Chapter Summaries

After receiving a plea for help from King Jiang of the Yan Kingdom, Bai Yujun prepared her forces to march into the Central Plains by river. Her army and supplies assembled in an orderly fashion aboard thirty great ships.

• Bai Yujun received a letter from King Jiang asking for help and identified Yue City as the destination along the river route.
• Bai Yujun rose to act, and Iron Ball sounded the horn to assemble the demon soldiers and order them to the docks.
• Demon soldiers gathered at the riverside city as workers transported weapons, arrows, and provisions to newly built ships.
• Bai Yujun's forces recruited experienced helmsmen familiar with the waterways and assigned them to the vessels.
• Human and demon workers loaded supplies onto thirty great ships while the army waited in formation to embark.

Bai Yujun led her army eastward by ship toward the Central Plains, leaving Mu Duo and Qing Ling to oversee Snake Valley. The fleet traveled safely downriver, while Iron Ball worried about the return journey upstream.

• Iron Ball directed the Snake Demon Soldiers as they boarded and argued with Lu Gui after he warned him not to try the Immortal Fruit.
• Bai Yujun asked Mu Duo to watch the territory and Qing Ling to recruit more Snake Demon Soldiers before departing.
• Iron Ball gave the order to set sail, and more than thirty great ships and over a dozen small boats headed east.
• Bai Yujun admired the river scenery from the tower ship and recited a poem that made Iron Ball fret about returning upstream.
• Water demons and Water Monsters helped the fleet pass safely, while Bai Yujun delayed rescuing her ally and let them endure their setback a little longer.

Besieged in Yue City, Jiang Mian mourned two fallen comrades as his generals debated abandoning him and the starving city. After learning the Wu Kingdom had abandoned Yue City to the Chi Mang, Qiao Jin faced the truth that Jiang Mian’s army was the city’s only defense, and Pan Hongzu lifted the seal on her martial arts so she could help defend it.

• Jiang Mian grieved over the deaths of two old brothers and regretted how he had alienated them as the Chi Mang besieged Yue City.
• Qiao Jin entered Jiang Mian’s hall with liquor and considered killing him, but Pan Hongzu’s sword intent warned her off.
• Qiao Jin urged Jiang Mian to surrender, but he revealed that the besiegers were Chi Mang soldiers and that the Wu Kingdom had abandoned the city.
• Jiang Mian told Qiao Jin that his twenty thousand Yan soldiers were protecting Yue City’s people, and she left the hall shaken by the revelation.
• Jiang Mian asked Pan Hongzu to lift Qiao Jin’s martial arts seal so she could help defend the city, and Pan Hongzu did so.

Chi Mang forces launched a brutal assault on Yue City, nearly overwhelming its starving defenders while the Yan Army watched from across the river. As the city faced another uncertain day, Bai Yujun's fleet sailed through the night toward it, with Bai Yujun sleeping comfortably aboard.

• Jiang Mian, Pan Hongzu, Chen Jia, and Qiao Jin prepared Yue City's defenses as the Chi Mang army gathered outside the walls.
• The Chi Mang attacked with arrows and ladders, and their reckless fighters repeatedly climbed the walls, inflicting heavy casualties before the defenders drove them back at nightfall.
• Jiang Mian cursed the King of Wu and feared Yue City could not withstand another assault, while the Yan Army watched from the northern bank and offered no help.
• Pan Hongzu reminded Jiang Mian that he had signed an alliance pact, leaving him to hope the Flood Dragon Demon King would send demon troops.
• Bai Yujun's fleet sailed swiftly through the rainy-season floodwaters toward Yue City while Bai Yujun slept in her cabin.

Yue City's exhausted defenders held off the Chi Mang assault as Pan Hongzu and Chen Jia repelled an Evil Arts attack on Jiang Mian. Meanwhile, Bai Yujun's fleet battled floods on its way to the war zone, where she expected to arrive soon and leave the fighting to her forces.

• The rain halted the Chi Mang assault, giving Yue City's wounded defenders a brief chance to rest amid the corpses outside the walls.
• Pan Hongzu and Chen Jia helped Jiang Mian defeat an Evil Arts practitioner who had sent a Blood Fiend Evil Ghost to assassinate him.
• Qiao Jin thanked Pan Hongzu for saving her, and he said he was waiting for someone—or something—to arrive.
• Bai Yujun summoned water demons to steady her fleet after a ship struck a submerged reef in the storm.
• Bai Yujun ordered the fleet to ignore Southern Wu troops, continue toward the war zone, and disembark early to travel on foot.
• Bai Yujun told Ironball that the rain would wake Jiang Mian and declared that it would stop the day after tomorrow.

