Chapter Summaries

Meng Zhao learned that Chen Xiaodao had abducted San Gouzi’s grandfather and suspected the Little Knife Society was targeting him. His investigation revealed Chen Xiaodao’s connection to the infamous swordsman Yan Congke, leaving Meng Zhao to wonder whether Yan Congke was behind the scheme.

• San Gouzi told Meng Zhao that the Little Knife Society had abducted Grandpa Zhang and demanded his merchant caravan and martial arts in exchange for the old man.
• Meng Zhao suspected someone was using Chen Xiaodao to target him, reassured San Gouzi, and told him to follow his arrangements while Meng Zhao handled the rescue.
• Meng Zhao left Qi Fang behind and traveled to Kaiyan County to investigate Chen Xiaodao and find out who stood behind him.
• Meng Zhao learned that Chen Xiaodao had inherited the Profound Origin Skill and the Forty-Nine Forms of Life-Chasing Soul-Snatching Sword from the notorious Yan Congke.
• Meng Zhao wondered whether Yan Congke was the person targeting him, since Chen Xiaodao’s ruthless kidnapping matched the outlaw’s methods.

Meng Zhao infiltrated the Little Knife Society and seized Chen Xiaodao’s son to force him to return San Gouzi’s grandfather. Chen Xiaodao complied and revealed that greed and Yan Congke’s demand for five thousand taels had driven him to target the caravan.

• Meng Zhao slipped into the Little Knife Society compound and watched Chen Xiaodao playing with his son in the courtyard.
• Meng Zhao used his Internal Energy to pull Chen Xiaodao’s son from the air and threatened to keep him unless Chen Xiaodao returned San Gouzi’s grandfather unharmed.
• Chen Xiaodao ordered his men to return the old man home with one hundred taels of silver, and Meng Zhao handed the sleeping child back.
• Meng Zhao confronted Chen Xiaodao about who had ordered the attack, and Chen Xiaodao admitted he had acted believing Yan Congke would back him.
• Chen Xiaodao explained that Yan Congke had recently demanded five thousand taels, so he had targeted San Gouzi’s profitable caravan to raise the money.

Meng Zhao followed Chen Xiaodao to Yan Congke’s residence, where he discovered and comprehended the Soaring Heavens Sword Technique engraved on a wall. When Yan Congke arrived, Meng Zhao assessed the sword art’s strengths and flaws, leaving the swordsman stunned by his insight.

• Meng Zhao asked Chen Xiaodao to lead him to Yan Congke, and Chen eagerly took him to his master’s courtyard.
• Meng Zhao studied the sword marks on a thick wall and comprehended the Soaring Heavens Sword Technique they contained.
• Yan Congke emerged with Chen Xiaodao and recognized that Meng Zhao had grasped the essence of the sword art he had left behind.
• Meng Zhao demonstrated the Soaring Heavens Sword and explained its strengths and weaknesses, including seven flaws in its Sword Moves and impurity in its Sword Intent.
• Yan Congke realized that Meng Zhao had identified flaws he himself had struggled to correct and wondered whether the youth was truly young.

Meng Zhao tested Yan Congke’s swordsmanship and revealed his plan to recruit him, while Yan Congke killed Chen Xiaodao to settle the offense. Yan Congke remained defiant and suspicious of Meng Zhao, leaving their negotiation unresolved.

• Yan Congke challenged Meng Zhao with the Soaring Heavens Sword, but Meng Zhao’s Three Points Return to One Qi stopped and trapped the blade.
• Meng Zhao explained that he wanted Yan Congke to join a force he planned to establish, offering rewards or coercion as ways to recruit capable fighters.
• After hearing Chen Xiaodao’s actions, Yan Congke beheaded his disciple and offered the head as an apology to Meng Zhao.
• Meng Zhao accepted the apology but said he had another reason for visiting, then warned Yan Congke that his extreme conduct would bring trouble.
• Yan Congke rejected Meng Zhao’s warning and insisted that true rigidity could not be broken if it was strong enough.

