Chapter Summaries

Chao Yushi explained that Zhou Han’s death could give the Northern Territory a pretext for war, though he reassured Lin Bai, Chen Yule, and Yi Song that they had done nothing wrong. He said the Chu imperial court would handle what followed, and the Chu Emperor’s silence suggested he had approved of Chen Yule’s killing of Zhou Han.

• Chao Yushi explained that the Northern Territory could use Zhou Han’s death to stir up support for war against the Eastern Territory.
• Lin Bai, Chen Yule, and Yi Song realized that Chen Yule’s public killing of Zhou Han might worsen tensions between the territories.
• Chao Yushi warned the three Saint Sons not to kill recklessly in the Imperial Capital, especially with Chu Emperor’s Birthday Celebration approaching.
• Lin Bai asked what they should do next, and Chao Yushi said they should leave the matter to the Chu imperial court.
• Yi Song wondered whether their good intentions had caused harm, but Chao Yushi said they had done nothing wrong and noted that the Chu Emperor had not summoned them.

Lin Bai learned that Emperor Chu supported Zhou Han’s execution and that the Kingdom of Chu was prepared for a war with the Northern Region if one became necessary. As the Southern Border Insect Valley delegation approached, Emperor Chu warned the South Mountain Clan against provoking Chu further.

• Chao Yushi told Lin Bai that Emperor Chu’s silence after Zhou Han’s death showed his approval and explained that war had no meaning beyond victory and defeat.
• Chao Yushi said the imperial clan would handle what came next, then told Lin Bai that the Southern Border Insect Valley delegation would reach the Imperial City within half a month and might lead him to Xia Jingzhi.
• Fallen Immortal questioned why Chao Yushi had frightened Lin Bai, Chen Yule, and Yi Song, and Chao Yushi said he wanted to temper the young leaders; a Chen Family elder later brought gifts to thank him.
• Emperor Chu asked about the Northern Region’s movements and called Chen Yule’s killing of Zhou Han a warning, especially to the South Mountain Clan.

Lin Bai joined Prince Chen and the imperial family to welcome the Southern Border Insect Valley delegation, hoping to meet Xia Jingzhi and advance his plans. As the delegation neared the Imperial Capital, its immense black cloud appeared on the horizon, and the welcoming ceremony began.

• Lin Bai accompanied Prince Chen, Prince Su, Prince Mo, and officials to the Welcoming Sage Gate to receive the Southern Border Insect Valley delegation.
• Prince Chen told Lin Bai that a banquet would give him a chance to speak with the delegation before they went to their guesthouse.
• Prince Su and Prince Mo traded teasing remarks about the Southern Border Insect Valley's Holy Daughter and offered Lin Bai an imperial maid instead.
• A scout reported that the delegation was three hours away, and Zhao Xing Office Commandant Zhu Mo continued monitoring its approach.
• Zhu Mo spotted the delegation's black cloud on the horizon, and Prince Chen ordered the musicians to play as the cloud advanced toward the capital.

Southern Border Insect Valley arrived at the Chu imperial capital, where Prince Chen welcomed its delegation. Lin Bai and the others saw the eerie mountain and its deformed warriors before Prince Chen escorted the visitors into the capital.

• A mountain surrounded by countless black beetles approached the imperial capital, revealing venomous creatures, a giant toad, and emotionless warriors across its slopes.
• Prince Chen welcomed Southern Border Insect Valley, whose warriors formed a staircase from beetles and descended onto the royal family's red carpet.
• Ancestor Mo Quan introduced himself and the Holy Daughter, Rong Yunxin, to Prince Chen, who introduced Prince Su, Prince Mo, and Lin Bai.
• The warriors of Southern Border Insect Valley turned their attention to Lin Bai, and Mo Quan said he had heard of the Wolf Marquis's reputation.
• Prince Chen invited the delegation to a welcoming feast and led them through the Welcoming Sage Gate into the imperial capital.

Lin Bai escorted Southern Border Insect Valley’s delegation to its guest residences and spoke with its perceptive old ancestor, who saw through his unusual welcome. The old ancestor urged Lin Bai to explain his purpose before the opportunity passed, leaving Lin Bai to decide whether to trust the others in the carriage.