As Yue City prepared for its final battle against the Chi Mang people, Bai Yujun’s fleet landed nearby and marched through the night. The Chi Mang assault overwhelmed the defenders until a horn sounded and a mysterious figure appeared atop a sunlit hill, renewing Jiang Mian’s hope.

• Jiang Mian shaved and prepared to die in battle after recognizing that the Chi Mang people would attack Yue City with Southern Wu’s siege engines.
• Bai Yujun’s fleet anchored near Yue City, and the Snake Demon Soldiers disembarked and marched toward the mountains while water demons guarded the ships.
• At dawn, the Chi Mang people launched a fierce assault with catapults, broke onto the city walls, and drove Jiang Mian’s defenders toward defeat.
• Jiang Mian blamed himself as the Chi Mang people prepared to slaughter the remaining defenders, but a horn sounded from a nearby hill.
• The clouds parted above the hill, and a black line appeared in the golden sunlight as Jiang Mian’s hope returned.

Bai Yujun’s demon army arrived at Yue City and confronted the Chi Mang forces besieging it. Iron Ball led the army into battle, and its archers devastated the charging enemy with a long-range volley.

• Bai Yujun ordered Iron Ball to lead the demon soldiers against the Chi Mang army while she took control of the skies and blocked hidden observers.
• Iron Ball arranged five thousand demon soldiers into formation, and Jiang Mian recognized that Wen Xu had told the truth about the alliance.
• Iron Ball announced that the demon army had come under the alliance pact to rescue King Jiang, but the Chi Mang leader answered by charging.
• Iron Ball ordered the demon archers to fire from five hundred paces, and their first volley cut down a vast number of Chi Mang soldiers.

The Snake Demon Soldiers repelled the Chi Mang assault with disciplined formations, superior equipment, and Tieqiu’s command. As the battle continued, Bai Yujun sent the restless Lost Souls around Yue City to the underworld, while Tieqiu’s attack left the Chi Mang leader close to defeat.

• Tieqiu ordered the shield bearers to block the Chi Mang trebuchet stones, and their shields formed phantom barriers that shattered the boulders without casualties.
• Bai Yujun kept high-level cultivators from entering Yue City and sent the Lost Souls around the battlefield to the underworld to be reborn.
• Tieqiu ordered the Snake Demon Soldiers to advance, and their coordinated spear-and-sword assault cut through the disorganized Chi Mang fighters.
• Snake Demon archers and advancing ranks disrupted Chi Mang attempts to surround them, though some demon soldiers fell to arrows that slipped through their armor.
• The Chi Mang leader knocked two Snake Demon Soldiers away with his mace, but Tieqiu emerged from the ground and struck at him before burrowing underground again.

Bai Yujun and the demon army helped Jiang Mian crush the Chi Mang forces at Yue City, then departed for the Southern Wasteland. Bai Yujun later traveled alone toward Southern Wu’s capital to extract the Anti-Dragon dragon vein’s dragon energy before the kingdom fell.

• Jiang Mian opened Yue City’s gates and led his soldiers out to attack the routed Chi Mang forces alongside the demon army.
• The demon soldiers pursued and killed the fleeing Chi Mang people, while Jiang Mian captured the siege-engine craftsmen and executed the Southern Wu officials overseeing them.
• Iron Ball told Jiang Mian that the demon army would not stay in the Central Plains and directed him to bring any thanks to the Flood Dragon Demon King’s territory.
• The demon army departed, and Jiang Mian turned his attention to purging traitors and restoring his forces as his imperial fate began to recover.
• Bai Yujun escorted the fleet back to the Southern Wasteland, then boarded a merchant ship alone to return to Southern Wu and pursue the dragon energy.

Bai Yujun found Southern Wu’s dragon vein and settled in a thatched hut nearby to guard it until she could absorb its dragon qi. While shopping for New Year goods, she encountered two starving young girls by a river and left them rice cake.

