Chapter Summaries

After freeing Xie Fei from the shelter, Luo Yan arranged for him to be watched and met Priest Chang Yu, who offered the Western Cult’s support against Yellow Springs. Luo Yan planned to capture Han Xu and turn him against Yellow Springs, then went to Jianghai Building for a meeting with organizations connected to Yellow Springs.

• Luo Yan brought Xie Fei to Lin Mansion, arranged a room for him, and told Hong Gu to keep watch over him.
• Zhou Yucheng told Luo Yan that the Western Cult wanted to support his campaign, and Luo Yan agreed to meet Priest Chang Yu.
• Luo Yan asked Priest Chang Yu to help hold off the Suo Po Association during the assault on King Chu Jiang Branch, and Chang Yu promised to send a battle team south within a week.
• Luo Yan considered how to capture Han Xu and make him serve him without using a Heavenly Dragon Pill, but found no plan that satisfied him.
• The next day, Luo Yan went to Jianghai Building for a meeting with organizations tied to Yellow Springs and heard discussion coming from the meeting room.

Luo Yan pressured the local organizations that had supported Yellow Springs to remain neutral and stop supplying it, then told Zheng Liangcai that Black Witch would wait for reinforcements before acting. The Suo Po Association remained Yellow Springs’ ally, and its hidden Yangcheng leaders were still at large.

• Luo Yan entered a meeting with local organization leaders and declared that Yellow Springs would be driven from the Guangfu area.
• Luo Yan demanded that the leaders remain neutral and warned Chang Zaishan to stop transporting supplies for Yellow Springs.
• After Luo Yan left, Hong Xiu reminded Chang Zaishan not to send another shipment to Guancheng.
• At Da Sanyuan Restaurant, Luo Yan told Zheng Liangcai that reinforcements would arrive in about a week and that Black Witch would act afterward.
• Luo Yan identified the Suo Po Association as Yellow Springs’ remaining ally, and Zheng Liangcai said its Yangcheng leaders would be difficult to find.

Luo Yan recruited the Western Cult to promote its doctrine in Yangcheng, hoping to draw out the Suo Po Association. Guardian Liu recognized the campaign as a trap meant to expose and eliminate the association while Yellow Springs was isolated.

• Luo Yan told Zheng Liangcai he would use the Western Cult’s publicity skills to support Zheng’s City Lord election and help lure out the Suo Po Association.
• Luo Yan asked Priest Chang Yu about the Western Cult’s doctrines and learned that its beliefs directly opposed the Suo Po Association’s Ten Evils, making the association likely to resist its preaching.
• Luo Yan arranged a free-supplies event in Yangcheng Square, where citizens received Western Cult flyers proclaiming that human nature was inherently good.
• A middle-aged Suo Po Association member secretly recorded the distribution and delivered the footage and supplies to Guardians Zhang and Liu.
• Guardian Liu concluded that Red Ghost had planted the Western Cult’s campaign as a trap to lure out the Suo Po Association while Yellow Springs was cut off from its allies.

Luo Yan and Zheng Liangcai decided to wait for reinforcements before attacking Wancheng after the Suo Po Association refused to take the bait. At Hundred Battles Academy, Xiaodao worried about representing Luo Yan at the Grand Sports Meet, and Yang Tao helped her reconsider what her teacher expected of her.

• Luo Yan concluded that the Suo Po Association would not appear and told Zheng Liangcai they would wait for reinforcements before attacking Wancheng.
• Li Bohang told the students to prepare for the Grand Sports Meet and said he would enter Xiaodao without an assessment, warning her that Luo Yan's fame would draw attention.
• Xiaodao declined her classmates' invitation to go shopping and returned to Luo Yan's former room to cultivate, but struggled to focus.
• Yang Tao visited Xiaodao, who confessed that she feared failing Luo Yan and felt unworthy of what he had given her.
• Yang Tao asked Xiaodao whether Luo Yan cared about his reputation, and Xiaodao recalled how he had helped orphans like them.

Yang Tao helped Xiaodao regain his confidence and took him outside to check his homework. In Guan City Base, Han Xu and the two Guardians discussed how to counter the Black Witch’s foothold in Yang City, settling on a plan to lure Yu Qiushui out and ambush the Black Witch leaders.

• Yang Tao reassured Xiaodao that losing to a stronger opponent was no shame and took him outside to check his homework.
• Han Xu told Zhang Yuanzheng and Liu Dong that Red Ghost might be using the Western Cult to draw out the Suo Po Association.
• Liu Dong proposed targeting Lin Shengrong, but Han Xu refused because attacking a civilian could bring Undercity’s forces against them.
• Liu Dong suggested exploiting the Suo Po Association’s past interest in Yu Qiushui to lure her out, and Han Xu agreed to cooperate with an ambush.

