Chapter Summaries

Su Qiao and Jiang Han fought off Shang Yu, Gu Ling, Gu Han, and Chu Hui’s attack, leaving Gu Han mortally wounded. As he lay dying, Su Qiao rejected his feelings and pointed out that he had been willing to sacrifice her for the families’ interests.

• Jiang Han told Su Qiao he would kill an enemy himself and ordered her to kill the people opposing them.
• Shang Yu, Gu Ling, Gu Han, and Chu Hui launched a sneak attack, but Su Qiao pulled Gu Han into the path of Professor Tang’s cane and Gu Ling’s dagger.
• Gu Ling begged Chu Hui to save Gu Han, but Chu Hui said his heart meridians were injured beyond saving.
• Gu Han asked whether Su Qiao had ever liked him, and she said no, explaining that he had chosen his family’s interests over her life.
• Su Qiao told Gu Han he was deceiving himself and had cared more about losing to Jiang Han than about her.

Gu Han died after Gu Ling accidentally stabbed him, and Su Qiao blamed Gu Ling and Shang Yu for his death. As members of the Gu, Su, and Chu families gathered in the Stone Chamber, Su Qiao prepared to act with Jiang Han.

• Gu Ling grieved over Gu Han's death and threatened Su Qiao, who accused her and Shang Yu of causing it.
• Chu Hui comforted Gu Ling while recognizing that Gu Han's death benefited the Chu Family and would deepen hostility between the families.
• 444 told Su Qiao that members of the Gu, Su, and Chu families were hiding nearby, and Su Qiao received a map of their locations.
• Su Qiao led Jiang Han to the northeastern corner of the Stone Chamber and told him to follow her instructions.
• A team of more than twenty people entered the Stone Chamber, led by an imposing middle-aged man in a black Tang Suit, who looked toward Gu Han's corpse.

Gu Ling confessed that she had accidentally stabbed her brother Gu Han while trying to attack Su Qiao, then blamed Shang Yu for delivering the fatal blow. Gu Han’s father confronted Shang Yu, but the head of the Shang family arrived and accused Su Qiao of being the real culprit.

• Gu Han’s father arrived, found his son dead, and asked Gu Ling who had killed him.
• Gu Ling accused Su Qiao, but Su Qiao pointed out that witnesses had seen Gu Ling and Shang Yu attack Gu Han.
• Gu Han’s father slapped Gu Ling, and she admitted she had stabbed Gu Han while trying to capture Su Qiao, then said Shang Yu had killed him.
• Gu Han’s father threatened to kill Shang Yu for his son’s death.
• The head of the Shang family arrived with his people and accused Su Qiao of being behind Gu Han’s death.

Su Qiao revealed that Old Master Su and Third Master Chu had been hiding behind secret doors, bringing all four families together at the tomb. The families discussed opening the stone door, while Old Master Gu and Family Head Shang still wanted Su Qiao to pay for Gu’s son’s death.

• Su Qiao confronted the elders and opened a hidden door in the north wall, revealing Old Master Su and his subordinates.
• Family Head Shang and Old Master Gu exchanged barbed remarks with Old Master Su and noted that the Chu Family was still missing.
• Su Qiao opened a second hidden door in the south wall, and Third Master Chu emerged after checking that his son was unharmed.
• Third Master Chu recalled that the Four Great Families had gathered at the tomb seventeen years earlier and asked whether they had found a way to open the stone door.
• Old Master Gu and Family Head Shang pressed for a sacrifice to open the door and looked to Old Master Su for agreement.

Su Qiao challenged the others’ plan to use Su Family blood to open the stone door and suspected they wanted to wipe out the family. She claimed Jiang Han as her own person, rejecting Old Master Su’s authority over him, and left their relationship with the old man openly defiant.

• Su Qiao argued that anyone of Su Family blood, including Old Master Su, could be made to bleed to open the stone door, and accused certain people of trying to destroy the family.
• Old Master Gu and Third Master Chu urged Su Qiao to shed blood instead of Old Master Su’s, but she questioned whether the sacrifice would cost her all her blood.
• Jiang Han drew his curved blade and vowed that anyone who touched Su Qiao would have to kill him first.
• Old Master Su called Jiang Han to his side, but Su Qiao took Jiang Han’s hand and declared that he belonged to her alone.
• Su Qiao rejected Old Master Su’s authority over Jiang Han, mocked his accusation of rebellion, and left the old man unable to read her.

