Chapter Summaries

Liu Jiamiao and several Jiangnan sea-merchant families arranged an attack on the Shi family and Fujian merchants to protect their trade with the Portuguese. When the Shi family fleet was ambushed near Mianshan Mountain, Shi Family's Fourth Master rammed a pirate ship but was forced to abandon his badly damaged vessel and jump into the sea as the pirates overwhelmed his crew.

• Liu Jiamiao learned that Fujian merchants were taking a growing share of the Portuguese trade and gathered four other sea-merchant families to plan a response.
• The families pledged two thousand soldiers and thirty warships, hiring Okamura Tashita's Japanese pirates as part of a broader campaign against Fujian merchants.
• Six ships and four hundred men ambushed the Shi family fleet near Mianshan Mountain while the rest of the attackers headed toward Fujian.
• Shi Family's Fourth Master ordered his loaded ship to ram the pirates, crushing one vessel but severely damaging his own.
• The surviving pirates boarded the Shi family ship and killed most of its crew, so Shi Family's Fourth Master grabbed a plank and jumped into the sea.

After Fujian’s maritime families sought Wang Xuan’s help against pirates, he arranged an expedition that would let him strengthen his control of the region’s garrisons. He lured the Liu family’s pirates into boarding his ships and began attacking their chief, Liu Heizi.

• The Shi family head and other maritime merchants reported pirate attacks to Wang Xuan, who agreed to send troops and urged them to petition the court about Japanese Pirates.
• Wang Xuan planned to use the coming conflict to replace the garrison commanders in three prefectures and sent Qi Xuefeng’s forces to sea as bait for the pirates.
• Wang Xuan boarded a merchant fleet with Young Master Dong, Liu Zhengfeng, Qu Yang, and 1,000 Special Operations Team members, while warships followed at a distance.
• Eight pirate ships led by Liu Heizi attacked the fleet, and Wang Xuan ordered his ships to stop so the pirates would board them.
• Qu Yang and Liu Zhengfeng played “Ambush from Ten Sides” as Wang Xuan advanced with his Green Dragon Crescent Blade; he shattered Liu Heizi’s fingers, seized him, and leaped onto the pirate ship.

Wang Xuan slaughtered and captured a pirate force, then sent Qi Xuefeng after the remaining maritime merchants while preparing to confront the Japanese Pirates himself. In Quanzhou, the heads of Fujian’s Seven Great Families debated the pirate conflict and considered what would happen if Wang Xuan died.

• Wang Xuan overwhelmed the pirates with his blade, forcing them to surrender, and ordered his subordinates to round up the prisoners.
• Wang Xuan’s interrogators extracted a confession from Liu Heizi, revealing the allied families’ forces and the Japanese Pirates’ locations.
• Wang Xuan assigned Qi Xuefeng to eliminate three pirate groups and decided to lead an expedition against the Japanese Pirates with Young Master Dong.
• The Seven Great Families gathered at the Lin residence and discussed whether Wang Xuan would intervene in the conflict between the Ningbo maritime merchants and Fujian’s new merchants.
• The Lin family head asked the others to consider what would happen if Wang Xuan lost or died, leaving the family heads astonished and uncertain.

The Seven Great Families secretly organized an assassination force to kill Wang Xuan and divide his estate, while Wang Xuan led his Special Operations Team to hunt Japanese Pirates after finding three villages massacred. The chapter ended with Wang Xuan leaving the captured ships behind and pursuing the pirates’ main force inland.

• The Seven Great Families agreed to send a thousand elite soldiers, fourteen second-rate experts, and seventy third-rate experts to kill Wang Xuan while framing the sea merchants.
• Wang Xuan’s scouts found three villages burned and their inhabitants brutally murdered, so he ordered Yu Sheng to bury the dead and search for the Japanese Pirates.
• A scouting squad located the pirates’ ships, and Wang Xuan led the Special Operations Team in a surprise attack on the drunken guards aboard them.
• Wang Xuan ordered the team to keep the surviving guards alive until they had suffered twenty cuts, then set off with Yu Sheng and the others to pursue the pirates’ main force.

