Chapter Summaries

Meng Zhao assessed the Dragon Protector Secret Service, the White Dragon Venerable Society, and the Wen Family as threats to his growing power in Kaiyan County. He prepared to meet the White Dragon Venerable Society's Sixth Dragon Head, who arrived at Little Cold Village at night.

• Meng Zhao kept Kang Tongxiao and the Dragon Protector Secret Service under surveillance while concealing the details of Little Cold Village.
• The White Dragon Venerable Society sent its Sixth Dragon Head to settle past clashes and explore recruiting Meng Zhao's organization.
• The Wen Family tracked horse bandits killed by Meng Zhao's troops to Kaiyan County, revealing its reach across Hebei Province.
• Meng Zhao had his men mislead Kang Tongxiao's party and spread smokescreens around Little Cold Village to buy time.
• The Sixth Dragon Head chose Little Cold Village as the meeting place, and Meng Zhao welcomed him with formal honors at the mountain gate.

Meng Zhao met with the White Dragon Venerable Society's Sixth Dragon Head, who tried to question him about a disputed iron ore deal before pitching the Society's rebellion and testing whether Meng Zhao would join them. Meng Zhao refused to yield his organization, leaving the two sides at risk of becoming enemies.

• Meng Zhao and the Sixth Dragon Head sized each other up and exchanged polite greetings.
• The Sixth Dragon Head questioned Meng Zhao about his people taking an iron ore shipment, but Meng Zhao argued that the seller had chosen his higher offer and that the Society had no grounds to blame him.
• The Sixth Dragon Head dropped the dispute and explained that the White Dragon Venerable Society sought to overthrow the Tian Yuan Dynasty.
• Meng Zhao dismissed the Society's long record of failed rebellions and defended his own young organization as a force with greater promise.
• The Sixth Dragon Head recognized that Meng Zhao would not surrender the organization he had built and considered the possibility that they would become enemies.

Meng Zhao and Sixth Dragon Head formed a secret alliance between their forces, agreeing to trade resources. After Sixth Dragon Head revealed the White Dragon Venerable Society’s plan to assassinate the weakened Tianyuan Emperor, Meng Zhao declined to attend but offered one of his top swordsmen to help.

• Sixth Dragon Head proposed an alliance, and Meng Zhao agreed to a secret pact based on fair exchanges of resources.
• Sixth Dragon Head told Meng Zhao that the White Dragon Venerable Society had weakened the Tianyuan Emperor through its Holy Maiden and poison, but Wei Wushang had uncovered the scheme and the Emperor was recovering.
• Sixth Dragon Head revealed that the White Dragon Venerable Society planned to lure the Tianyuan Emperor to Luoyang Mountain and assassinate him, then invited Meng Zhao to join the operation.
• Meng Zhao considered the risks of the assassination and refused to go himself, citing his responsibilities and the danger to his base.
• Meng Zhao offered to send one of his strongest swordsmen to assist the White Dragon Venerable Society, and Sixth Dragon Head accepted.

Two Wen Family experts infiltrated Little Cold Village, but Meng Zhao exposed them and overwhelmed them with his Sound Wave Skill. The Sixth Dragon Head watched in astonishment as Meng Zhao confronted the intruders and revealed that he intended to use the Wen Family to train his people.

• Kang Tongxiao slipped into Little Cold Village under cover of night, followed by two dark-robed Wen Family experts.
• The Sixth Dragon Head heard the intruders and offered to help Meng Zhao deal with them.
• Meng Zhao laughed, using his Sound Wave Skill to disorient and fatally overwhelm the two Wen Family men outside the hall.
• The Sixth Dragon Head kept his identity and alliance with Meng Zhao concealed while observing the confrontation.
• Meng Zhao identified the pair as Wen Family disciples and asked why they had come, leaving them too conflicted to answer honestly.

Meng Zhao weighed how to use the Wen Family’s visit to justify taking control of them and their strategic holdings in Changhe County. The two Wen Family men pleaded to settle the conflict, leaving Meng Zhao to decide whether to follow his original plan or change course.

• The shorter Wen Family man claimed that he and his companion had come to ease tensions with Meng Zhao and resolve the conflict with their intelligence-gathering group outside Changhe County.
• The burly Wen Family man agreed that enemies were better reconciled and said they had only wanted to understand Meng Zhao and his forces.
• Sixth Dragon Head privately judged the Wen Family men to be cowards who had changed their story after seeing Meng Zhao’s strength.
• Meng Zhao considered how to bring Changhe County and the Wen Family under his control, after deliberately provoking the family to prompt a retaliatory attack that would give him justification to act.
• The two Wen Family men watched Meng Zhao anxiously as he tapped his finger and weighed whether to seize them or accept their offer to settle the conflict.

