Chapter Summaries

Lu Sheng rejected Chen Yunxi’s offer of marriage for now, but she took his words as a promise to understand him better. When Wang Ziquan vanished from school, Lu Sheng and Song Zhenguo investigated and connected his disappearance to the pleasure boat they had visited.

• Lu Sheng told Chen Yunxi he liked her but was not ready to marry, and she promised to learn everything about him.
• Wang Ziquan missed school for a second day, so Song Zhenguo and Lu Sheng set out to find him.
• Chen Hong said Wang Ziquan had visited his cosmetics shop around Chou Hour to collect sachets and face powder.
• Lu Sheng told Song Zhenguo that he had returned to the empty, red-lantern-lit pleasure boat the night Wang Ziquan disappeared.
• Lu Sheng and Song Zhenguo went to the Oriole Oriole Pleasure Boat to investigate.

Lu Sheng and Song Zhenguo investigated Wang Ziquan’s disappearance aboard the pleasure boat but learned he had not returned there after leaving with them. A ghost story about the Red Chamber linked Lu Sheng’s red-lantern boat to a vanished vessel, while Song Zhenguo left determined to find Wang Ziquan despite worrying about how an investigation might affect Ruler.

• Song Zhenguo paid the Boat Woman to summon Butterfly and asked whether Wang Ziquan had returned to the pleasure boat.
• Butterfly said she had left after Song Zhenguo and the others departed, and explained that the boat went to a dockyard rather than remaining at the berth.
• Butterfly revealed that red lanterns marked a deceased girl’s room and recounted the legend of the Red Chamber, whose passengers never returned.
• Ruler confirmed that Wang Ziquan had not come back to the boat after leaving with Song Zhenguo and Lu Sheng.
• Lu Sheng wondered how his money pouch had ended up on the mysterious red boat, while Song Zhenguo resolved to report Wang Ziquan missing if necessary.
• Song Zhenguo returned home, torn between his responsibility to Wang Ziquan and his fear that an investigation could affect Ruler.

Ruler warned Song Zhenguo to stay away from the Scented Silk Festival, concealing that she was meant to lure him there as one of her master's targets. Meanwhile, Lu Sheng tested his strength, mastered the Eight Treasures Step, and began looking for a hard skill to learn.

• Song Zhenguo received Ruler's note promising that she would go home with him after the Scented Silk Festival, and he agreed not to visit the painted boat.
• Ruler burned Song Zhenguo's reply, then found a warning telling her to make her move at the festival and realized she could not grow old with him.
• Lu Sheng smashed stones and tested the third level of the Black Fiend Skill, leaving a deep, scorched palm print in a tree.
• Lu Sheng used the Modifier to raise the Eight Treasures Step to its third level and demonstrated its speed by catching a sparrow, accidentally crushing it.
• Lu Sheng decided to seek a hard skill and ruled out approaching the elderly Lu Chengzhong for instruction.

Lu Sheng searched Yan Mountain City for martial arts manuals and money, but found the local masters’ skills inadequate and their hard-skill training dependent on hidden medicinal formulas. After learning the Government Office had dismissed Wang Ziquan’s disappearance as an accident, Lu Sheng discovered that Chen Jiaorong’s jade contained a great deal of the same Yin Qi he had absorbed before.

• Lu Sheng watched Soul Severing Palm Li Ran demonstrate his skills and judged that he could defeat him easily with internal qi.
• Lu Sheng visited Copper Pillar Dojo and other schools, but learned their hard-skill training required medicinal cleansing formulas that they only provided to members.
• Lu Sheng searched the ghost market and met Chen Jiaorong, Chen Yunxi’s elder brother, who invited him to drink.
• Chen Jiaorong told Lu Sheng that the Government Office had ruled Wang Ziquan’s disappearance an accidental fall into the Pine Cypress River and had ended the investigation.
• Lu Sheng handled Chen Jiaorong’s Nine Plains Jade and sensed that it held an unusually large amount of Yin Qi.