Jiang He confronted Old Master Su about his supposed death and his wife’s fate, while the group argued over who could use blood to open the stone door. Su Qiao challenged the others to test everyone, leaving Gu Ling and Chu Hui under her icy scrutiny.

• Jiang He revealed that he had survived being abandoned in the tomb cave and asked Old Master Su whether he had silenced Jiang He’s wife.
• Old Master Su claimed Jiang He’s wife had drowned by accident and said he had raised Jiang Han as his own grandson.
• Shang Yu and Third Master Chu urged the group to set aside their disputes and focus on opening the stone door.
• Jiang Han claimed he was the Su family’s true descendant, prompting Old Master Su to insist that Su Qiao was his only granddaughter.
• Gu Ling suggested testing Su Qiao and Jiang Han’s blood, but Su Qiao proposed drawing blood from descendants of all four families and singled out Gu Ling to start.

Su Qiao revealed that Old Master Su had switched her with another baby at birth, confirming she was Jiang He’s daughter. Jiang He was mortally wounded while protecting her, but died relieved that she was alive.

• Jiang He questioned whether Su Qiao was his child, while Old Master Su insisted he had only one granddaughter.
• Su Qiao dismissed Jiang He’s claim to her, saying he had neglected his child for seventeen years.
• Gu Ling attacked Su Qiao, but Su Qiao dodged and kicked Gu Ling into a stone wall, leaving her badly injured.
• Jiang He took a dagger through the heart while shielding Su Qiao, and Jiang Han held him as he began to die.
• Su Qiao confirmed to Jiang He that she was his daughter and that Old Master Su had switched her with another baby at birth.
• Jiang He felt overjoyed that his daughter was alive before succumbing to his wound.

Jiang He died after warning Su Qiao to beware of Old Master Su, and Su Qiao agreed to open the tomb’s stone door for the gathered families. The group chose to enter despite her warning that they would not be able to return.

• Jiang He told Su Qiao that her mother had been silenced and warned her to be careful of Old Master Su before he died.
• Jiang Han helped Su Qiao carry Jiang He’s body to a corner, and the others accepted that Jiang Han was the Su family’s true heir.
• Shang Yu and the other family heads chose to enter the tomb even after Su Qiao warned them that the stone door would close behind them.
• Su Qiao began searching the dragon and phoenix carvings for the way to open the door, while Shang Yu questioned how it could only be opened once.

Su Qiao claimed the Su family’s bamboo slips explained the ancient mechanism and opened the sealed tomb gate, revealing a vast chamber and several passages. The family heads entered to investigate, with Su Qiao and Jiang Han bringing up the rear.

• Su Qiao explained that the stone gate could only be opened once and claimed she had deciphered part of the Su family’s bamboo slips.
• Old Master Su confirmed the family possessed the strange bamboo slips, while Su Qiao said its writing came from the era of Eastern Yue and described the tomb’s designer as Peach Blossom Valley’s Saintess.
• Su Qiao told Chu Hui that the buried person was the Empress, who had been Peach Blossom Valley’s Saintess and designed the tomb herself.
• Su Qiao pressed nine points on the dragon-and-phoenix totem in a pattern, and the stone gate rumbled open to reveal a vast chamber and several passages.
• Shang Yu rushed inside, followed by Third Master Chu, Old Master Su, Gu Family Head, and Family Head Shang; Su Qiao and Jiang Han entered last.

After the tomb’s stone door shut, Su Qiao led Jiang Han through the maze of passages as deadly black insects swarmed the group. The insects chased them into the chamber, splitting everyone into different passages while Chu Hui and Gu Ling failed to catch up with Su Qiao.

• The stone door crashed shut, and the group searched the chamber for a way out.
• Gu Ling pretended to stumble into Chu Hui’s arms while hiding her injuries and resentment toward Su Qiao.
• The group tried the passages one by one, but black insects devoured the people at the front of the first passage.
• Su Qiao told Jiang Han to spread her medicinal powder over them, and the insects avoided their group as they fled.
• Su Qiao and Jiang Han escaped into a distant passage, while Chu Hui pulled Gu Ling away from the insects and led her into another passage.

Su Qiao and Jiang Han made their way through the tomb’s mechanisms toward the Main Tomb Chamber, while the group following them struggled to survive. By the time the others reached the chamber, more than a hundred people had been reduced to fewer than ten.