Meng Zhao challenged Yan Congke to a wager settled by a duel with the Soaring Heavens Sword Technique, with Yan Congke agreeing to work for Meng Zhao if he lost. Their swords clashed in the courtyard, and Meng Zhao’s opening strike sent Yan Congke flying, leaving the wager’s outcome unresolved.

• Meng Zhao proposed wagering on Yan Congke’s service against silver, with victory decided by their swordsmanship.
• Yan Congke first demanded one hundred thousand taels, then reduced the stake to five thousand taels and accepted Meng Zhao’s banknotes as proof of funds.
• Yan Congke lent Meng Zhao the Radiant Spring Sword, which had belonged to a deceased friend.
• Meng Zhao and Yan Congke prepared to duel using the Soaring Heavens Sword Technique.
• Yan Congke used Soaring Through the Azure Clouds, but Meng Zhao’s rapid, layered strike overwhelmed him and hurled him several yards away.

Meng Zhao defeated Yan Congke in a sword duel, won his willing service, and heard his accounts of a demonic cultivator and a winged beast that revived the dead. The stories made Meng Zhao wary of the Mountain Dragon and convinced him to seek powerful weapons before attempting to slay it.

• Meng Zhao explained how his sword strike surpassed Yan Congke's, and Yan Congke accepted his defeat and agreed to serve him.
• Meng Zhao healed Yan Congke's injuries and established a paid working arrangement that let Yan Congke retain his independence while requiring him to report his whereabouts outside Kaiyan County.
• Yan Congke recounted his violent exploits in other counties, his gambling, and his encounter with a Demonic Path Youth suspected of using the Earthly Origin Great Elixir to turn martial artists into resources.
• Yan Congke described how a white, winged, horned beast revived a maiden who had died after defending herself from bandits, then carried her away.
• Meng Zhao concluded that the Mountain Dragon might be intelligent and dangerous, and asked Yan Congke about divine weapons that could aid in slaying it.

Yan Congke described three divine weapons to Meng Zhao as possible alternatives for fighting the Mountain Dragon. Meng Zhao focused on locating Cheng Yi'an and the Remnant Rainbow Sword, while remaining interested in the unnamed Saber Wheel and dismissing the Thunder-Grasping Whip as a poor fit.

• Yan Congke described the Remnant Rainbow Sword, its extraordinary powers, and its owner Cheng Yi'an, whom he had met at a Sword Lodge near Huayun County.
• Meng Zhao decided the Star Palace might help him track down Cheng Yi'an, while Yan Congke recognized that Meng Zhao intended to pursue the sword.
• Yan Congke recounted an unnamed foreign saber that could split into a bloodthirsty, long-range Saber Wheel, and Meng Zhao considered its potential against the Mountain Dragon.
• Yan Congke explained that Jiang Taihe wielded the Thunder-Grasping Whip and had used it to defeat the Thirteen Marauders of the Northern Wasteland.
• Meng Zhao judged the whip less useful against the Mountain Dragon and kept his attention on the Remnant Rainbow Sword and the unnamed saber.

Zhou Zhihan brought Hong Minghui and her young daughter to Meng Zhao, seeking his protection after Hong Minghui’s father, Hong Chengtong, was murdered and she was hunted over a treasure. Hong Minghui began explaining the treasure’s origins, leaving Meng Zhao to consider the danger and opportunity surrounding her.

• Zhou Zhihan arrived at Meng Zhao’s courtyard with Hong Minghui and her daughter, explaining that Hong Minghui was being hunted after Hong Chengtong’s murder.
• Zhou Zhihan revealed that Hong Minghui possessed a secret treasure’s whereabouts, the names of the Hong Sect’s thirty-two branch altar masters, and the Lingxi Heart Method.
• Meng Zhao suspected a traitor within the Hong Sect had helped arrange Hong Chengtong’s death, and Zhou Zhihan explained her family connection and friendship with Hong Minghui.
• Hong Minghui described Old Xi Kou’s legendary treasure, which reportedly included wealth, martial arts manuals, and a Ten Thousand Year Pearl of the East Sea.
• Hong Minghui explained that the pearl could aid cultivation and improve aptitude, and that some believed it was an ingredient in the Elixir of Immortality.