Luo Yan suspected that Yu Qiushui’s coded invitation from her teacher was a trap, but agreed to accompany her and saw a chance to capture Han Xu if he appeared. Yu Qiushui went alone to the meeting place, where the empty bar revealed the trap and someone addressed her.

• At the Lin Mansion, Lin Yucheng introduced his granddaughter Lin Yuexin to Luo Yan, but Luo Yan left after Yu Qiushui called him.
• Yu Qiushui told Luo Yan that her teacher had sent a coded letter asking to meet, and he warned that the Suo Po Association might have forged it.
• Luo Yan agreed to go with Yu Qiushui and said they could try to capture Han Xu if he was involved.
• On the way out of the city, Luo Yan saw a mecha convoy and devised a plan after remembering the news about a giant beast near Flower City.
• Yu Qiushui went alone to a surface camp and used the coded phrase to meet the bartender, who led her to a gaming room.
• Yu Qiushui found the bar deserted and heard someone greet her as Branch Chief Yu Qiushui.

Yu Qiushui was lured into a confrontation with Han Xu and the Suo Po Association, whose guardians revealed they had forged her cipher and may have captured her teacher, Du Yue. She fought off Han Xu and the guardians, and the chapter ended with at least twenty copies of Yu Qiushui appearing across the battlefield.

• Han Xu and the Suo Po Association's guardians confronted Yu Qiushui, who suspected they had captured her teacher, Du Yue.
• Han Xu attacked Yu Qiushui outside the bar, and his ice assault killed or wounded more than half the soldiers surrounding it.
• Yu Qiushui broke through Han Xu's ice barriers and evaded his sword attacks and secret technique, Stripping Clothes Pavilion.
• Yu Qiushui struck Han Xu and sent him flying, then vanished to avoid Liu Dong and Zhang Yuanzheng's attacks.
• A black iceberg briefly froze Yu Qiushui, but she disappeared and reappeared as at least twenty copies around the battlefield.

Han Xu fought Yu Qiushui inside the camp while the Suo Po Association surrounded them, but a sudden attack from the wilderness drew the association’s forces into battle. As Han Xu froze Yu Qiushui’s foot with his Mystic Art, burned and mutilated figures emerged from the flames outside.

• Han Xu ordered Liu Dong and Zhang Yuanzheng to withdraw their people, then fought Yu Qiushui and her duplicates behind an Ice Wall.
• Zhang Yuanzheng surrounded the camp with armored vehicles while he and Liu Dong discussed President Zheng’s order to capture Yu Qiushui.
• Tremors and danger flares signaled an attack from the wilderness, and Zhang Yuanzheng’s forces turned their weapons toward approaching white figures.
• Han Xu used Ice Seal Ten Thousand Miles to freeze several of Yu Qiushui’s figures and trap her foot, but she broke free with a secret technique.
• The Suo Po Association fired on the approaching attackers, yet burned, mutilated people and strange beasts emerged from the flames and advanced on the defensive line.

Luo Yan used his Dragon Transformation form to control Mengji and disrupt the battle at the Suo Po Association camp. After rescuing Yu Qiushui from Han Xu’s attack, he defeated Han Xu and offered him a chance to work for him, but Han Xu demanded an open fight first.

• Liu Dong and Zhang Yuanzheng fought their way back as Mengji led a corpse tide that overwhelmed the Suo Po Association’s defenses.
• Luo Yan arrived atop Mengji and directed the giant beast to charge through the camp, interrupting Han Xu’s attack on Yu Qiushui.
• Mengji trampled Han Xu’s Ice Wall and passed close to Yu Qiushui before charging away, causing the corpses to collapse.
• Luo Yan attacked Han Xu as the Scarlet Ghost, used the Performing God Mask to unleash clones, and struck from behind after Han Xu destroyed them with his Ultimate Skill.
• Luo Yan stopped his blade beside Han Xu’s heart and offered him a chance to work for him, but Han Xu proposed an open fight before agreeing to become his foot soldier.

Luo Yan let Han Xu escape, treated Yu Qiushui’s frostbite, and later met the Western Cult at Tiger City Port. As he returned to Five Rams Underground City, Priest Chang Yu explained why Luo Yan’s trap had failed to draw out the Suo Po Association.

• Luo Yan spared Han Xu, hoping to make him submit and use his position in the Yellow Springs, while Yu Qiushui questioned whether Luo Yan could defeat him in a future fight.
• Luo Yan dispelled the Cold Qi from Yu Qiushui’s feet, then washed his hands and angered her by calling it basic hygiene.
• At Tiger City Port, Luo Yan explained that he had given the port to Zheng Liangcai to secure his support in the next City Lord election, and discussed Yu Qiushui’s missing teacher.
• Luo Yan sent Professor Xie Fei and the Nightmare Giant Beast blood essence samples with Lin Fan to deliver them to Feiyu for research at Spring Feather Base.
• Luo Yan rode back toward Five Rams Underground City with Priest Chang Yu, who said Luo Yan’s trap had failed because he had not understood what would strike the Suo Po Association’s members as a sore spot.

