Recaps

Li Qing weighed the risks of joining Tian Long against the Yan family, then spent more than ten days training while waiting for the harvest to end. When the Righteous Gang sent Wei Tian to ask for his answer, Li Qing shared a plan and struck him to make their dispute public, leaving Old Man An worried about his safety.

• Li Qing considered the Yan family's strength and the Righteous Gang's motives before deciding he needed a cautious plan and time to improve his combat power.
• Li Qing stayed home for more than ten days to train with the Ancient Profound Hammer Technique as the black rye mushroom harvest ended.
• Wei Tian visited Li Qing to ask whether he had accepted the gang leader's proposal, and Li Qing told him his plan.
• Li Qing struck Wei Tian with a controlled Palm Strike, sending him through the courtyard gate, and Wei Tian fled while threatening him.
• News of the clash spread through the neighborhood, and Old Man An urged Li Qing to leave Obsidian City with him and his granddaughter.
• Li Qing refused to flee and told Old Man An that he knew what he was doing.

Tian Long and the Righteous Gang came to Li Qing’s home, where he secretly tested his strength against their leader before pretending to be defeated and bound. As the gang prepared to take Li Qing away, An Xuan and Old Man An tried to protect him, but Tian Long threatened them and left with his captive.

• Yan Gui'an heard that Li Qing had driven Wei Tian away and discussed the state of martial arts with Uncle Jing.
• Tian Long led the Righteous Gang to Li Qing’s courtyard, kicked down the gate, and challenged him to fight.
• Li Qing blocked Tian Long’s attacks, then quietly reminded him to conceal his true strength and pretended to be defeated.
• Wei Tian tied Li Qing up, but An Xuan rushed forward to stop the gang from taking him.
• Li Qing invoked the Yan family to curb the gang’s behavior, and Old Man An offered Black Rye Mushrooms to beg for Li Qing’s release.
• Tian Long refused, threatened Old Man An and An Xuan, and had the gang take Li Qing away.

Li Qing and Tian Long discussed how to draw the Yan family into a confrontation, and Tian Long revealed the Righteous Gang’s secret force of revenge-driven fighters. The chapter ended with Li Qing more confident that he, Tian Long, and the Seven Kill Squad could take on the Yan family.

• Li Qing was brought to the Righteous Gang’s headquarters and saw Tian Long reject a would-be recruit by slashing him, while the youth thanked him.
• Tian Long freed Li Qing and asked how to proceed against the Yan family, and Li Qing advised waiting for them to come asking for him.
• Li Qing warned Tian Long that they might face more Outer Strength experts than expected, and Tian Long said he had another source of strength.
• Tian Long summoned the Seven Kill Squad, revealing thirteen trained fighters whose hatred of the Yan family had driven them to seek revenge.
• Li Qing accepted Tian Long’s plan and judged that their combined forces had a strong chance of defeating the Yan family.

Li Qing waited in the Righteous Gang’s prison for the Yan family to make a move, confident that Second Young Master Yan would eventually try to rescue him. Yan San arrived with an offer of mushrooms, and Tian Long agreed to deliver Li Qing to the Yan estates, while Li Qing warned that the main event was still ahead.

• Li Qing rejected Tian Long’s suggestion to approach the Yan family and told him to wait, believing Second Young Master Yan wanted to rescue him after making him suffer.
• Yan San visited the Righteous Gang’s headquarters on Second Young Master Yan’s orders and asked about Li Qing.
• Tian Long threatened to turn Li Qing into a human stick, prompting Yan San to offer half a jin of Blood Jade Mushrooms, ten jin of White Meat Mushrooms, and fifty jin of Black Rye Mushrooms for him.
• Tian Long accepted the trade and said he would personally escort Li Qing to the Yan estates.
• Tian Long went to the prison with Wei Tian and told Li Qing that events had unfolded as predicted; Li Qing urged him to prepare tools to make him look near death.