Meng Zhao confronted two Wen Family men who had come to kill him, and effortlessly gravely injured their strongest fighter with his Body Protecting Gang Qi. The survivors recognized the gulf between their strength and his, while the Sixth Dragon Head wondered whether the White Dragon Venerable Society's Great Dragon Head could match him.

• Meng Zhao told the two Wen Family men that he knew they had come to kill him and considered bringing the Wen Family under his control through a more covert approach.
• The tall, burly Wen Family man attacked Meng Zhao with Mountain-Splitting Hand, but Meng Zhao blocked him with his Body Protecting Gang Qi while remaining seated.
• Meng Zhao's Three Points Return to One Qi flung the attacker away and left him gravely injured and vomiting blood.
• The short Wen Family man gave up any thought of fighting Meng Zhao, while the Wen Family men and their observers were shaken by his power.
• The Sixth Dragon Head judged that only the White Dragon Venerable Society's Great Dragon Head might contend with Meng Zhao and wondered how much the absent leader had advanced in fifteen years.

Meng Zhao spared Wen Hua and Wen Rong after defeating them, then recruited them to report on the Wen Family. Wen Hua accepted the possibility of betraying the family, and began to imagine taking power within it.

• Wen Hua treated Wen Rong's injuries, then asked Meng Zhao what he intended to do with them.
• Meng Zhao promised not to kill them and asked them to serve as his eyes and ears within the Wen Family.
• Wen Hua suspected Meng Zhao wanted to annex the Wen Family and protested that they would never betray their blood kin.
• Meng Zhao challenged Wen Hua to consider how little the family had given him despite his service, exposing his resentment and dissatisfaction.
• Wen Hua accepted Meng Zhao's reasoning and considered that he might one day take charge of the Wen Family.

Meng Zhao revealed how the Mending Heaven and Human Remnant Pills could control subordinates, then exposed Kang Tongxiao, a Dragon Protector Secret Service agent who had been eavesdropping in Little Cold Village. Kang Tongxiao tried to resist and escape, but Meng Zhao killed him with a Void Splitting Palm.

• Meng Zhao explained the pills’ effects and hidden danger to Wen Hua and Wen Rong, who had submitted to him, and offered the Sixth Dragon Head a paid supply of Mending Heaven Pills.
• The Sixth Dragon Head worried that Meng Zhao’s pills could undermine the White Dragon Venerable Society, while Meng Zhao sensed someone hiding above the hall and dragged a black-clad intruder through the roof.
• Meng Zhao identified the intruder as Kang Tongxiao, a Dragon Protector Secret Service agent and trusted confidant of Wei Wushang, who had come to uncover the organization’s secrets for the Imperial Court.
• Meng Zhao told the Sixth Dragon Head that Kang Tongxiao could not be recruited or made to divulge secrets, then attacked him with a Void Splitting Palm.
• Kang Tongxiao met Meng Zhao’s palm with his own, but the collision shattered his body and left the Sixth Dragon Head stunned by Meng Zhao’s strength.

Meng Zhao planned to leave Kaiyan County after killing Kang Tongxiao and erase traces that could lead Wei Wushang to him. Meanwhile, Wen Hua persuaded Wen Rong that serving Meng Zhao could offer them a better future than remaining loyal to the Wen Family.

• Meng Zhao told the Sixth Dragon Head that he would soon leave Kaiyan County to avoid the Dragon Protector Secret Service.
• The Sixth Dragon Head left disappointed, while the Wen Family cousins were taken to a farmhouse and Wen Rong received medicine for his injuries.
• Wen Rong questioned why they had submitted to Meng Zhao, and Wen Hua argued that the Wen Family had restrained and exploited them.
• Wen Hua judged that Meng Zhao could potentially defeat the Wen Family because his martial prowess surpassed theirs and the family had internal conflicts.
• Wen Hua and Wen Rong considered the Mending Heaven Pill and Human Remnant Pill valuable incentives for serving Meng Zhao and improving their cultivation.

