Su told White Deer Academy’s grandmasters to visit Haining Academy and claimed its ten-year-old students could solve the problems and would soon study the Circle-Square Problem.
• Lin Su left through the outer gate, while the White Deer Academy elders seethed at his insults but could not challenge his victory.

Lin Su defeated the Mohist trial by building an iron boat powered by a propeller, then overwhelmed White Deer Academy’s scholars in the Dao Discussion Stage. As he approached the final challenge, two mysterious women stepped forward to take the Poetry Stage.

• Lin Su turned a melted axe into an iron boat, used a propeller to speed across the river, and defeated the Mohist elder.
• Ding Jiye dismissed the iron boat’s practical value, while Lin Su entered the Dao Discussion Stage and began debating thirty-six Great Confucians.
• Lin Su defeated thirty-one debaters with arguments drawn from sacred classics, astonishing the scholars and prompting Bi Xuanji to suspect he meant to reshape the capital’s literary landscape.
• Two women in purple and white emerged from a cave and decided the Dao Discussion Stage could not stop Lin Su, so they would defend White Deer Academy at the Poetry Stage.
• The remaining Great Confucians and Poetic Dao Grandmasters yielded the stage to the two women after Grandmaster Li identified them.

Lin Su faced Moyuan, who challenged him with the newly created seven-colored Ci tune “Nine Heavens,” and answered with an equally brilliant poem that exposed its flaw. When Moyuan questioned Lin Su’s standing in their literary battle, Lin Su wrote “Calming the Wind and Waves,” producing World-Passing Azure Ci Poetry and leaving the city in an uproar.

• Moyuan appeared on the rainbow bridge and challenged Lin Su on the path of poetry and Ci with his new tune, “Nine Heavens.”
• Moyuan completed the 270-character, seven-colored Ci, and Lin Su answered with the matching seven-colored “Nine Zhang Ji,” rising to Moyuan’s height on nine steps.
• Moyuan argued that Lin Su ranked lower because he had responded within Moyuan’s newly created tune, while Lin Su said his poem revealed flaws in “Nine Heavens.”
• Lin Su explained that Moyuan’s numbered heavens were forced into the poem and lacked a consistent connection to its meaning, while “Nine Zhang Ji” carried its weaving theme throughout.
• Moyuan warned Lin Su that raging waves could sweep him away, and Lin Su answered by writing “Calming the Wind and Waves.”
• Azure lotuses appeared as Lin Su’s Ci was recognized as World-Passing Azure Ci Poetry, stunning the entire city.

Lin Su received no literary treasure after composing Calming the Wind and Waves, which was bestowed upon Moyuan instead. He then faced a purple-clad musician whose performance of Listen to the Wind's Song enthralled the city, and the musician asked to hear Lin Su's famous tune.

• Zhang Haoran and Huo Qi praised Lin Su's Calming the Wind and Waves, while Luyi wept and Moyuan chose to concede at the Poetry Stage.
• The Sacred Bestowal awarded the Wind-Calming Disc to Moyuan, and Lin Su realized his words had been taken as a literal gift.
• Lin Su crossed the rainbow bridge and encountered a purple-clad musician seated beside a lotus pond with a jade zither.
• The purple-clad musician played Listen to the Wind's Song, silencing the city and astonishing the women on Western Mountain.
• Lin Su praised the tune, and the purple-clad musician asked him to perform the melody he had once played at the Azure Lotus Dao Discussion.

Lin Su crossed the lotus pond with his flute performance and faced Mo Wen, then reached White Deer Book Peak for his final challenge against Qu Feiyan. Qu Feiyan demanded that Lin Su climb the peak in two hours, and Lin Su challenged the fairness of the test by pointing out that it had taken Qu Feiyan ten years.

• Lin Su played “Mountain Song is Like Spring River Water,” crossed the lotus pond on a lotus-leaf boat, and impressed the listeners with music beyond the Five Tones.
• Mo Wen asked the tune's name, bowed to Lin Su, and let him pass toward White Deer Academy’s final gate.
• Lin Su arrived at White Deer Book Peak, where Zhang Haoran, Qiu Mochi, and Huo Qi explained that Qu Feiyan had built its steps through ten years of calligraphy cultivation.
• Qu Feiyan announced that Lin Su had to reach the summit within two hours or crawl out of White Deer Academy, a condition the knowledgeable observers recognized as a lethal trap.
• Lin Su asked Qu Feiyan whether it was true that he had taken ten years to climb the mountain.

Lin Su defeated Qu Feiyan at Book Peak by creating two new calligraphy styles and a timeless treatise, then demanded a Literary Way Life and Death Battle. He accused Qu Feiyan of assassinating Great Cang officials and soldiers, and the chapter ended as Lin Su unleashed Rage and Crown.

• Qu Feiyan challenged Lin Su to reach Book Peak, and Lin Su wrote a calligraphy treatise that opened the Lin Style path.
• Lin Su created a second script, Su Style, and his treatise was recognized as a Timeless Azure Text, earning him the Ink Smoke Platform.
• After the Night Watchman confirmed Lin Su's challenge had succeeded, Lin Su demanded a Literary Way Life and Death Battle with Qu Feiyan.
• Lin Su accused Qu Feiyan of assassinating He Fang, Du Yuanfang, Wei Zhiqin, and Zhou Zhang, and of trying to kill Lin Su; Qu Feiyan refused to swear a Heavenly Dao oath denying the charges.
• Qu Feiyan prepared his Literary Realm in his hand, and Lin Su invoked Rage and Crown, sending a silver-moon blade toward him.