Hong Minghui revealed the history of Old Xi Kou’s treasure and showed Meng Zhao an incomplete Mechanism Diagram that could guide someone through its deadly traps. Meng Zhao confirmed the diagram was genuine and asked where the missing piece was, leaving the treasure’s final key still unaccounted for.

• Hong Minghui explained that Old Xi Kou had died after consuming an Elixir of Immortality and that his treasure was protected by deadly mechanisms requiring a nine-part Mechanism Diagram.
• Hong Minghui said Lü Guang’s family had secretly collected seven other diagram fragments, leaving only one piece outside their possession.
• Zhou Zhihan urged Hong Minghui to show Meng Zhao the item she had kept hidden, and Hong Minghui removed parchment fragments from a charm around her daughter’s neck.
• Meng Zhao assembled the eight parchment pieces and determined that the Mechanism Diagram and its instructions for breaking the traps were genuine, though a middle section was missing.
• Meng Zhao asked Hong Minghui whether she knew where the final piece of the Mechanism Diagram could be found.

Hong Minghui explained her suspicions about the Hong Sect traitor and revealed how her cultivation could eventually let her claim the sect leadership. Meng Zhao agreed to shelter her and send a friend to investigate Longxiang County, leaving the question of how to avenge her family unresolved.

• Hong Minghui told Meng Zhao that Lü Guang had traced the last Mechanism Diagram to Longxiang County and suggested that the search may have led to her father's assassination.
• Hong Minghui described two possible motives for the Hong Sect traitor and explained that she could not trust the sect's branch altars or higher-ups.
• Zhou Zhihan urged Meng Zhao to intervene, while Meng Zhao warned that Hong Minghui might struggle to lead the sect without sufficient martial strength.
• Hong Minghui revealed that she was cultivating Hong Chengtong's modified Lingxi Heart Method, which could eventually give her the strength to rule the Hong Sect.
• Hong Minghui said a traitor had poisoned Hong Chengtong, and Meng Zhao offered to shelter her and send a friend to investigate Longxiang County.

Meng Zhao sent Yan Congke to Longxiang County to investigate Hong Chengtong’s murder and gave him an improved Soaring Heavens Sword Technique along with three secret sword arts. Studying them sparked Yan Congke’s inspiration, and he devised a way to store Sword Qi in ten Sword Meridians within his fingers.

• Meng Zhao told Yan Congke that Hong Chengtong and his son-in-law had been murdered and asked him to investigate the Hong Sect’s leadership and the culprits.
• Yan Congke agreed to investigate through his Hong Sect connections and asked Meng Zhao for money to cover his expenses.
• Meng Zhao gave Yan Congke silver, warned him against gambling while on the task, and presented him with a revised Soaring Heavens Sword Technique.
• Yan Congke studied the sword manual and its three secret techniques: Sword Shocking Wind, Sword Flowing Cloud, and Sword Toes.
• Yan Congke drew inspiration from the techniques and devised a method to form ten Sword Meridians in his fingers and store Sword Qi in them.

Meng Zhao cultivated Yan Congke by giving him three secret sword techniques, then protected Hong Minghui by defeating the men who had tracked her to his residence. He sent one attacker back with a message and planned to use the pursuit to uncover the people behind the plot and find the final fragment of the Mechanism Diagram.

• Meng Zhao left Yan Congke to study the secret sword techniques and considered how the young swordsman could serve him in the future.
• Meng Zhao sensed an ambush near his residence and killed eight of the nine attackers who demanded that he hand over Hong Minghui.
• Meng Zhao deliberately spared the last attacker so he could report back, explaining that he wanted to draw out the enemy and trace the Mechanism Diagram's missing fragment.
• Hong Minghui worried that sparing the survivor would expose her, but Meng Zhao reassured her that he would protect her and told her to rest before going to Little Cold Village with Zhou Zhihan.
• Zhou Zhihan warned Meng Zhao about underhanded attacks, while he trusted his defenses and planned to handle matters in the county town alone.