Feng Xianglin struggled under the Yan family's increased demands as Tian Long brought the bound blacksmith Li Qing into the Yan estate to meet Second Young Master Yan Gui'an. Yan Gui'an received Tian Long with Jing Tai, one of the Yan family's Guest Elders, standing behind him.

• The Yan family raised its share of the tenant farmers' Black Rye Mushroom harvest from seventy percent to eighty percent, leaving Feng Xianglin worried about hunger and unable to resist.
• Feng Xianglin saw Tian Long and the Righteous Gang arrive at the Yan estate with Li Qing bound, while the Seven Kill Squad waited in concealed positions nearby.
• Tian Long demanded entry and asked Yan San whether the promised Blood Jade Mushrooms and White Meat Mushrooms were ready.
• Yan San assured Tian Long that the mushrooms were prepared and led him and his men inside the estate with Li Qing.
• Yan Gui'an greeted Tian Long, while Jing Tai stood behind the second young master and watched the visitors.

Li Qing and Tian Long sprang their ambush on Yan Gui'an and the Yan family, turning a planned deception into a sudden assault. As the Righteous Gang stormed the estate, Jing Tai lay near death and Yan Gui'an was held at knifepoint.

• Tian Long distracted Jing Tai while Zhao Kou and Wei Tian began untying Li Qing, whose concealed Peerless Hammer was revealed.
• Li Qing broke free and charged Jing Tai as Tian Long slashed him with the Golden Ring Saber.
• Wei Tian opened the Yan estate gates and signaled the Righteous Gang, whose fighters rushed the mansion.
• Li Qing crushed Jing Tai's forearm with the Peerless Hammer, leaving him gravely wounded.
• Two Yan family Guest Elders charged into the fight while a young boy held Yan Gui'an at knifepoint.

The Righteous Gang attacked the Yan estate, where Tian Long and Li Qing fought the Yan family's Guest Elders while Zhao Kou held Yan Gui'an hostage. As hidden assailants joined the battle, Yan Qitian used a worn Yellow Talisman Paper to protect himself from three Seven Kill Squad death warriors.

• Feng Xianglin arrived at the Yan estate for farm tools and cowered as the Righteous Gang attacked its guards.
• Tian Long demanded that Yan Xu and Mo Nan each cut off an arm to spare Yan Gui'an, but Yan Qitian ordered the Guest Elders to fight instead.
• Li Qing fought Yan Xu with his Peerless Hammer while Tian Long struggled against Mo Nan's powerful Internal Energy.
• Tian Long called out hidden allies, and more than ten figures emerged from the estate's shadows to join the battle.
• Three Seven Kill Squad death warriors charged Yan Qitian, who activated a worn Yellow Talisman Paper and stopped them with a Golden Light Barrier.

Li Qing and the Seven Kill Squad defeated the Yan family’s defenders, broke the patriarch’s Golden Light Barrier, and killed him. With the patriarch dead, the Yan family’s forces fled and Mo Nan ended his fight with Tian Long.

• Yan Xu overpowered Li Qing until five Seven Kill Squad dead soldiers attacked him, allowing Li Qing to smash Yan Xu’s shoulder and later kill him.
• Mo Nan held off Tian Long and the Seven Kill Squad with his Iron Cloth Technique while the Yan family patriarch relied on his Golden Light Barrier.
• Three dead soldiers shattered the barrier and killed Yan Qitian before Li Qing could question him about the talisman.
• Li Qing announced the patriarch’s death, and Zhao Kou killed Second Young Master Yan as the Yan family’s guards and thugs fled.
• Tian Long and Mo Nan stopped fighting, and the Yan family’s long-standing power in Obsidian City collapsed.

After the Yan family fell, Li Qing learned that they had repeatedly sent people and food to the mysterious Heavenly Measure Mountain. At a victory feast, Tian Long offered him the Righteous Gang’s second-in-command position, but Li Qing chose to remain a Guest Elder and keep his freedom.