Meng Zhao’s schemes helped drive the White Dragon Venerable Society into an assassination attempt against the Tian Yuan Emperor, which nearly succeeded before an imperial Old Monster stopped it. As rebellion and repression spread across the realm, Yan Congke met Meng Zhao and Duan Hong at a Daoist temple to discuss the failed attack and the empire’s hidden ally.

• Wen Hua and Wen Rong returned to the Wen Family, concealed their allegiance to Meng Zhao, and began relaying the family’s secrets to him.
• The White Dragon Venerable Society’s Great Dragon Head rejected plans to expose the two defectors and chose to seek a de facto alliance with Meng Zhao.
• The White Dragon Venerable Society and the Seventy-Two Warriors nearly assassinated the Tian Yuan Emperor, but an imperial Old Monster killed many attackers and drove the Great Dragon Head away.
• The Tian Yuan Emperor ordered a campaign against the White Dragon Venerable Society, and officials’ abuses helped spark widespread rebellions.
• At Profound Truth Daoist Temple, Meng Zhao, Duan Hong, and Yan Congke discussed the attack, and Meng Zhao inferred that someone inside the imperial clan had aided the conspirators.

Yan Congke described the overwhelming Imperial Clan Expert and his Imperial Dragon Gang Qi to Meng Zhao and Duan Hong. Meng Zhao explained how the expert had fused thirty-three paths of Imperial Dragon True Qi and outlined two perilous ways Yan Congke might challenge him.

• Yan Congke admitted that the Imperial Clan Expert was so formidable that he could not say whether Meng Zhao could defeat him.
• Meng Zhao asked Yan Congke to describe the expert, and Yan Congke recalled the old man's youthful appearance, flawless techniques, and overwhelming Imperial Dragon Gang Qi.
• Yan Congke explained that the expert's Gang Qi had shattered his surprise sword-qi attack, forcing him to retreat and flee.
• Meng Zhao deduced that the expert had merged thirty-three paths of Imperial Dragon True Qi into Imperial Dragon Gang Qi, creating a qualitative gap in power.
• Meng Zhao proposed that Yan Congke pursue either ultimate sword-qi sharpness or merge multiple strands of sword qi, warning that both paths carried grave risks.

Meng Zhao learned that the White Dragon Venerable Society planned to rebel, believing the Tianyuan Emperor was near death, but he rejected their invitation and chose to build his strength in secret. The chapter left Meng Zhao’s group focused on survival and preparation while the society faced the consequences of its failed assassination.

• Meng Zhao assessed the Imperial Clan Expert’s overwhelming power and considered how talent, resources, and the imperial clan’s wealth could produce such formidable masters.
• Yan Congke explained that the White Dragon Venerable Society’s escape from Kyoto faced little pursuit, leading them to believe the Tianyuan Emperor had been gravely wounded.
• Yan Congke reported that the Great Dragon Head had lost to the Imperial Clan Expert and was preparing the White Dragon Venerable Society to rebel.
• Yan Congke urged Zheng Ge'er to join the rebellion and help carve up the Tian Yuan Dynasty while the succession was unsettled.
• Meng Zhao refused to rebel, saying his group lacked the strength, legitimacy, and foundation, and ordered them to build their power and covert network in secret.

As rebellions spread across the realm, Meng Zhao used the chaos to expand his influence throughout Hebei Province while the Imperial Court crushed the White Dragon Army and eliminated the powerful general Helian Ba. The imperial clan expert who killed Helian Ba disappeared into seclusion, but scattered rebellions continued to plague the dynasty.

• The White Dragon Venerable Society formed the White Dragon Army, and uprisings spread across several provinces as the Tian Yuan Imperial Dynasty struggled to contain them.
• Meng Zhao bribed officials to open Hebei's cities to refugees, built up forces through escort agencies and martial arts schools, and brought powerful local families under his control.
• The Imperial Court appointed Helian Ba to lead a campaign against the White Dragon Army, and after months of fighting he defeated it with a flood that devastated three cities and killed or drowned hundreds of thousands of rebels.
• Helian Ba defied imperial orders and gathered wealth in Tiannandao Province, but an imperial clan expert infiltrated his camp and killed him with one finger before returning his army to the court.
• The imperial clan expert earned the title Martial Emperor and vanished into seclusion, while rebel forces rose again in fragmented groups across the realm.

Meng Zhao surveyed his elite army in Southern Lin County as Lu Xiang told him that the Zhang Family had raised troops. The Zhang Family’s rushed rebellion threatened to bring a devastating response from the Tianyuan Emperor.