Luo Yan enlisted Priest Chang Yu to undermine the Suo Po Association in Yang City and help Zheng Liangcai’s campaign for City Lord. Meanwhile, injured Han Xu faced accusations from Jiang Chengxuan, who questioned whether he had colluded with Red Ghost.

• Priest Chang Yu proposed spreading Western Cult doctrines, distributing supplies after speeches, and recruiting informants to destroy the Suo Po Association’s influence.
• Luo Yan asked Chang Yu to let him meet any high-ranking Suo Po Association members they captured, then introduced Chang Yu to Zheng Liangcai and arranged Western Cult support for Zheng’s election campaign.
• Han Xu, still recovering from the wound Red Ghost had dealt him, went to a meeting with Jiang Chengxuan at the Guan City Base.
• Jiang Chengxuan questioned Han Xu about capturing and releasing Yu Qiushui, then suggested that Han Xu’s territorial losses and escape from Red Ghost had fueled suspicions of collusion.

Han Xu asked the Yellow Springs leadership for reinforcements against Black Witch, but Huang Yuanlong refused and pressured him to handle the crisis himself. Jiang Chengxuan then withdrew his branch from the fight, leaving Han Xu with only a promise to guard the entrance.

• Han Xu denied Jiang Chengxuan's accusation that he had an agreement with the Red Ghost, and Huang Yuanlong joined the meeting as its presiding officer.
• Han Xu described how the King Chu Jiang Branch had lost key strongholds and allies while Black Witch gathered support in Guangfu, then requested another branch's manpower.
• Huang Yuanlong refused to send reinforcements, insisted Han Xu could defeat Black Witch with Jiang Chengxuan's support, and threatened to replace him if he could not do the job.
• After Huang Yuanlong ended the meeting, Jiang Chengxuan said the King Zhuan Lun Branch would only guard the entrance and would leave the rest to Han Xu.

Han Xu learned that Huang Yuanlong intended to use him and considered rebelling, while Luo Yan led the Black Witch's assault on the King Chu Jiang Branch in Guancheng. As the two armies clashed, Luo Yan prepared to face Han Xu on the battlefield.

• Jiang Chengxuan told Huang Yuanlong that Han Xu had reacted furiously, and Huang Yuanlong ordered him to watch the conflict and use a device to capture Han Xu if he defected.
• Han Xu overheard Huang Yuanlong's plan to control or remake him, destroyed the hall in anger, and briefly considered rebelling before deciding against it.
• Luo Yan watched the Black Witch's forces advance on the King Chu Jiang Branch's base as drones cleared the city's minefields and fought Yellow Springs drones.
• Yu Qiushui, Monk Zhixin, and Zhuo Hu led Black Witch mechas toward the battlefield, while Luo Yan stayed back to target Han Xu.
• Yellow Springs mechas attacked the Black Witch's ground forces, and Black Witch mechas returned fire across the city.

Luo Yan waited for Han Xu as Black Witch and Yellow Springs fought across Guan City, while Zhuo Hu engaged a Yellow Springs expert in Azure Dragon. Han Xu arrived in Purple Frost and faced Luo Yan in the plaza, where the two prepared to fight.

• Black Witch and Yellow Springs mechs battled through Guan City, destroying buildings and killing one another with rail weapons.
• A Yellow Springs officer in the Profound Comprehension Realm attacked a Black Witch mech with an electric net, and Luo Yan sent Zhuo Hu to confront him.
• Zhuo Hu fought the officer in Azure Dragon, but neither mech gained a clear advantage.
• Han Xu arrived in Purple Frost, and Luo Yan told Minister Yu and Minister Zhixin to suppress the other experts while he faced Han Xu.
• Luo Yan and Han Xu met in a city plaza and agreed to settle their differences in battle.

Luo Yan and Han Xu fought in their mechas as Jiang Chengxuan withheld support, hoping the opposing sides would weaken each other. Han Xu unleashed his ultimate skill, Ice Kill Hundred Flowers, and left Phantom’s abilities threatened by a sky full of lethal black snowflakes.

• Luo Yan and Han Xu activated their mecha techniques and clashed across the plaza.
• Jiang Chengxuan watched the battle from Guan City Base and refused his subordinate’s request to send support.
• Red Ghost pressured Han Xu, who realized his opponent’s strength exceeded what he had expected.
• Han Xu resolved to counterattack and unleashed the black frost technique Ice Kill Hundred Flowers.
• A black snowflake struck Phantom and disrupted its Mystic Pattern ability as millions more filled the sky.