• Tian Long ordered the Seven Kill Squad to find Yan Guifu, while Master Mo Nan’s plea to spare the Yan family’s women was rejected and screams soon came from the estate’s side chambers.
• Li Qing accepted the possibility that surviving Yan family members might seek revenge, then went to speak with the dying Jing Tai, who admitted he had chosen the three martial arts techniques given to Li Qing.
• Li Qing questioned Mo Nan about the golden light around Yan Qitian, and Mo Nan revealed that the Yan family had often sent people and food to Heavenly Measure Mountain.
• Tian Long ordered the Righteous Gang to claim the Yan estate, and Zhao Kou and Wei Tian replaced the Yan family’s plaque with the gang’s plaque.
• At the victory feast, Tian Long offered Li Qing the position of second-in-command, but Li Qing refused and asked to remain a Guest Elder.

After the Righteous Gang defeated the Yan family, Li Qing received two medicinal wine recipes and secured access to the gang’s martial arts treasury. Tian Long took control of Obsidian City and reduced the Black Rye Mushroom levy, winning the residents’ support.

• Wei Tian brought Tian Long the two medicinal wine recipes, which Tian Long gave to Li Qing.
• Li Qing examined the Five Poisons Blood Activating Wine and Tiger Bone Health Preserving Wine recipes and learned how difficult their ingredients and brewing would be to obtain.
• Tian Long promised to have the Righteous Gang gather the ingredients and let Li Qing study the Yan family’s martial arts manuals; Li Qing accepted a Guest Elder position but refused to become Second-in-Command.
• The Righteous Gang replaced the Yan family in Obsidian City, while Master Mo Nan also became a Guest Elder and Zhao Kou and Wei Tian received rewards.
• News of the Yan family’s destruction spread through the city, and Old Man An rejoiced that he could resume his old trade but worried that Li Qing might have died.
• Tian Long reduced the levy on Black Rye Mushroom harvests from seventy percent to sixty percent, prompting the residents to cheer for the Righteous Gang.

After the Righteous Gang took control of Obsidian City, Li Qing searched the Yan family's martial arts repository and found the time-consuming Golden Body Technique, which suited his long lifespan. He decided to leave the city, entrusting Tian Long with the care of the An family and urging him to remember the Seven Kill Squad's roots.

• Li Qing browsed the Yan family's martial arts collection, dismissed several techniques, and discovered the Golden Body Technique being used to prop up a shelf.
• Li Qing learned that the technique required decades to master and could only be cultivated after age sixteen, but took it because he had more than a hundred years to live.
• Li Qing told Tian Long he planned to travel and asked him to protect the old man and granddaughter of the An family.
• Li Qing urged Tian Long not to forget the Seven Kill Squad's contribution and to treat Obsidian City's people well.
• Tian Long promised to remember Li Qing's advice, ordered a portrait of him enshrined in the gang, and brought the An family under its protection.

Li Qing returned from the Eternal Night World to the war-torn Feng Kingdom border and headed for Wangyuan City, where he needed a way past the guards. When Golden Mountain Stockade bandits drove refugees toward their stronghold, Li Qing challenged them, apparently using the confrontation as an opportunity to enter the city.

• Li Qing returned to the Feng Kingdom and found himself on a battlefield littered with corpses after the Border Army had withdrawn.
• Li Qing recognized a Liang Kingdom flag and decided to leave the border region for Wangyuan City rather than risk staying near the war.
• Li Qing reached Wangyuan City but realized he could not easily enter without identification and might be mistaken for a spy.
• Golden Mountain Stockade bandits drove a group of refugees along the official road, claiming they were taking them to safety.
• Li Qing blocked the road and taunted the bandits until one charged at him with a whip.

Li Qing defeated the bandits from Golden Mountain Stockade and questioned them about how their stockade got supplies from Wangyuan City. When the bandits could not reveal how to enter the city, a beggar child offered to show Li Qing a way in.