Lu Sheng dealt with Chen Jiaorong’s renewed marriage proposal and the fallout from Wang Ziquan’s disappearance while preparing for the Yearly Examination. Song Zhenguo received a message promising Ruler’s rescue during the Scented Silk Festival, and the chapter ended with Lu Sheng awakened by festival revelers filling Yan Mountain City’s streets.

• Chen Jiaorong pressed Lu Sheng to marry Chen Yunxi and offered to double the dowry, but Lu Sheng postponed his answer until after the Yearly Examination.
• Wang Ziquan’s family appeared at the academy seeking help, and Song Zhenguo took the young widow and her children away with Government Office runners.
• Song Zhenguo received a note claiming he could redeem Ruler for ten thousand taels during the festival, then borrowed fifteen thousand taels from his elder sister and decided to go alone.
• Lu Sheng received Qiao’er and one thousand taels from his family, then focused on his studies and finding ways to earn money.
• Lu Sheng was woken before dawn by noisy processions celebrating the approach of the Scented Silk Festival.

Lu Sheng received news from his family and Song Zhenguo, showed how his martial arts had strengthened, and agreed to witness Song Zhenguo redeem Ruler. At the pleasure boat, Ruler was horrified to see Song arrive despite her warning, and a mysterious white-clad woman appeared in her room.

• Lu Sheng read a letter saying his family was relocating to Yan Mountain City, then accepted Song Zhenguo's invitation to witness him redeem Ruler at the Scented Silk Festival.
• Lu Sheng inspected his growing strength and damaged saber, then frightened Zheng Yu'er with a tiger-like roar when she tried to surprise him.
• Lu Sheng spent the festival day studying and training before meeting Song Zhenguo and Chen Jiaorong by the Pine Cypress River.
• Song Zhenguo led Lu Sheng and Chen Jiaorong aboard the pleasure boat to redeem Ruler.
• Ruler saw Song Zhenguo arrive despite her warning and realized her master's target was him, then a long-haired woman dressed in white appeared on her bed.

A woman manipulated Ruler and revealed that she had lured Song Zhenguo onto the pleasure boat, where the three men were treated to a lavish evening. Lu Sheng discovered the boat had become eerily empty and lantern-lit, then attacked a White Clothed Man that tried to sneak up on him.

• A long-haired woman told Ruler that she had impersonated her to lure Song Zhenguo aboard and began altering Ruler, but left after sensing something was wrong.
• Song Zhenguo brought Chen Jiaorong and Lu Sheng onto the painted pleasure boat, where the Boat Woman welcomed them and arranged food, music, and courtesans.
• Song Zhenguo explained that the Boat Head had promised them courtesan companions, and the men played Pitch-Pot before Lu Sheng left to wash his face.
• Lu Sheng returned to find the pleasure boat deserted and lit by Red Lanterns, with Song Zhenguo and Chen Jiaorong missing from their cabin.
• A White Clothed Man crept up behind Lu Sheng, but he spotted it and pursued it through the walls with his saber.

Lu Sheng fought the woman in white aboard a haunted pleasure boat, surviving the fire and destroying her with a combined technique. After the survivors reached a desolate riverbank, Ruler began turning translucent, suggesting the danger was not over.

• Lu Sheng cleaved through the cabin walls and attacked the woman in white while Song Zhenguo and Ruler watched from hiding.
• The woman in white’s flames and black spheres failed to stop Lu Sheng, who struck her down, but she reappeared after the burning cabin collapsed on him.
• Lu Sheng emerged from the fire and killed the woman in white with a powerful attack that joined the Black Fiend Skill and Black Tiger Jade Crane Skill.
• Lu Sheng, Song Zhenguo, Ruler, and the unconscious Chen Jiaorong escaped as the pleasure boat burned and sank; they discovered they were on a desolate stretch of the Pine Cypress River.
• Ruler explained that the boat belonged to a mysterious leader and that the woman had been in charge of their Boat Head; then her body began turning translucent.