• Bai Yujun located Southern Wu’s dragon vein and decided to stay near the royal mausoleums to protect it.
• Bai Yujun built a thatched hut, concealed her aura and dragon horns, and prepared to wait for the dragon qi to ripen.
• Bai Yujun went to a nearby town to buy New Year goods and turned down several people who tried to arrange marriages for her.
• Bai Yujun found a young girl digging for river snails while protecting her toddler sister from strangers.
• Bai Yujun left the two girls pieces of rice cake and walked away.

Bai Yujun went to the Royal City to buy New Year supplies and witnessed the poverty and suffering of its people amid the kingdom’s decline. She watched a funeral procession’s paper money drift toward the royal palace as she prepared to leave.

• Bai Yujun entered the Royal City beneath a Demon Revealing Mirror, which did not react to her.
• Bai Yujun bought Red Paper and writing supplies, paid a poor scholar to write Spring Festival couplets, and purchased rice wine, pastries, and cloth.
• Bai Yujun dealt with several ruffians in an alley and walked through the slums, seeing refugees, a child sold to a Human Trafficker, and women forced into desperate circumstances.
• Bai Yujun watched a funeral procession pass and saw its paper money drift toward the royal palace.

Bai Yujun left the city and rescued two young sisters from human traffickers on her way home. After feeding them, she returned to her hut, while the girls moved into a sheltered hole near her tree house for safety.

• Bai Yujun left the city at dusk and decided against using her weather-controlling gift to make it snow.
• Bai Yujun found three human traffickers threatening two sisters by the river and recognized that they intended to sell the girls.
• Bai Yujun revealed her glowing red eyes, frightening the traffickers into fleeing into a pit and dying.
• Bai Yujun left candy, glutinous rice balls, and pastries for the sisters before returning to her thatched hut.
• The older sister moved with the younger girl into a straw-covered hole near Bai Yujun’s tree house, telling her to run there if danger came.

Bai Yujun went fishing and invited two impoverished sisters to her home, where she fed and cared for them. After the girls bathed and changed into clothes she made for them, she began preparing pickled cabbage fish, leaving them warm and safe in her thatched hut.

• Bai Yujun caught several carp and crucian carp while the two sisters gathered river snails nearby.
• Bai Yujun asked the sisters to help return her spilled earthworms, then gave them fish and gathered more snails for them.
• The older sister followed Bai Yujun home with her younger sister, carrying the Fishing Rod.
• Bai Yujun used magic to prepare a warm bath, gave the girls deworming medicine, and made them new clothes.
• The sisters bathed and watched Bai Yujun cook; when she removed her head wrap and revealed her dragon horns, the older sister froze in fear.
• Bai Yujun reassured the older sister and told the sisters that bathing before the New Year would wash away bad luck.

Bai Yujun took in two starving sisters, fed them and gave them a warm place to sleep, then spent New Year's Eve with them at the Thatched Hut. The older girl trusted Bai Yujun so completely that she recognized her supposed poison as a joke.

• Bai Yujun cooked pickled-cabbage fish and river snails for the two girls, who eagerly ate the food.
• Bai Yujun revealed her monstrous features and teased the girls about eating them, but the older sister remained unafraid.
• The older girl washed dishes and cleaned while the younger sister slept in the warm bed Bai Yujun had prepared.
• On New Year's Eve, the sisters decorated the Thatched Hut, and the older girl retrieved food she had hidden in their burrow.
• Bai Yujun gave the older girl a pungent pill and claimed it was poison, but the girl said she knew it was safe because Bai Yujun's eyes could not lie.

After taking in Ye Zi and her younger sister, Bai Yujun began teaching Ye Zi the Chunyang Art and brought her into the city to watch a show. Outside the palace, Bai Yujun called out to a scarred, troubled Southern Wu general, who felt compelled to approach her stall.

• Bai Yujun decided to teach the resilient Ye Zi and gave her the name Ye Zi, while her younger sister became Little Ye Zi.
• In spring, Ye Zi practiced the Chunyang Art, and Bai Yujun invited her to go into the city to watch a show.
• Bai Yujun and Ye Zi passed through the town, where they saw the hardship caused by the King of Wu's latest conscription.
• Outside the palace, Bai Yujun explained that she wanted to find talented people amid Southern Wu's decline and called out to passersby from a roadside stall.
• A scarred and troubled Military General noticed Bai Yujun's stall, approached it, and felt that he should buy something.

Bai Yujun’s roadside stall offered powerful figures goods that represented their futures as the Southern Wu dynasty neared collapse. After several ministers and generals chose their paths, Bai Yujun packed up for the day and left with Ye Zi.