• Li Qing used his Outer Strength to defeat the four bandits who were driving away refugees.
• Li Qing questioned a wounded bandit and learned that Golden Mountain Stockade got grain through contacts with a city guard, but the bandit did not know how they entered Wangyuan City.
• Li Qing killed the bandit and questioned the others, but none knew how to get into the city during wartime.
• A frail young man among the refugees told Li Qing that he knew a way into Wangyuan City.
• Li Qing offered the young man a horse in exchange for explaining how to enter the city.

Li Qing accepted Qi Kang’s offer to guide him into Wangyuan City and entered through a hidden fissure beneath the city wall. He and Qi Kang emerged inside the city, resealed the entrance, and set off toward its buildings.

• Qi Kang asked Li Qing to take him as a disciple and offered to serve him, while Li Qing gave the refugees three horses to divide among themselves.
• Li Qing rode toward Wangyuan City as Qi Kang explained that a hidden entrance had been sealed after people used it to avoid the entry tax.
• At night, Qi Kang led Li Qing to a narrow fissure where the city wall met the mountains and told him that a board and stone slab blocked the way inside.
• Li Qing used Outer Strength to lift the board and millstones, then climbed out of the fissure into Wangyuan City.
• Li Qing resealed the entrance, and he and Qi Kang headed toward the distant buildings.

Li Qing resupplied in Wangyuan City and learned that Sheng Tian, the imperial capital, was his best next destination for finding rare medicinal ingredients. After Qi Kang reported that the Wu Li Army was defending the city, Li Qing decided to leave the following day, while Qi Kang confessed he had mistaken him for a Liang Kingdom spy.

• Li Qing bought the few ingredients available at Hundred Herbs Hall and learned that Quanshan City and Sheng Tian were the best places to find more.
• Li Qing visited other medicine shops but found only one additional ingredient, strengthening his decision to travel to Sheng Tian.
• Qi Kang reported that the Wu Li Army had fought Liang Kingdom's forces and that residents could still leave through the western gate.
• Li Qing told Qi Kang they would leave Wangyuan City the next day, and Qi Kang admitted he had thought Li Qing was a Liang Kingdom spy.
• Li Qing told Qi Kang to buy two horses and said they would not stay in Wangyuan City any longer.

Li Qing and Qi Kang escaped Wangyuan City during a Liang Kingdom siege and traveled toward the Feng Kingdom’s imperial capital. After nearly ten days on the road, they reached the outskirts of Shengtian City, ready to enter.

• Li Qing and Qi Kang set out from Wangyuan City, but Three-Bow Ballistas began bombarding its eastern gate as the Liang Kingdom attacked.
• Li Qing spotted Thousand-Commander Qian Hong on the wall, avoided staying in the city, and left through the western gate with Qi Kang.
• The Liang army increased its ballistas to eight and repeatedly breached Wangyuan City’s gates, but the Wu Li Army drove back its assaults and the fighting stalemated.
• Li Qing and Qi Kang traveled for nearly ten days through the Feng Kingdom’s central heartland and arrived near Shengtian City.

Li Qing settled in Shengtian City and bought the medicinal ingredients he needed from Quanshan Herbal Shop, where he learned the Star-Picking Divine Thief had stolen a four-hundred-year-old wild ginseng. After deciding to open a blacksmith shop, he looked for a way to avoid the trouble of obtaining permits.

• Li Qing entered Shengtian City with Qi Kang, found an inn, and tasked Qi Kang with gathering information about the city.
• Li Qing visited Quanshan Herbal Shop and saw a Wanted Poster offering a reward for the Star-Picking Divine Thief, who had stolen a four-hundred-year-old wild ginseng sought by the Prince's Estate.
• Li Qing bought the medicinal ingredients on his list and arranged to collect the five poisonous ingredients the following year.
• Wandering martial artists flocked to Quanshan Herbal Shop after hearing about the bounty and spread news of the Star-Picking Divine Thief across Shengtian.
• Li Qing decided to open a blacksmith shop but found that strict iron regulations made permits difficult to obtain, so he considered taking over an existing shop.