Wang Xuan and the Special Operations Team reached a village the Japanese Pirates were ravaging and launched a counterattack. Wang Xuan slaughtered hundreds of pirates, including Okamura Tashita, as the battle continued.

• Okamura Tashita led more than three hundred Japanese Pirates into a Ming village, where they massacred and tortured its residents.
• Wang Xuan spotted the burning village and raced ahead, rescuing a child by killing the pirate threatening him and maiming other pirates he encountered.
• Wang Xuan drew the Japanese Pirates into the village center, while the Special Operations Team arrived and began surrounding the village.
• Okamura Tashita challenged Wang Xuan, but Wang killed him with a single blow that also killed more than twenty nearby pirates.
• Wang Xuan fought through the Japanese Pirates with the Green Dragon Crescent Blade as Qu Yang and Liu Zhengfeng played The Swordsman of the Jianghu; he had slaughtered more than three hundred pirates by the end.

Wang Xuan slaughtered the Japanese Pirates who attacked a village, returned to Fuzhou with captives, and had more than a hundred executed publicly as a warning. On his way home, he sensed assassins and took cover inside his steel-plated carriage as crossbow bolts struck it.

• Wang Xuan spun the Green Dragon Crescent Blade through the Japanese Pirates, killing more than three hundred and sending the survivors fleeing into the Special Operations Team.
• Wang Xuan ordered the remaining pirates captured, and the team wounded and restrained them while villagers thanked him for saving them.
• Wang Xuan returned to the fleet with more than a hundred captives, then spent a day recovering from the slaughter before the fleet reached Fuzhou Port eight days later.
• Wang Xuan's forces nailed more than a hundred Japanese Pirates to crosses at the port, warning onlookers against piracy.
• Wang Xuan rode alone toward his residence, sensed assassins, and ducked inside his steel-plated carriage as armor-piercing crossbow bolts struck it.

Wang Xuan fought off an ambush by more than a thousand soldiers, using his Green Dragon Crescent Blade to slaughter and rout their ranks. As the attackers’ morale collapsed, Lin Qi Wang watched from the rooftops and realized his plan to exhaust Wang Xuan was failing.

• After the first arrow volley failed to harm Wang Xuan’s steel carriage, the attackers sent more than a thousand soldiers to surround him while experts blocked his escape.
• Wang Xuan fired a signal flare, then emerged with the Green Dragon Crescent Blade and killed dozens of soldiers, driving back the force on one side of the street.
• Lin Qi Wang ordered two hundred crossbowmen to fire into the melee, killing their own soldiers, but Wang Xuan used one as a shield and remained unharmed.
• The soldiers facing Wang Xuan broke formation and fled, while he ignored the rooftop experts and turned toward the troops approaching from the other side.
• Wang Xuan charged the second group with another series of sweeping strikes, killing more soldiers as Lin Qi Wang saw the thousand-man force nearing collapse.

Wang Xuan fought off an ambush by eighty-four experts and concluded that the Seven Great Families had sent them. After the surviving attackers escaped when he offered them a chance to surrender, Wang Xuan vowed to retaliate.

• Lin Qi Wang led eighty-four experts in an attack on Wang Xuan, who killed him and cut down many others with the Green Dragon Crescent Blade.
• Wang Xuan unleashed ten consecutive strikes of his self-created saber technique, killing more attackers and blasting a crater into the concrete that incapacitated four men.
• Wang Xuan deduced from the attackers’ numbers and their reactions that the Seven Great Families had arranged the ambush.
• As the City Guard and Special Operations Team arrived, Wang Xuan offered the remaining attackers a chance to surrender, but they used an explosion to scatter and flee.
• Wang Xuan heard screams as the Special Operations Team shot some fleeing men, then decided he would retaliate against the Seven Great Families without waiting for proof.