Boss Xu investigated the mysterious youth who had killed eight of Uncle An’s men and learned that he was Li Zheng, an orphan from Little Cold Village with formidable martial arts and a suspected hidden background. The chapter ended with Boss Xu uncovering Li Zheng’s connections to a merchant caravan and several local misfortunes, while the youth’s true origins remained uncertain.

• The surviving attacker told Boss Xu that a young man had killed the other eight men and spared him to deliver a demand for negotiations.
• Boss Xu accepted the survivor’s report, housed him at Yawen Xuan Bookstore, and decided to investigate the young man before confronting him.
• Boss Xu sent a record of the incident to Uncle An and visited a pawnshop that secretly traded in intelligence.
• The pawnshop’s informant identified the residence’s owner as Li Zheng, an orphan from Little Cold Village who had rapidly developed formidable martial arts.
• The informant linked Li Zheng to a merchant caravan and suspected his family had secretly found him and taught him martial arts.

Boss Xu hired the pawnshop to assassinate Li Zheng, offering the Righteous Qi Endowment, a Flowing Light Lotus Root, and five hundred taels of gold. The pawnshop sent Yu Si, who watched Meng Zhao for days but found no opening, and the chapter ended with Yu Si weighing the formidable swordsmanship behind his target’s calm routine.

• Boss Xu offered the pawnshop increasingly valuable payment, and the person behind the iron door agreed to arrange two assassination attempts at most.
• After Boss Xu left, the pawnshop’s agents discussed Li Zheng’s secrets and chose Yu Si to carry out the assassination.
• Meng Zhao sent Zhou Zhihan to take Hong Minghui and her daughter back to Little Cold Village, then stayed behind to cultivate and await their pursuers.
• Over the next three days, Meng Zhao sensed someone monitoring him, but his careful routine gave Yu Si no clear opportunity to attack.
• Yu Si reflected on his decade as a killer and the swordsmanship he had learned from his master, while considering that Meng Zhao might bring his first defeat.

Yu Si attempted to assassinate Meng Zhao, but Meng Zhao detected him, defeated his attack, and demanded information about the assassin organization he served. Yu Si survived the encounter, though Meng Zhao’s offer to spare him remained unanswered.

• Yu Si secretly entered Meng Zhao’s courtyard and tried to locate him, but Meng Zhao’s spiritual awareness exposed the assassin.
• Meng Zhao struck through the door with controlled palm force and forced Yu Si to land, then revealed that he had waited for Yu Si to make a move.
• Meng Zhao mistook Yu Si for an agent of the Hong Sect, but Yu Si explained that he was an assassin hired for the job.
• Meng Zhao offered to spare Yu Si if he revealed his assassin organization’s local base, hoping to recruit capable helpers.
• Yu Si attacked Meng Zhao with his sword, but Meng Zhao trapped and snapped the blade, then shaved most of Yu Si’s hair with a broken fragment.

The author explained that Qidian’s changed rules eliminated a thousand-yuan full-attendance bonus, worsening the declining income from the long-running book. The book would end before long as the author prepared a new wuxia novel and asked readers to support it.

• The author checked the royalties and discovered the full-attendance bonus had disappeared under Qidian’s new rules.
• The author reviewed the records and found that the last conversation with the editor had been in 2023.
• The author said income from channels, free content, and subscriptions had declined after a recent map change.
• The author concluded that the current book would end soon and spent the day outlining a new wuxia novel.
• The author asked readers to support the upcoming book with bookmarks and readership.

Meng Zhao traced the attempt on his life to Boss Xu, a bookstore owner connected to the pursuit of Hong Minghui, and pressured him into revealing that Cao Quan'an’s loyalists were behind it. Boss Xu then offered to negotiate with Cao Quan'an, proposing that Meng Zhao let them take Hong Minghui in exchange for a great reward.