Li Qing continued running his blacksmith shop through the winter and brought Qi Kang to a banquet at the Green Mountain Martial Arts School. The chapter revealed how the city’s martial arts factions controlled neighborhoods and collected protection fees, while Qi Kang dreamed of learning martial arts to oppose them.

• As the Star-Picking Divine Thief hunt stirred Shengtian City, Li Qing exchanged his jade for silver and leased a blacksmith shop, where he hired Qi Kang as an apprentice.
• Li Qing forged a kitchen knife and sent Qi Kang to sharpen and deliver it, then reminded him they would attend the Green Mountain Martial Arts School’s banquet.
• Li Qing and Qi Kang arrived at the banquet, where Xu Qingshan welcomed Li Qing and accepted his gift money.
• Qi Kang’s gathered intelligence revealed that the Green Mountain Martial Arts School answered to the Flying Cloud Martial Arts School, while the three great schools and the Nine Lotus Sect divided Shengtian City and collected protection fees.
• Qi Kang privately resented the factions’ exploitation and wished to learn martial arts to defeat them, while Li Qing cautioned him to keep his anger to himself.

At a banquet honoring Xu Qingshan, Zhang Lai of Flying Cloud Martial Arts School used the search for the Star-Plucking Bandit to justify raising Chiming Street's protection fee. The merchants were pressured into accepting the increase, while Li Qing remained detached and Qi Kang stayed silent.

• Xu Qingshan welcomed Zhang Lai, a personal disciple of Flying Cloud Martial Arts School, to the banquet and praised the school’s efforts to catch the Star-Plucking Bandit.
• Li Qing cautioned Qi Kang to stay calm, and Qi Kang later understood why when Xu Qingshan proposed raising Chiming Street’s monthly protection fee by one tael.
• Zhang Lai initially claimed the fee could not simply be raised, but accepted after Xu Qingshan insisted that the street should support the school’s pursuit of the bandit.
• Xu Qingshan announced the increase to the guests and promised the fee would return to its former amount once the Star-Plucking Bandit was caught.
• Several merchants backed the increase, leaving the rest of the guests grim and resentful, while Li Qing continued eating without concern.

Li Qing’s blacksmith shop gained a customer when Green Mountain Martial Arts School student Zhong Hui commissioned a saber for an expedition to a newly discovered tomb. Li Qing accepted the order but refused Qi Kang’s hopes of joining the dangerous search, leaving Qi Kang disappointed.

• As winter neared its end, Li Qing’s blacksmithing business improved, and Zhong Hui asked him to forge a weapon.
• Li Qing showed Zhong Hui his finely forged weapons and agreed to make a fifty-jin horse-chopping saber for eighteen taels of silver.
• Zhong Hui offered eleven taels as a deposit and revealed that Prince Yu’s Mansion had hired martial arts school enforcers to explore an Internal Energy expert’s tomb at Little Cui Ridge.
• Zhong Hui said the Nine Lotus Sect and other martial-world figures might also seek the tomb, explaining why he needed the saber for protection.
• After Zhong Hui left, Qi Kang asked about the tomb, but Li Qing said he would not pursue it because Prince Yu’s Mansion and the Nine Lotus Sect were involved.

Zhong Hui collected his Fine Iron Battle Halberd, and Qi Kang left Li Qing’s blacksmith shop to pursue martial arts. Li Qing began cultivating the Golden Body Technique and discovered it could operate alongside the Turtle Breath Technique.

• Zhong Hui collected the battle halberd from Qi Kang and promised to pay the remaining silver soon.
• Qi Kang kowtowed to Li Qing, then left the blacksmith shop to seek peerless martial arts and change the world.
• Li Qing accepted that Qi Kang had chosen his own path and began studying the Golden Body Technique.
• While practicing the Golden Body Technique, Li Qing discovered that the Turtle Breath Technique activated at the same time without conflict.
• Li Qing resumed cultivating the Turtle Breath Technique alongside the Golden Body Technique.