Wang Xuan led a mounted force to Xinghua Prefecture to retaliate against the Seven Great Families after an assassination attempt, while the Wang family prepared for his arrival. The chapter ended as Wang Xuan’s men stormed the city and crashed through the Wang family’s main gate.

• Yu Sheng arrived with the Special Operations Team, and Wang Xuan ordered his forces to assemble for a campaign against the Seven Great Families.
• Wang Xuan assigned Yue Buqun and Ding Yi to remain behind while the rest of his forces set out for Xinghua Prefecture with more than two thousand horses.
• After the assassination failed, Wang Family Head summoned Mingde and clan elders, then ordered his son and promising youths to flee to Shaowu Prefecture.
• Wang Xuan split his force outside Xinghua Prefecture, sending Tian Boguang and Ye Huo to raid the Wang and Sun family estates while he headed for the city.
• Wang Xuan ordered the Special Operations Team to tie their hair into topknots and led them through the city gate toward the Wang family residence.
• Wang Xuan’s force charged into the Wang family’s main gate as Wang Family Head and the others prepared to discuss their evacuation.

Wang Xuan led his forces to destroy the Wang family and then attacked the Sun family, where he personally killed its first-rate expert. The Sun family’s defenders faced slaughter as Wang Xuan prepared to seize their wealth.

• Wang Xuan’s forces surrounded the Wang residence, and Qinghong Zaobai wounded Wang Mingde while Wang Xuan killed Wang Family Head and two guards.
• Wang Mingde fought Qinghong Zaobai to protect his family but was killed after Wang Xuan’s men slaughtered the Wang household.
• Wang Xuan left a hundred men to search the Wang residence and confiscate its wealth, then led the rest of his forces to the Sun residence.
• The Sun Family Head offered Wang Xuan wealth in exchange for his family’s safety, but Wang Xuan rejected the offer and ordered an attack.
• Wang Xuan defeated and killed a first-rate Sun family expert with successive strikes from his Green Dragon Crescent Blade, then ordered his men to kill the remaining defenders.

As Japanese Pirates, Wang Xuan’s forces attacked the Wang and Sun families, the prefect learned that the two powerful clans might be wiped out, while Shaomu Temple chose not to intervene and urged the other five families to act. Wang Xuan’s troops uncovered vast hidden treasuries, and he warned his men not to let the families’ wealth tempt them.

• Constable Captain Zhang told the prefect that the Japanese Pirates had come from Fuzhou Prefecture and that the Wang and Sun families were being destroyed.
• The prefect realized that the Wang and Sun families might be exterminated and feared the political fallout would cost him his position.
• Shaomu Temple’s abbot ordered a disciple to warn the other five great families and share information about Wang Xuan’s subordinates, but refused to rescue the Wang and Sun families.
• Wang Xuan ordered his troops to tear apart the families’ properties until they discovered hidden chambers packed with silver ingots.
• Wang Xuan cautioned the Special Operations Team not to be blinded by the wealth of the families they had defeated.

Wang Xuan finished looting the Wang and Sun family estates in Xinghua Prefecture, then led his force toward Quanzhou as the Lin family debated how to respond to his failed assassination attempt. The Lin family meeting was interrupted by an ordinary-looking man who warned that the family faced disaster, but the elders mocked him.

• Wang Xuan counted more than 3.4 million taels in valuables at the estates and ordered Tian Boguang and Ye Huo to attack the garrison and Commander's Mansion.
• Wang Xuan transported the family wealth to the harbor under guard, then set out with his main force for Quanzhou Prefecture.
• The Lin family elders argued over whether to appease Wang Xuan with money and accept him as the King of Fujian, while several resisted surrendering their wealth.
• The Lin family steward brought in an unremarkable middle-aged man who claimed the family faced a great disaster, and the elders ridiculed his warning.