After destroying the Red Pavilion Ghost Ship, Lu Sheng returned home injured and recovered while Song Zhenguo asked to learn martial arts from him. Lu Sheng later met Duanmu Wan, who was exhausted from searching for a precious treasure and complained about people who would not listen to reason.

• Song Zhenguo grieved Ruler's death and asked Lu Sheng to teach him martial arts, so Lu Sheng agreed to test his aptitude first.
• Lu Sheng and Song Zhenguo carried Chen Jiaorong back to Yan Mountain City, where Song took Chen home and Lu Sheng returned to his own house.
• Lu Sheng discovered his belongings had burned away, then startled Xiao Qiao unconscious before washing off the soot and recovering at home.
• Chen Jiaorong sent Lu Sheng a letter of thanks, and Chen Yunxi visited with a pair of White Jade Qilin and an invitation from the Chen family head.
• After recovering for half a month, Lu Sheng met Duanmu Wan at a teahouse, where she said many people were searching for a precious treasure and complained about those who ignored evidence.

After tea with Duanmu Wan, Lu Sheng tested the combined power of his martial arts and used Yin Qi from the Jade Hairpin to activate Deep Blue. He began practicing the Yin-Yang Guiding and discovered a faint trace of inner qi, leaving him ready to explore its cultivation further.

• Duanmu Wan warned Lu Sheng to avoid members of aristocratic families, especially their direct lines, before leaving the teahouse at evening.
• Lu Sheng tested the combined Black Fiend Skill and Black Tiger Jade Crane Skill, measured its physical costs, and named his saber technique the Tiger's Roar Crane's Cry Saber.
• Lu Sheng used blood to draw Yin Qi from the Jade Hairpin, which gave Deep Blue enough energy to offer deductions for all his martial arts.
• Lu Sheng decided not to advance the Black Fiend Skill because his body could not withstand the strain, then began practicing the Yin-Yang Guiding.
• Lu Sheng sensed a faint wisp of inner qi and checked Deep Blue, which showed the Yin-Yang Guiding as not yet initiated.

Lu Sheng used the remaining Yin Qi to advance Yin-Yang Guiding and transform the Black Fiend Skill into the Blood Fiend Skill, then tested its corrosive power. Three days later, he arrived at East Mountain Academy for the Yearly Examination, where he met Zheng Xianggui, Zheng Yu'er, and Chen Jiaorong and learned that Song Zhenguo had begun improving.

• Lu Sheng advanced Yin-Yang Guiding to the Third Layer, balancing his internal arts and calming the Black Fiend Skill’s circulation.
• Lu Sheng used the remaining Yin Qi to derive the Black Fiend Skill into the Fourth Layer, renamed it the Blood Fiend Skill, and scorched a palm print into a tree.
• Lu Sheng decided to seek a way to earn money after the Yearly Examination, which was three days away, and returned to studying.
• Lu Sheng waited outside East Mountain Academy for the examination and met Zheng Xianggui and Zheng Yu'er.
• Chen Jiaorong greeted Lu Sheng and told him that Song Zhenguo had been selected for examinee inspections and was improving in classical studies and policy essays.

At East Mountain Academy, Lu Sheng learned from a deranged beggar that he might have a half-Yin body, a condition said to attract ghosts. After the examination, he visited a gravekeeper, who called the condition Yang Baozi and pointed him toward the Red Whale Gang, which Lu Sheng hoped might teach him stronger martial arts.

• Lu Sheng noticed an old beggar at the academy, who said they both had half-Yin bodies and that such people attracted ghosts.
• Lu Sheng sat the three-session Yearly Examination and came out the following afternoon, then decided to seek more information about his suspected constitution.
• At Wanfeng Garden, the gravekeeper told Lu Sheng that people who often encountered ghosts were called Yang Baozi and were said to attract more ghosts.
• The gravekeeper recommended the Red Whale Gang as a source of help, and Lu Sheng recognized it as a powerful underworld group that might have stronger martial arts.

Lu Sheng investigated the Red Whale Gang and discovered that refugees from a supernatural disaster in Cloud Province were flooding Yan Mountain City. He then approached the gang’s Golden Seal Casino and began the process of joining so he could learn its martial arts.