• At the imperial banquet, Southern Border Insect Valley’s disciples ate alongside poisonous creatures while Lin Bai and the Tianshui Sect disciples observed them.
• After the banquet, Prince Chen asked Lin Bai and the Tianshui Sect disciples to escort Southern Border Insect Valley to its guest residences.
• In the carriage, Southern Border Insect Valley’s old ancestor questioned why Lin Bai had welcomed them despite refusing to welcome Flying Sword Devil Sect.
• The old ancestor revealed that he understood Lin Bai had another reason for coming and urged him to speak before he missed his opportunity.
• The old ancestor assured Lin Bai that Southern Border Insect Valley’s companions would keep his confidence, but left it to Lin Bai to decide whether he trusted Qiao Mo and Qin Yao.

Lin Bai uncovered Southern Border Insect Valley’s hidden purpose in coming to Chu’s imperial capital and confirmed that Xia Jingzhi had helped cause the First Prince and Second Prince’s deaths. The two sides agreed to cooperate, but the old ancestor required Lin Bai to help capture Xia Jingzhi before Southern Border Insect Valley testified about the poison.

• Lin Bai inferred that Southern Border Insect Valley had come to the imperial capital to find Xia Jingzhi, who had stolen the God-Devil Calamity Poison.
• Lin Bai confronted the old ancestor of Southern Border Insect Valley, who admitted the valley had been obstructed in its search and suspected a prince had protected Xia Jingzhi.
• Lin Bai identified the Third Prince as the prince behind Xia Jingzhi, and the old ancestor confirmed that the First Prince and Second Prince had died from the God-Devil Calamity Poison.
• Lin Bai asked Southern Border Insect Valley to testify that the two princes had died from the poison, and the old ancestor agreed on the condition that Lin Bai help capture Xia Jingzhi first.

Lin Bai learned that Southern Border Insect Valley had come to the imperial capital to capture Xia Jingzhi, a fugitive hidden by the Third Prince. He refused to let the delegation operate beyond the Zhao Xing Office’s watch, then offered to capture Xia Jingzhi himself and hand him over after the Chu Emperor’s birthday celebration.

• Lin Bai deduced that Southern Border Insect Valley had used the Emperor’s birthday invitation as a chance to pursue Xia Jingzhi, who had escaped the sect a thousand years earlier and gained the Third Prince’s protection.
• The ancestor of Southern Border Insect Valley said the sect could capture Xia Jingzhi if Lin Bai let its delegation move freely in the imperial capital for half a month.
• Lin Bai refused, saying Southern Border Insect Valley’s activities had to remain under the Zhao Xing Office’s surveillance and that Prince Chen would also reject the risk.
• The ancestor argued that capturing Xia Jingzhi would expose the Third Prince’s role in plotting against the First and Second Princes and leave Prince Chen poised to claim the throne.
• Lin Bai offered to capture Xia Jingzhi himself with the support of Tianshui Sect, Chu’s imperial clan, and the Zhao Xing Office, then return him alive to Southern Border Insect Valley after the birthday celebration.

Lin Bai questioned Southern Border Insect Valley about how Xia Jingzhi escaped after betraying them, then left without reaching an agreement over how to capture him. He learned that Xia Jingzhi was secretly staying in the valley’s guest compound and remained close to its members, while the ancestor asked what move the Third Prince had made.

• Lin Bai and the ancestor of Southern Border Insect Valley failed to agree on terms for capturing Xia Jingzhi, though Lin Bai learned the valley had a method to catch him.
• Lin Bai challenged the ancestor to explain how Xia Jingzhi had escaped a thousand years earlier after stealing the valley’s supreme treasure and poison-refining methods.
• After Lin Bai left with the Tianshui Sect disciples, Rong Yunxin and the ancestor discussed his suspicions and the risks he posed before summoning the valley’s disciples to rest.
• The ancestor, Rong Yunxin, and the Core Disciples found Xia Jingzhi waiting in the ancestor’s courtyard, revealing that the supposed traitor still maintained close ties with Southern Border Insect Valley.
• Xia Jingzhi and the ancestor discussed Lin Bai’s influence and reputation, and the ancestor asked what move the Third Prince had made.