• Su Qiao told 444 to rest while she used the structural map and her knowledge of the tomb to navigate its mechanisms with Jiang Han.
• Jiang Han asked whether Su Qiao could kill the people pursuing them, and she warned that few would likely reach the Main Tomb Chamber alive.
• The Four Bosses found that their experience with mechanisms did little to help against the tomb’s interconnected traps and poisonous insects.
• The pursuing group dwindled from more than a hundred people to fewer than ten before reaching the Main Tomb Chamber, with the Four Bosses, Shang Yu, Chu Hui, and Gu Ling among the survivors.

Su Qiao and Jiang Han reached the Golden Coffin with the other surviving adventurers, all of whom wanted the treasure inside. After the coffin opened and everyone discovered two perfectly preserved corpses, Shang Yu became convinced the legend of the Immortality Elixir Formula was true.

• Su Qiao and Jiang Han reunited with Gu Ling, Chu Hui, Shang Yu, and the surviving bosses, who argued over how to divide the coffin's contents.
• Su Qiao and Jiang Han opened the Golden Coffin while the exhausted others watched.
• Everyone recoiled at the sight of what seemed to be a living body, and Su Qiao secretly placed the bamboo slips and Black Flute in the Spatial Grid.
• Su Qiao reassured the group that the figure was dead, and the others confirmed that the man and woman in the coffin were corpses.
• Shang Yu stared at the perfectly preserved bodies and declared that the legend of the Immortality Elixir Formula must be true.

After the group found an Empress who looked almost exactly like Su Qiao, they questioned her origins and the Su Family’s connection to the tomb. Su Qiao revealed that the Su Family descended from a servant of the Empress’s husband, and that the servant’s descendants eventually coveted their master’s position.

• Jiang Han and Gu Ling noticed that Su Qiao looked nearly identical to the Empress in the coffin.
• Old Master Su and the others questioned Su Qiao’s origins and grew wary of her.
• Old Master Jiang said Su Qiao was Jiang He’s daughter, while Old Master Su explained that Jiang He’s wife had come from somewhere outside and that her background was unknown.
• Su Qiao said the Su Family did have a connection to the tomb’s owner: their ancestor had served the Empress of the Shuiyue Kingdom’s husband.
• Su Qiao revealed that the servant’s descendants gradually grew greedy and set their sights on their master.

Su Qiao debunked the claim that the ancient rulers had used an immortality elixir, explaining that local preservation methods and an unusual magnetic field accounted for their appearance. Gu Ling remained suspicious of Su Qiao’s resemblance to the Empress and her group’s safe passage through the traps.

• Old Master Su was surprised that Su Qiao knew the secret history of his ancestors and their role as tomb guardians.
• Su Qiao explained that ancient preservation methods and Peach Blossom Valley’s unusual magnetic field could keep the bodies from decaying, and the compasses confirmed the magnetic disturbance.
• Su Qiao challenged Shang Yu to explain how anyone could make an immortality elixir or obtain the nonexistent Spirit Herbs it required.
• Gu Ling demanded to know why Su Qiao looked exactly like the Empress, and Su Qiao suggested that the Empress might have been her ancestor.
• Gu Ling accused Su Qiao and her companions of lying, pointing out that they had escaped the traps without injury while everyone else had been caught or hurt.

Su Qiao confronted the group over their suspicions and their attempts to claim the tomb’s treasures and Immortality Elixir Formula. When they realized she had lured them inside, Jiang Han stood between her and the armed group, rejecting Old Master Su’s claim that he belonged to the Su family.

• Su Qiao explained that medicine powder had kept the insects away and dismissed the group’s claims that she had built the tomb’s mechanisms or taken its treasures before.
• Old Master Su demanded the Immortality Elixir Formula, while Shang Yu claimed the formula and flute as his own.
• Su Qiao closed the Golden Coffin, sat on it, and forbade everyone from touching it or coveting its contents.
• Chu Hui accused Su Qiao of deliberately luring them into the tomb, and she said they had chosen to enter despite her warning them.
• The group drew their knives and questioned whether Su Qiao was human or a ghost, but Jiang Han threatened to kill anyone who touched her.
• Old Master Su called Jiang Han a Su family descendant and the family’s sole heir, but Jiang Han declared that his surname was Jiang, not Su.

Su Qiao confronted Old Master Su over the Su Family’s stolen surname and their ancestors’ ties to the Empress and Prince Jing. She revealed the Black Flute as Peach Blossom Valley’s sacred artifact and explained the origins of the Shuiyue Kingdom and two of the Four Great Families.