• Lu Sheng saw refugees and families selling their young children in Yan Mountain City, then learned from a wine shop attendant that Cloud Province had suffered ten days of egg-sized hail followed by months of drought.
• Lu Sheng suspected demons or ghosts had caused the unnatural weather and warned Xiao Qiao to be careful while refugees were entering the city.
• Lu Sheng went to Golden Seal Casino and asked Red Face Zhao Jie to help him join the Red Whale Gang.
• Lu Sheng showed Zhao Jie his East Mountain Academy nameplate and explained that he wanted to learn the gang’s martial arts.
• Zhao Jie directed Lu Sheng to register and explained that access to Xuanwu Pavilion depended on strength and contributions to the gang.

Lu Sheng joined the Red Whale Gang and demonstrated that he had reached the Profound Intent Realm, astonishing the gang’s leaders. When Internal Affairs Envoy Old Wang tested him in combat, Lu Sheng overwhelmed him, leaving Old Wang badly injured.

• Lu Sheng registered as an ordinary Red Whale Gang member after Zhao Jie explained the gang’s rules and contribution system.
• At Old Man Xiao’s assessment, Lu Sheng displayed a palm technique that revealed his Spirit Intent-level strength, prompting Old Man Xiao to notify headquarters.
• Internal Affairs Envoy Old Wang and Elder Ouyang arrived, and Old Wang challenged Lu Sheng to test his strength.
• Lu Sheng exchanged six palm strikes with Old Wang without using inner energy, and Old Wang fell back and spat blood.
• As Elder Ouyang and the others treated Old Wang, Lu Sheng realized his strength might exceed the level of renowned masters.

Lu Sheng joined the Red Whale Gang after demonstrating his strength, and Old Wang recognized his flawed Heart Piercing Palm and urged him to seek instruction from his elder brother. As Lu Sheng learned about the gang’s ranks and its dangerous work, he heard of a scholar who vanished after visiting a pleasure boat, a case that seemed connected to the strange incidents he was investigating.

• Old Wang recovered from Lu Sheng’s palm strike, recognized it as the Heart Piercing Palm, and said his elder brother might help Lu Sheng find a path forward.
• Ouyang Ningzhi raised Lu Sheng to Nine Fish rank while the gang considered whether to appoint him External Affairs Envoy, and she explained that his rank gave him access to Power Through-level martial arts in the Xuanwu Pavilion.
• Elder Xiao and Zhao Jie celebrated Lu Sheng’s induction and explained that the Red Whale Gang lost many members while dealing with human threats and supernatural black calamities.
• Elder Xiao described an eleven- or twelve-year-old girl covered in black hair who had been killed by External Affairs Envoy Li after she appeared beneath a willow tree.
• Zhao Jie and Elder Xiao told Lu Sheng that scholar Wang Ziquan had disappeared after visiting a pleasure boat and that the gang had decided not to investigate; Lu Sheng began to suspect the case was significant.

Lu Sheng accepted the Red Whale Gang’s appointment as an External Affairs Envoy and traveled with Chen Ying to the gang’s headquarters. On the Red Whale Ship, he met Gang Leader Hong Mingzi and other masters as the gang prepared to decide on his appointment.

• Chen Ying, Old Wang, and Elder Ouyang visited Lu Sheng and offered him the post of External Affairs Envoy.
• Lu Sheng agreed to go to headquarters, and Chen Ying told him that monsters and devils were beyond mortals’ ability to fight after one had devastated the Red Whale Gang.
• Lu Sheng and the others reached the Red Whale Ship, a vast fortress anchored in the Pine Cypress River.
• Lu Sheng entered the main hall and met Gang Leader Hong Mingzi, Deputy Gang Leader Gongsun Zhang Lan, and three External Affairs Envoys.
• Lu Sheng returned the experts’ probing gazes, prompting three of them to look away, and Hong Mingzi praised him before asking the assembled members for their opinions.