Luo Yan defeated Han Xu after countering Purple Frost’s Ice Kill Hundred Flowers with the five Divine Sha, but spared him when Han Xu refused to abandon Yellow Springs. Luo Yan gave Han Xu three days to reconsider, then withdrew his forces from the City Ruins.

• Luo Yan rejected Han Xu’s offer to end the battle, and the two resumed fighting as Han Xu unleashed Ice Kill Hundred Flowers against Phantom.
• Luo Yan used the five Divine Sha to disrupt Han Xu, letting Phantom break free from the black ice and charge Purple Frost.
• Han Xu briefly lost consciousness, causing Ice Kill Hundred Flowers to stop before it could destroy Phantom.
• Luo Yan stopped his blade before it struck Han Xu and gave him three days to decide whether to honor his promise.
• Luo Yan ordered the Black Witch mechas and ground forces to withdraw, while Han Xu climbed out of Purple Frost, surveyed the wreckage, and returned to base.

Jiang Chengxuan framed the injured Han Xu for colluding with Mister Red Ghost and abducted him on Huang Yuanlong's orders. After Yang Hao reported Han Xu's removal from Guan City Base, Luo Yan decided the Black Shaman should intervene and recruit him.

• Jiang Chengxuan showed Han Xu an edited recording and accused him of conspiring with Mister Red Ghost.
• Jiang Chengxuan drove Soul Suppressing Nails into Han Xu, then ordered his men to take him to headquarters for Huang Yuanlong.
• Jiang Chengxuan admitted that he was framing Han Xu because Han Xu had offended Mister Huang.
• Yang Hao watched several cars leave Guan City Base and told Luo Yan that Han Xu appeared to be among those taken.
• Luo Yan told Monk Zhixin and Yu Qiushui that Han Xu's abduction proved his value and that the Black Shaman should win him over.

Luo Yan and Monk Zhixin rescued Han Xu from a Yellow Springs convoy and brought him to the Black Witch camp, where Han Xu realized he had no choice but to join them. At Guan City Base, Jiang Chengxuan ordered King Chu Jiang Branch cadres to infiltrate the camp and kill Han Xu to prove their loyalty.

• Luo Yan attacked Han Xu’s convoy, killed or drove off its guards, and took control of the sedan while Monk Zhixin crushed the pursuing escort car.
• Luo Yan brought Han Xu to the Black Witch camp, where a doctor said the Soul Suppressing Nails had disrupted Han Xu’s Mystic Qi but his injuries were not serious.
• Luo Yan told Han Xu to recover before discussing matters, and Han Xu admitted he no longer had a choice.
• Jiang Chengxuan learned that the Red Ghost had rescued Han Xu and told King Chu Jiang Branch cadres to infiltrate the Black Witch camp and kill him.

Luo Yan took the injured Han Xu toward Five Rams Underground City and discussed the threat posed by King Zhuan Lun Jiang Chengxuan and Han Xu’s former subordinates. Shi Wu attacked their convoy, but Wu Zheng turned against him to protect Han Xu, and Shi Wu discovered his men had been killed.

• Luo Yan showed Han Xu information about Jiang Chengxuan and warned that Jiang might use Han Xu’s former subordinates to capture or kill him.
• Han Xu said Wu Zheng was the only subordinate he trusted, while Luo Yan cautioned that loyalty could change after Han Xu lost power.
• Shi Wu’s convoy ambushed Luo Yan’s vehicle, and Luo Yan ordered the Black Witch soldiers to withdraw.
• Shi Wu confronted Han Xu and prepared to kill him, but Wu Zheng drew his swords and blocked the attack.
• Wu Zheng explained that Han Xu had saved his life, and Shi Wu jumped from the vehicle to order it blown up.
• Shi Wu received no response and discovered that all the men he had brought were dead.

Luo Yan captured Shi Wu and forced him to help Han Xu’s group prepare an attack on Guan City Base. After Shi Wu and Wu Zheng convinced Jiang Chengxuan that Han Xu was dead, Jiang Chengxuan grew suspicious and began preparing to flee with the mecha.

• Luo Yan defeated Shi Wu, injected him with a toxin, and bound his survival to antidote doses held by Han Xu.
• Luo Yan ordered Shi Wu to tell Jiang Chengxuan that Han Xu had been killed and to cooperate in an attack on Guan City Base that night.
• Han Xu gave Wu Zheng his wedding ring to use as proof, and Shi Wu and Wu Zheng returned to Guan City Base with it.
• Shi Wu told Jiang Chengxuan that Han Xu had been killed, while Wu Zheng asked to take the ring to bury with Han Xu’s body.
• Jiang Chengxuan let Wu Zheng keep the ring, then called a subordinate and ordered an immediate escape with the mecha.