• Su Qiao mocked Old Master Su and accused the Su Family’s ancestors of changing their surname from Lyu to Su despite being servants.
• Su Qiao warned that Prince Jing had punished anyone who disrespected the Empress, but Gu Ling dismissed the threat because they were dead.
• Su Qiao declared that Gu Ling had run into her and produced a Black Flute, prompting the others to identify it as a legendary animal-controlling flute.
• Su Qiao clarified that the Black Flute controlled Gu Worms and said it was Peach Blossom Valley’s sacred artifact.
• Su Qiao explained that Peach Blossom Valley preceded the Shuiyue Kingdom and that the Lyu and Chu ancestors had served Prince Jing.

Su Qiao used the Black Flute to unleash Gu Worms on the Shang and Gu Families after they attacked her, then spared Old Master Su at Jiang Han’s request. She realized she could hypnotize him into giving Jiang Han the position of Family Head.

• Su Qiao accused the Shang and Gu ancestors of betraying the Empress who had saved them and said she would clean house for her.
• Jiang Han drove back the attackers as Su Qiao played the Black Flute and summoned Gu Worms, which killed the Shang and Gu Family members.
• Gu Ling cursed Su Qiao before dying, and Su Qiao said their deaths were the result of their own actions and revenge for Jiang He.
• Old Master Su begged Jiang Han and Su Qiao to spare him, and Jiang Han left the decision to Su Qiao.
• Su Qiao called off the insects and warned Old Master Su not to covet the tomb again, then remembered she could hypnotize him into handing the Family Head position to Jiang Han.

Su Qiao hypnotized Old Man Su in the tomb, escaped with Jiang Han, and buried Jiang He. After Old Man Su fell ill, Su Qiao and Jiang Han waited by the river, where she explained the male corpse in the golden coffin as their past-life selves and said Old Man Su would make Jiang Han the Su family head.

• Su Qiao hypnotized Old Man Su and led Jiang Han out of the tomb through a secret passage.
• Su Qiao carried Jiang He's corpse outside and buried him; Old Man Su fell ill, so they stayed several more days.
• Jiang Han asked about the male corpse in the golden coffin, and Su Qiao said it was them in a past life.
• Su Qiao pointed out that Jiang Han resembled the corpse, and Jiang Han accepted her explanation.
• Su Qiao told Jiang Han that Old Man Su would pass him the family head position, but Jiang Han refused and said she should take it.

Su Qiao and Jiang Han returned to Tanzhou City after securing the tomb, where Su Qiao took control of the Su Family and dealt with the other families’ demands. As war approached, they hid valuables in the tomb and established a defensible mountain stronghold with their followers.

• Su Qiao asked Jiang Han to become her husband and marry into her family, and he shyly agreed.
• Su Qiao repaired and upgraded the tomb’s traps, then blew up the cavern entrance before returning with Jiang Han and Old Master Su.
• Su Qiao hypnotized Old Master Su into making her Family Head and arranging her marriage to Jiang Han.
• The Chu, Gu, and Shang Families demanded answers over their losses, but Su Qiao and Jiang Han drove off their representatives.
• The Chu, Gu, and Shang Families fractured through infighting, leaving the Su Family dominant in Tanzhou City.
• When war broke out, Su Qiao and Jiang Han stored valuables in the tomb and led their followers to establish a mountain stronghold.

Su Qiao and Jiang Han built a mountain refuge for people fleeing the war, then disbanded it and lived abroad before returning home in old age. Jiang Han died peacefully after asking Su Qiao to find him again in their next life, and Su Qiao withdrew her soul from the plane.

• Su Qiao refused a warlord’s attempt to recruit her group, and they defeated those who tried to seize the mountain stronghold by force.
• As the stronghold grew and repelled Japanese attacks, Su Qiao sheltered more refugees and turned no one away.
• Before the war ended, Su Qiao disbanded the stronghold, gave the refugees Silver Dollars, and left the country with Jiang Han.
• After decades abroad, Su Qiao and Jiang Han returned home and retired in a small courtyard.
• As Jiang Han neared death, he recalled how Su Qiao had saved him and asked whether she would find him in another life; she promised she would.
• Jiang Han died peacefully, and Su Qiao prepared to be buried beside him before withdrawing her soul from the plane.