After learning that Wang Xuan had destroyed the Wang and Sun families, the Lin family prepared for a possible attack, sought an alliance with the Yan family, and secretly sent the Head of the Lin family's sons to Nanjing. Wang Xuan then reached the outskirts of Quanzhou Prefecture with his force and rested at the garrison before confronting the local families.

• A messenger told the Lin family elders that Wang Xuan had wiped out the Wang and Sun families, then left before they could question him.
• The Head of the Lin family ordered a search for the messenger and directed the family to contact the Yan family and investigate Xinghua Prefecture.
• The Head of the Lin family sent his two sons to Nanjing with money and instructions to keep their identities hidden if disaster struck.
• Wang Xuan told Tian Boguang that the great families were unlikely to flee because leaving Fujian meant abandoning their lands, connections, and power.
• After two days on the road, Wang Xuan and his thousand men reached Quanzhou Prefecture and rested at a garrison staffed by his own people.

Wang Xuan led the Special Operations Team against the Lin and Yan families, accusing them of colluding with Japanese Pirates and ordering their extermination. The families’ first-rate experts resisted, and Wang Xuan secretly killed one with an arrow as the battle continued.

• Wang Xuan inspected the renovated garrison camp and assigned Di Haokuo’s soldiers to clear the estates outside the city while he dealt with the Lin and Yan families.
• Wang Xuan led his team to the Lin family residence, where the Lin and Yan family heads confronted him from the walls.
• Wang Xuan showed the Imperial Guard tokens and declared that the families had colluded with Japanese Pirates and resisted arrest, then ordered his team to kill everyone.
• Tian Boguang, Qinghong Zaobai, and Ye Huo fought three first-rate experts while the Special Operations Team broke into the estate.
• Wang Xuan hid in the crowd and shot the middle-aged expert fighting Ye Huo through the chest with an iron arrow.
• The two surviving first-rate experts realized their companion had died and furiously attacked Tian Boguang.

Wang Xuan’s forces destroyed the Lin and Yan families, and he killed the Lin elder and a middle-aged attacker during the fighting. After the Special Operations Team seized the families’ wealth, Yan Xuezheng arrived and Wang Xuan instructed him on the official account of their downfall.

• The Lin elder fought Tian Boguang recklessly, but Wang Xuan shot him with an iron arrow while Tian Boguang kept him occupied.
• A middle-aged man accused Wang Xuan of a sneak attack and charged him, so Wang Xuan broke his spine with a kick.
• Tian Boguang led the assault inside the Lin residence and reported that the fighting was over; Wang Xuan ordered him to raid the Yan residence as well.
• The Special Operations Team found two secret rooms in the Lin residence and seized more than four million taels, along with land deeds from the four great clans.
• Yan Xuezheng arrived at the Lin residence, bowed to Wang Xuan, and pledged himself as a subordinate.
• Wang Xuan told Yan Xuezheng to report that the Lin and Yan families had colluded with Japanese Pirates and that most of their direct descendants had died while a few escaped.

Wang Xuan explained to Qinghong Zaobai why he valued capable officials who could deliver results, then continued toward Zhangzhou to destroy the remaining great families. As his forces approached, the Liu family secretly fled with its wealth, leaving the other two families scrambling to escape.

• Yan Xuezheng thanked Wang Xuan for protecting him and left to report to the provincial governor after receiving orders to renovate Quanzhou’s roads and pay the laborers.
• Wang Xuan told Qinghong Zaobai that he preferred talented officials who got results, even if they lacked virtue, and said he expected Yan Xuezheng to fund road construction by pressuring families tied to the Lin and Yan clans.
• Wang Xuan’s account of the conflict with the Seven Great Families spread through Fujian as he and his group rested before continuing toward Zhangzhou.
• The abbot of Shaomu Temple blamed the Lin and Yan families for failing to join the other five families, while the three Zhangzhou families learned that the Lin and Yan households had been wiped out.
• The Liu family secretly removed its treasures and clansmen from Zhangzhou, and Wang Xuan’s local forces helped conceal its departure while sending him a report.
• The two remaining family heads discovered the Liu family had fled and began gathering their clansmen and wealth to prepare their own escape.