Lu Sheng was appointed to take over part of Wu San’s position, but Gongsun Zhang Lan challenged the decision and pushed him to investigate the danger in Wu San’s territory. He learned that a Black Calamity near a crucial iron mine had killed Wu San and caused several others to disappear, leaving the matter unresolved.

• Hong Mingzi proposed making Lu Sheng the Red Whale Gang’s sixth External Affairs Envoy and giving him Wu San’s men and territory.
• Gongsun Zhang Lan objected that Lu Sheng had not earned the position, while Chen Ying argued that he should handle the danger that had killed Wu San.
• Lu Sheng challenged Gongsun Zhang Lan to fight, but Hong Mingzi proposed transferring only part of Wu San’s holdings until Lu Sheng resolved the trouble.
• Chen Ying explained that Wu San had been a powerful Spirit Intent expert, and Lu Sheng asked about the circumstances of his death.
• Lu Sheng learned that miners and investigators had vanished near a village blocking the road to an important iron mine, and that Wu San and his five-man team had disappeared before Wu San’s corpse was found.

Lu Sheng accepted responsibility for investigating Wu San’s disappearance and traveled with Duan Meng'an to Iron Mine Village. As the carriage passed the deserted Song Family Village, Lu Sheng spotted a corpse-pale scholar staring at him from a stone bridge.

• Lu Sheng agreed to investigate Wu San’s case and take over his branch’s forces, promising to give up the position within a year if he failed.
• Old Wang told Lu Sheng that Zhang Xun had been his disciple and offered to teach him the Wang Family’s orthodox Heart Piercing Palm, but Lu Sheng declined the marriage proposal tied to it.
• Duan Meng'an brought Lu Sheng’s remaining men to meet him, explained that only four Power Through Realm experts and a small force remained, and gave him the branch’s command token.
• Lu Sheng traveled toward the iron mine with Duan Meng'an and learned that the abandoned Song Family Village was where Wu San had disappeared.
• As the carriage passed Song Family Village, Lu Sheng saw a disheveled, deathly pale scholar standing on a stone bridge and staring at him.

Lu Sheng and Duan Meng'an reached Iron Mine Village and prepared to inspect the mine and a nearby manor where Lu Sheng had glimpsed a strange scholar. While waiting overnight, Lu Sheng learned two martial arts and used the Modifier to raise Bear Wrestling Hand to great mastery, then resolved to investigate the manor and explore Xuanwu Pavilion for more techniques.

• Lu Sheng saw a ragged scholar standing on a bridge inside the manor, but the figure vanished when Duan Meng'an looked.
• Lu Sheng and Duan Meng'an arrived at Iron Mine Village, settled into wooden houses, and planned to inspect the mine before visiting the manor.
• Duan Meng'an demonstrated Bear Wrestling Hand to Lu Sheng, who learned it and corrected Duan Meng'an's technique.
• Lu Sheng taught the men the key points of the Red Whale Saber Art after learning it from them.
• Lu Sheng used the Modifier to raise Bear Wrestling Hand to great mastery, increasing his strength and making his skin tougher.
• Lu Sheng sensed something hidden in the manor and decided to stay for several days to investigate it.

Song Yunjuan struggled to live in her impoverished family estate with her alchemy-obsessed elder brother, whose voice answered her despite no one being visible by the furnace. She let Lu Sheng and two companions stay the night, unaware that they had come to investigate the estate.

• Song Yunjuan walked home from school through a village where people avoided her, remembering how her family had died or left and her brother had squandered their wealth on alchemy.
• Song Yunjuan ate cold food in her brother’s dark room and asked him to spend a day with her, while an unseen pale figure holding bloody scissors approached behind her.
• Lu Sheng and his companions knocked at the gates, offered Song Yunjuan eight large coins, and asked to lodge for the night after a landslide blocked their route.
• Song Yunjuan let Lu Sheng, Duan Meng'an, and Ning San into the estate after warning them not to bring lamps outside their rooms.
• After Song Yunjuan went to answer another knock at the gates, Lu Sheng and his companions discussed the ruined estate and their plan to investigate it.