• Meng Zhao inspected four thousand soldiers trained in his secondary hard-body method, which relied on blood food and concealed a flaw that required Joint-Passage Powder to remedy.
• Meng Zhao’s talented general had used the army to wipe out local bandit groups, suffering only nine deaths and fifty wounded.
• Lu Xiang joined Meng Zhao on the mountain and asked whether he knew about the Zhang Family’s affair.
• Meng Zhao said he knew the Zhang Family had raised troops but had not expected them to act so quickly.
• Meng Zhao recalled that the Zhang Family had rebelled after court officials from the family were executed, despite the risk of a devastating imperial retaliation.

Meng Zhao saw the Zhang Family’s rebellion as a chance to weaken his rival and inherit its power, while Lu Xiang urged him to prepare for the Imperial Court’s response. Meng Zhao decided his forces should stay quiet while he considered joining the Zhang Family to assess the situation firsthand.

• Meng Zhao judged that the Zhang Family’s uprising would drain the dynasty’s strength and create an opening for him to dominate Hebei Province.
• Lu Xiang urged Meng Zhao to act before the Imperial Court’s army arrived and revealed his own ambition to rise with Meng Zhao’s cause.
• Meng Zhao resolved to keep his forces low-profile during the court’s crackdown and prepare to take over the Zhang Family’s legacy.
• Meng Zhao considered joining the Zhang Family himself to investigate its circumstances.

Meng Zhao infiltrated the Zhang Family rebellion, used its resources and the conflict with the Imperial Court to build his own forces, and secretly stripped the family of its foundations. After the Imperial Forest Guard broke the Zhang Family’s army, Meng Zhao intercepted its escape plans and left it with nothing, while his growing power spread across Hebei Province.

• Meng Zhao joined the Zhang Family under a false identity, gathered intelligence, and used raids on its resources to weaken it while building his own network and recruiting experts.
• Meng Zhao posed as an assassin to aid the Zhang Family against the Imperial Court’s army, prolonging the rebellion until he had extracted the secrets and resources he wanted.
• Meng Zhao quietly left the Zhang Family as his men scattered across Hebei Province, while the Imperial Court sent the Imperial Forest Guard to take over the campaign.
• An Imperial Forest Guard commander exploited the Zhang Family’s lax defenses and crushed its rebel army in a rainy-night assault.
• The Zhang Family prepared escape routes and sent descendants away with its remaining wealth, but Meng Zhao intercepted the routes and seized its final foundations.
• Lu Xiang watched Meng Zhao leave the Zhang Family completely stripped of its power, as Meng Zhao’s own organization grew stronger than the family had been.

Meng Zhao raised the Definition Army in Hebei Province and established a disciplined force with strong local support. After the Imperial Court sent thirty thousand soldiers to suppress him, Meng Zhao led a surprise attack that won a decisive victory and made him a contender in Tian Yuan’s chaos.

• As aristocratic clans and other forces rebelled across Tian Yuan, Meng Zhao proclaimed himself the Definition General and raised fifty thousand troops in Hebei Province.
• Meng Zhao established the Definition General's Office, recruited capable followers, and ordered his soldiers to protect civilians from looting.
• Meng Zhao strengthened Hebei Province’s defenses with fortified passes, a naval force, and troops stationed across the northern plain.
• The Imperial Court dispatched thirty thousand soldiers to suppress Meng Zhao’s rebellion.
• On the ninth day of the first lunar month, Meng Zhao led five hundred heavy cavalry in a surprise attack, killed the opposing general, and defeated the Imperial Court army, killing or wounding eight thousand and capturing twenty thousand.

After Meng Zhao’s victory over the Imperial Court’s thirty thousand elite troops, hopeful recruits flocked to Hebei Province, and he established a Talent Recruitment Office to strengthen his forces. The Imperial Court sent one hundred thousand troops under Zheng Wu Great General to destroy him, setting the stage for another battle watched by the realm.

• After crushing the Imperial Court’s army, Meng Zhao attracted scholars, martial artists, and specialists from across the land.
• Meng Zhao founded a Talent Recruitment Office to screen recruits and build up his reserves.
• The Imperial Court’s dukes and ministers dispatched one hundred thousand troops to Hebei Province under Zheng Wu Great General.
• Zheng Wu Great General summoned top experts to accompany and protect him, and prepared to suppress Meng Zhao’s forces.
• Both armies prepared for battle as observers awaited a test of Meng Zhao’s abilities and the Imperial Court’s strength.