Lin Bai learned that the Southern Border Insect Valley refused to cooperate in capturing Xia Jingzhi and wanted to move freely around the imperial capital. After discussing the matter with Prince Chen and Chao Yushi, Lin Bai suspected that the sect had deliberately allowed Xia Jingzhi to escape a thousand years earlier.

• Xia Jingzhi told the Southern Border Insect Valley Ancestor that the Third Prince planned to bide his time until the Chu Emperor's Birthday Celebration, and the Ancestor revealed plans to meet the Nine Underworlds Demon Palace and the incoming Soul Refinement Sect delegation.
• Lin Bai told Prince Chen that the Southern Border Insect Valley demanded half a month to move freely through the imperial capital, and Prince Chen rejected the condition.
• Lin Bai told Chao Yushi that the Southern Border Insect Valley seemed unwilling to capture Xia Jingzhi despite the proposed cooperation.
• Lin Bai asked Chao Yushi whether the Southern Border Insect Valley had deliberately let Xia Jingzhi escape a thousand years earlier, frightening him.

Lin Bai and Chao Yushi abandoned the idea of relying on Southern Border Insect Valley to find Xia Jingzhi and focused on investigating the Third Prince’s Sun Moon Pavilion. Lin Bai warned that Prince Hong Estate was already entangled in the succession struggle and needed to prepare for a possible clash.

• Lin Bai argued that Xia Jingzhi could not have escaped Southern Border Insect Valley’s pursuit through strength alone, and Chao Yushi agreed that the matter needed investigation.
• Lin Bai, Chao Yushi, and the Tianshui Sect warriors failed to find Xia Jingzhi’s hiding place, so Qiao Mo suggested that only the Third Prince could reveal it.
• Lin Bai proposed tracing Xia Jingzhi through the Third Prince’s advisers and other experts in Sun Moon Pavilion, and Chao Yushi agreed to investigate them.
• Lin Bai asked Chao Yushi to gather detailed information on Sun Moon Pavilion’s forces in case they had to fight.
• Lin Bai told Chao Yushi that Prince Hong Estate could not remain neutral because his betrothal to Fallen Immortal had tied it to Prince Chen’s faction.

Lin Bai explained why he supported Prince Chen and urged Prince Hong Estate to join him against Prince Liang's Estate. Chao Yushi and Fallen Immortal remained undecided, and Prince Hong Estate agreed only to continue searching for Xia Jingzhi while considering the proposal.

• Lin Bai told Chao Yushi that he backed Prince Chen because they were friends, he needed Chu Kingdom connections to reach the Seven Realms of the Heavens, and he had promised Tianshui Sect he would help it rise again.
• Lin Bai argued that Prince Chen and Prince Hong Estate shared an enemy in Prince Liang's Estate, while the Third Prince might destroy Prince Hong Estate after defeating Prince Liang's Estate.
• Lin Bai promised Prince Hong Estate that Prince Chen would clear its name and that he would personally aid it if Prince Chen later moved against it.
• Chao Yushi asked for time to consider the proposal and promised Prince Hong Estate would keep searching for Xia Jingzhi as Lin Bai departed with the Tianshui Sect disciples.
• Chao Yushi warned Fallen Immortal that Prince Hong Estate had to weigh the decision carefully, while Fallen Immortal said Prince Chen had shown them kindness.

Chao Yushi explained to Fallen Immortal that Prince Chen had little chance of taking the throne unless he gained powerful sect support and exposed the Third Prince’s role in the First Prince and Second Prince’s deaths. The chapter left Xia Jingzhi as the key figure whose capture could determine whether Prince Chen could challenge the Third Prince.