• Yu Si revealed the pawnshop’s role in the assassination attempt, and Meng Zhao forced him to take a Vitality Replenishing Pill and work for him.
• Yu Si led Meng Zhao to the pawnshop, where the shopkeeper identified Boss Xu and directed Meng Zhao to Yawen Xuan Bookstore.
• Meng Zhao confronted Boss Xu and accused him of hiring the assassin, then demanded information about the pursuit of Hong Minghui.
• Boss Xu disclosed that Cao Quan'an’s loyalists were pursuing Hong Minghui and explained his connection to Uncle An.
• Boss Xu offered to negotiate with Cao Quan'an if Meng Zhao agreed to let them take Hong Minghui in return for a substantial reward.

Meng Zhao protected Hong Minghui in Little Cold Village and helped her reason through who might have manipulated Cao Quan'an into killing Hong Chengtong. Hong Minghui identified a former disciple of her father as a likely culprit, giving Meng Zhao a lead to pursue at the Hong Sect.

• Meng Zhao told Boss Xu that Hong Minghui was under his protection and that he wanted Cao Quan'an to cooperate over the Mechanism Diagram.
• Boss Xu closed Yawen Xuan Bookstore and led the survivors toward the Hong Sect in Longxiang County.
• Meng Zhao told Hong Minghui that Cao Quan'an was hunting her and questioned why the deputy sect master might have turned against Hong Chengtong.
• Hong Minghui reasoned that Cao Quan'an may have been coerced through his surviving son, then described a former disciple of Hong Chengtong who had returned and grown close to Cao Quan'an's son.
• Meng Zhao concluded that the former disciple was highly suspect and planned to go to the Hong Sect to confront him and Cao Quan'an.

Meng Zhao met Yan Congke in Longxiang County and learned about the Hong Sect’s power struggle, then revealed that Cao Quan'an—not Fourth Master Jin—had betrayed Hong Chengtong. Meng Zhao focused on finding Cao Quan'an, protecting Hong Minghui, and locating the Mechanism Diagram, but Yan Congke did not know where Cao Quan'an’s younger son was.

• Meng Zhao arrived at Yan Congke’s residence during a storm and heard that the Hong Sect’s leaders had split into factions after Hong Chengtong’s death.
• Yan Congke said many Hong Sect members suspected Fourth Master Jin of murdering Hong Chengtong, but Meng Zhao revealed that Cao Quan'an was the real traitor and was pursuing Hong Minghui under the guise of protecting her.
• Meng Zhao explained his investigation into Cao Quan'an to Yan Congke, who was shocked by Cao Quan'an’s deception.
• Yan Congke described Cao Quan'an’s history of favoring his younger son and ruthlessly punishing a disciple who offended him.
• Meng Zhao asked where Cao Quan'an’s younger son was, and Yan Congke admitted he did not know and promised to investigate.

Meng Zhao learned that Ren Tianxing had gained control of the Hong Sect and suspected he had sidelined Cao Quan'an after Hong Chengtong’s death. He infiltrated Misty Rain Villa to find Cao Quan'an and overheard him telling Chunsheng to let Ren Tianxing make decisions, leaving Meng Zhao to wonder how deeply Cao Quan'an had surrendered his power.

• Yan Congke identified Ren Tianxing as Hong Chengtong’s former disciple, a powerful martial artist who had become the real leader of Cao Quan'an’s faction.
• Meng Zhao concluded that Ren Tianxing might have murdered Hong Chengtong and decided to seek Cao Quan'an, whose support could help expose him.
• Yan Congke discovered that Cao Quan'an was staying at Misty Rain Villa, and Meng Zhao set out there through the storm.
• Meng Zhao slipped past the villa’s guards and found Cao Quan'an’s heavily guarded residence, suspecting he was under house arrest.
• From the roof, Meng Zhao overheard Cao Quan'an tell Chunsheng that Ren Tianxing could represent him and make decisions, then urge Chunsheng to live freely.