• A fallen general bought a Ring-pommel Saber from Bai Yujun for one tael of silver, choosing to fight and die for the Southern Wu dynasty.
• A wise minister tried to take a Ring-pommel Saber but broke down and could not choose death, so he accepted an oil-paper umbrella and resolved to flee with his family when the dynasty fell.
• A royal noble chose a bamboo flute, accepting that he would seek refuge with a powerful enemy to preserve his extravagant life, and paid one hundred gold pieces.
• Several more ministers and generals visited the stall; all but one chose Ring-pommel Sabers, while the remaining customer chose an oil-paper umbrella.
• Bai Yujun closed her stall after the final customer left, and she and Ye Zi headed back.

Bai Yujun took Ye Zi into Southern Wu’s capital to show her the human world as the dynasty neared collapse. They saw signs of war and hardship before reaching a mourning noble residence, where a young man held the first Ring-pommel Saber ever sold.

• Ye Zi found Bai Yujun beneath the big tree observing Southern Wu’s fortune and heard that the kingdom’s greatest danger lay within the city.
• Bai Yujun invited Ye Zi to visit the city, then protected their courtyard and set off with her through the rain.
• On the way, they passed a town filled with funeral streamers and heard rumors spreading fear among the survivors.
• Bai Yujun bypassed the city gate inspections with Ye Zi, and they entered a capital where shops had closed, grain was scarce, and messengers rode through the streets.
• Bai Yujun and Ye Zi reached a ruined Military General’s residence, where a mourning young man cradled the first Ring-pommel Saber ever sold.

Bai Yujun mourned a dead general, helped his son recover a stolen family heirloom, and urged the general’s Lost Soul to leave for the afterlife. As Southern Wu’s collapse drew near, Jiang Mian’s reorganized Yan Army invaded under the command of Qiao Jin, a former Southern Wu woman whose vanguard attracted many local troops.

• Bai Yujun visited the general’s funeral and listened as his grieving son condemned the people who had abandoned his father and exploited the family.
• Bai Yujun violently recovered the son’s jade pendant and returned it to him, then told the general’s Lost Soul that his son would be fine and urged him to depart.
• The son called his father the greatest hero in his heart, and the general laughed before vanishing along the Yellow Springs Road.
• Bai Yujun left gold for the family and watched the minister who had once bought her umbrella depart Southern Wu with his household.
• Jiang Mian sent the reorganized Yan Army south, and Qiao Jin’s vanguard won the surrender of many Southern Wu soldiers and generals.

Bai Yujun comforted Ye Zi at the Thatched Hut while the Yan Kingdom’s army conquered Southern Wu. When the Yan Army reached the capital, Old General Xiong charged alone at its ranks and was killed despite Qiao Jin’s order to stop.

• Bai Yujun reassured Ye Zi that they could not avoid the world’s troubles, then made osmanthus glutinous rice lotus root with her and Little Ye Zi.
• The Yan Army advanced through Southern Wu as the King of Wu lost the support of his officials and nobles.
• Bai Yujun and Ye Zi watched from the city gate as Qiao Jin hesitated before the gates opened.
• Southern Wu’s nobles urged Old General Xiong to surrender, but the city guards refused to close the gates or follow his command.
• Old General Xiong charged alone toward the Yan Army, and Qiao Jin’s order to stop the attack came too late to save him.

After the fall of the Wu capital, Bai Yujun watched the dynasty’s dragon fortune vanish and recruited Qiao Jin to serve as a general in the Southern Wastes. Qiao Jin accepted, and Bai Yujun prepared to bring her into the Flood Dragon Demon King’s territory.

• Qiao Jin covered Old General Xiong’s body with a Southern Wu banner and carried him away for burial instead of claiming merit in the captured city.
• The Vassal King burned the royal palace, and Bai Yujun drew away the false dragon’s qi to leave the region free of war for roughly three hundred years.
• Bai Yujun visited Qiao Jin at Old General Xiong’s grave and offered her a well-paid command in the Southern Wastes, with the chance to cultivate for longevity.
• Bai Yujun revealed that she was the White Flood Dragon, and Qiao Jin recognized her as the legendary demon king.
• Bai Yujun described her plans for a large army and urged Qiao Jin to join; Qiao Jin paid her respects and accepted.