• Fallen Immortal asked Chao Yushi to compare Prince Chen’s chances of ascending the throne with the Third Prince’s, and he judged Prince Chen’s position weak.
• Fallen Immortal pressed Chao Yushi to advise Prince Chen, and he warned that the Third Prince might rebel if driven too far.
• Chao Yushi said Prince Chen needed the support of Chu’s Five Great Families and Seven Sects to contend with the Third Prince.
• Chao Yushi explained that Wolf Marquis hoped to capture Xia Jingzhi and prove the Third Prince had plotted the First Prince and Second Prince’s deaths, turning the Chen Family and Sacred Lotus Palace against him.
• Fallen Immortal reasoned that Saint Yi Song and the Kushan Sect might also support Prince Chen, while Chao Yushi stressed that this depended on Wolf Marquis capturing Xia Jingzhi.

After Southern Border Insect Valley failed to commit to capturing Xia Jingzhi, Lin Bai tried to figure out where the Third Prince might be hiding him. He shut himself away to investigate, while Bai Yifei and the others also searched without success.

• Lin Bai concluded he could no longer rely on Southern Border Insect Valley and began reasoning through the Third Prince's protection of Xia Jingzhi.
• Lin Bai recalled the Third Prince had once hidden the Twelfth Prince's orphan in Orchid Pavilion Courtyard and considered places intelligence networks would avoid investigating.
• Lin Bai reasoned the Third Prince would likely hide Xia Jingzhi somewhere nobody would expect, but could not identify the place.
• Lin Bai remained shut inside his residence for several days, refusing visits from Qiao Mo and the others.
• Bai Yifei told Qiao Mo that the Dark World had no information on Xia Jingzhi beyond his history as a Southern Border Insect Valley traitor and orphan, and admitted their searches had found nothing.

After the Dark World failed to locate Xia Jingzhi, Lin Bai left his courtyard and went out with Tianshui Sect disciples to clear his mind. At a street storyteller’s stall, the old man made a startling claim about the demon realm’s history and heroes.

• Bai Yifei, Zhou Xinjin, Yi Zien, and the others learned that Xia Jingzhi had betrayed Southern Border Insect Valley a thousand years earlier and had vanished after appearing in the Chu Empire’s Imperial Capital.
• After spending half a month shut away and exhausting himself over Tianshui Sect’s troubles, Lin Bai agreed to go out with Qiao Mo, Bai Yifei, and the other disciples.
• Lin Bai and the Tianshui Sect disciples strolled through the Imperial Capital’s busy market as the Chu Emperor’s Birthday Celebration approached.
• Lin Bai noticed a storyteller’s banner boasting, “Telling of All the Heroes Under Heaven, Revealing the Mysteries of the Ages,” and the disciples mocked its grand claims.
• The Storyteller told a skeptical young man that the demon realm’s years amounted to only nine inches to him and that its heroes numbered only seven.

A mysterious Storyteller singled out Lin Bai as the person destined to hear his tale and challenged him to a bet about what was troubling him. Lin Bai agreed and listened as the Storyteller guessed that he was searching for someone or a treasure.

• A Storyteller drew a crowd by claiming the Demon Realm's history was only nine inches long and that it had only seven heroes, but refused to explain without a destined listener.
• Bai Yifei warned Lin Bai that the Storyteller and the young man who challenged him were likely running a confidence trick.
• The Storyteller identified Lin Bai as the person destined to hear his story and offered to tell him one without asking for money.
• Lin Bai politely tried to leave, but the Storyteller stopped him with a remark and proposed a bet about what troubled him.
• Lin Bai accepted the bet, and the Storyteller guessed that he was searching for someone or a treasure.

Lin Bai paid attention to the Storyteller’s offer to tell a helpful tale about his search, concealing that he was actually looking for Xia Jingzhi. The Storyteller said he had recalled a similar case from the Imperial Capital, recorded in the Zhao Xing Office archives, and prepared to tell Lin Bai about it.