After learning that the Liu Family had fled with his wealth, Wang Xuan raced to Zhangzhou Prefecture to stop the Zhang and Li Families from escaping. He reached their estates as the families prepared to flee and paused before launching an attack.

• A Central Bureau messenger told Wang Xuan that the Liu Family was secretly escaping with its wealth, and Wang Xuan hurried ahead with Tian Boguang, Qinghong Zaobai, and Ye Huo.
• The Zhang and Li Families struggled to find enough carriages to evacuate their relatives, books, and valuables before Wang Xuan arrived.
• Li Junfa, known as Little Six, tried to keep a borrowed carriage for his wife and children, but direct-line members claimed it and had servants beat him.
• Wang Xuan entered Zhangzhou with his companions, confirmed that the Zhang and Li Families were still preparing to flee, and went to their estates.
• Tian Boguang urged Wang Xuan to attack immediately, but Wang Xuan had not yet dismounted.

Wang Xuan arrived ahead of the main force as the Zhang and Li Families prepared to flee, and confronted their leaders. When the families’ experts attacked him, he met the Li Family’s heavy-weapon expert in a powerful clash.

• Wang Xuan sent Tian Boguang after the fleeing Liu Family to seize its wealth, then waited with two companions while the Zhang and Li Families packed their belongings.
• The Heads of the Zhang and Li Families lamented their situation and mocked Wang Xuan as they prepared to part ways.
• Wang Xuan appeared and mocked the two family heads, who recognized him and realized they would have to fight.
• The Head of the Zhang Family assumed Wang Xuan had come alone and ordered the families’ experts to attack him.
• Wang Xuan told his two companions to handle the Zhang Family expert and charged the Li Family expert with his Green Dragon Crescent Blade.
• Wang Xuan and the Li Family expert struck their weapons together, unleashing a blast that shattered the ground beneath them.

Wang Xuan defeated the Shaolin expert Ah Teng in an eight-slash duel, then offered to spare one person. As the crowd’s desperate claims of kinship gave way to Madam Li’s revelation that Ah Teng was her son’s biological father, Wang Xuan used divine power to keep the dying man alive long enough for the family drama to continue.

• Wang Xuan traded blows with the staff-wielding Ah Teng and drove him back with seven increasingly powerful slashes.
• Wang Xuan’s eighth slash knocked Ah Teng’s staff away and gravely injured him, but Ah Teng remained standing.
• Wang Xuan offered to spare one person, prompting the crowd to beg for survival, including a youth who called Ah Teng his father.
• Madam Li called out to Ah Teng and revealed that her twenty-five-year-old son was Ah Teng’s biological child, stunning the Li family head and the crowd.
• When Ah Teng began to succumb to his injuries, Wang Xuan used divine power from the system to keep him alive long enough for the father and son to acknowledge each other.

Wang Xuan exposed the Li Family’s family secret, provoked Head of the Li Family, and manipulated the Zhang and Li Families into fighting over their leaders. The Special Operations Team arrived as the fighting left the estate strewn with bodies.

• Madam Li revealed that Uncle Teng was her son’s father, and Head of the Li Family tried to kill the young man before Wang Xuan stopped him.
• Wang Xuan forced the young man to kneel and acknowledge Uncle Teng as his father, and Uncle Teng died after hearing him do so.
• After another Zhang Family expert was killed, Wang Xuan told the assembled guards that they could earn their lives by killing the heads of the Zhang and Li Families.
• The guards withdrew or turned against one another, and Little Six urged them to sacrifice the family heads as the crowd descended into a fight.
• A fighter killed Head of the Li Family but was immediately killed in turn, and the Special Operations Team arrived as the survivors fought on.