Li Qing discovered that practicing the Turtle Breath Technique alongside the Golden Body Technique had allowed him to cultivate Internal Energy, and he resolved to keep it secret. After the war between Liang Kingdom and Feng Kingdom ended in a costly truce, news finally emerged that people had died at Little Cui Ridge, but the details were not yet revealed.

• Li Qing cultivated Internal Energy overnight and decided to conceal the breakthrough from the martial world.
• Li Qing remembered that Qi Kang had left and learned that Liang Kingdom and Feng Kingdom had agreed to cease fighting for the winter.
• Li Qing read reports of heavy casualties on both sides, including the deaths of nearly twenty Outer Strength Martial Artists and an Internal Energy expert from the Wu Li Army.
• Li Qing spent the following days forging iron, practicing martial arts, and gathering news at a nearby inn.
• A man at the inn announced that people had died at Little Cui Ridge, then began to explain what had happened.

Li Qing heard that a tiger had appeared at Little Cui Ridge and planned to seek its bones for Tiger Bone Health Preserving Wine after retrieving his Fine Iron Battle Halberd. As Prince Yu and the Nine Lotus Sect clashed and the capital’s martial arts schools competed for the sect’s abandoned influence, Li Qing stayed out of the growing turmoil.

• A drinker told Li Qing that a tiger had attacked people at Little Cui Ridge before the Nine Lotus Sect and Jianghu fighters disrupted the Prince's Estate's tomb excavation.
• Li Qing decided to retrieve his Fine Iron Battle Halberd first, then seek tiger bones with the help of a local hunter after the tomb excavation ended.
• Prince Yu attacked the Nine Lotus Sect's headquarters in Sheng Tian and defeated the Green Lotus Protector with help from the city's three great martial arts schools.
• Emperor Taiwen ordered a crackdown on the Nine Lotus Sect, but the sect withdrew from Sheng Tian before the decree could take effect.
• Prince Yu led his men to Little Cui Ridge, drawing more Jianghu fighters there while the three great martial arts schools began vying for the Nine Lotus Sect's vacated profits.
• Li Qing learned of the unrest at the blacksmith's shop and chose to watch events from a distance.

Li Qing heard that the Little Cui Ridge tomb belonged to the legendary Lin Yi, who reportedly reached Internal Energy in three years and nearly became a Grandmaster in four. He learned that the tomb was supposedly fake and the inheritance had already disappeared, while a handsome man quietly questioned that claim.

• Li Qing listened as tavern patrons described the bloody clash at Little Cui Ridge between Prince Yu and the Nine Lotus Sect.
• A handsome, unrestrained man revealed that the tomb's owner was Lin Yi, a martial artist whose astonishing rise had once drawn the entire martial world into a hunt for him.
• Tavern patrons recounted that Lin Yi vanished during the pursuit and that his whereabouts had remained a mystery until rumors of his tomb surfaced.
• A man familiar with the latest events said the tomb was reportedly fake, contained a Tomb Mansion rather than a coffin, and yielded nothing to Prince Yu or the Nine Lotus Sect.
• The handsome man shook his head and muttered skeptically, “heh, fake?”

Prince Yu's Mansion offered a massive bounty for the Star-Picking Divine Thief, then revealed his portrait after executing the painter who had depicted him. Li Qing recognized the thief but avoided reporting him, prepared to hunt tigers, and was approached by constables at his smithy.

• Prince Yu's Mansion issued a huge bounty for the Star-Picking Divine Thief, and the search stirred up Sheng Tian.
• Prince Yu's Mansion had a renowned landscape painter executed and revealed his portrait of the thief.
• Li Qing recognized the thief as a wine-loving man he had seen at a tavern, but chose not to claim a reward or get involved.
• Li Qing prepared armor and weapons to hunt tigers at Little Cui Ridge because his martial arts progress had stalled.
• Several constables arrived at Li Qing's smithy and said they wanted to ask him a few questions.