• The Storyteller guessed that Lin Bai was searching for someone or something, then asked him to honor their bet and listen to a story.
• The Storyteller asked for three Immortal Jades, but offered to accept payment only if his tale helped Lin Bai.
• Lin Bai claimed he had bet fifty thousand Immortal Jades with Meng Qinxian to find an item hidden somewhere in the Imperial Capital within a month.
• Bai Yifei rebuked onlookers who questioned whether Lin Bai would pay, and Lin Bai promised to hand over the three Immortal Jades if the story inspired him.
• The Storyteller recalled a similar case from the Imperial Capital that was recorded in the Zhao Xing Office archives.

Storyteller recounted the three-thousand-year-old Vice Minister Fang Case to Lin Bai, explaining how Fang Jing’s affair and his wife’s search led to political secrets being exposed. He revealed that Fang had kept his lover in a tavern two streets from his office, and the chapter ended with Lin Bai learning how the woman had remained undiscovered.

• Storyteller described how Vice Minister Fang fell in love with a poor woman and secretly supported her despite his strict wife, Li Wenyuan.
• Storyteller explained that Li Wenyuan and her lineage searched the imperial capital for the woman but failed to find her.
• Bai Yifei and Zhou Xinjin confirmed that the Vice Minister Fang Case had caused a major scandal three thousand years earlier.
• Storyteller said Li Wenyuan’s maid was a Nine Underworlds Demon Palace agent who leaked dynasty secrets, leading the Chu Emperor to execute Li Wenyuan and the maid and demote Fang Jing five ranks.
• Storyteller revealed that Fang Jing had never hidden his lover: he had opened a tavern for her two streets from his government office, where he met her openly.

After hearing a tale about hiding in plain sight, Lin Bai suspected that Xia Jingzhi might be concealed somewhere everyone considered impossible. He concluded that the Southern Border Insect Valley's guesthouse was the least likely hiding place, but he had not yet revealed how he would investigate it.

• Lin Bai paid the Storyteller three immortal jades for a story that inspired him to reconsider where Xia Jingzhi might be hiding.
• Lin Bai and the Tianshui Sect disciples visited the Third Prince's Estate, but Lin Bai decided the Third Prince would not risk sheltering Xia Jingzhi there.
• Lin Bai reasoned that no powerful family or sect in Chu would shelter Xia Jingzhi because doing so would make an enemy of the Southern Border Insect Valley.
• Lin Bai identified the Southern Border Insect Valley's guesthouse as the place Xia Jingzhi might be hidden and refused to sneak in, saying he had another way to investigate.

Lin Bai summoned the Crow and asked him to help find Xia Jingzhi, a traitor from the Southern Border Insect Valley. The Crow agreed to visit the sect’s guest residence with him after Lin Bai promised to help collect the Green Jade Fragments.

• Lin Bai summoned the Crow to his courtyard and asked him to help find Xia Jingzhi.
• Lin Bai showed the Crow Xia Jingzhi’s portrait and said he planned to search the Southern Border Insect Valley’s guest residence.
• The Crow questioned Lin Bai’s guess but dismissed any fear of the sect’s poisons and insects.
• The Crow demanded a Green Jade Fragment as payment, and Lin Bai proposed that they work together to find all the fragments and uncover their secret.
• The Crow accepted Lin Bai’s proposal and agreed to accompany him to the guest residence the next day.

Lin Bai visited Southern Border Insect Valley's guest residence with Bai Yifei and Zhou Xinjin while the Crow secretly searched for Xia Jingzhi. After Lin Bai drove the poisonous creatures from the reception hall with his sword intent, Southern Border Insect Valley's ancestor asked why he had come.

• Lin Bai agreed to let Bai Yifei and Zhou Xinjin accompany him to Southern Border Insect Valley after his companions urged him not to travel alone.
• Lin Bai told the Crow to investigate the residence for Xia Jingzhi without alerting anyone, and the Crow flew into the poisonous smoke.
• A maid led Lin Bai, Bai Yifei, and Zhou Xinjin through the poison-filled residence to meet Southern Border Insect Valley's ancestor, Rong Yunxin, and several Core Disciples.
• Lin Bai released his sword intent, causing every poisonous creature in the reception hall to flee.
• Southern Border Insect Valley's ancestor asked Lin Bai what had brought him to the residence.