Chapter Summaries

Meng Zhao exposed Mad Fist’s disguise with a single overwhelming display of Martial Dao, then withdrew his attack before killing him. The revelation left Beitang He furious, Peach Blossom Scholar speechless, and Wu Huaien reconsidering how to deal with Meng Zhao.

• Meng Zhao unleashed his True Dragon Profound Dao Method against Mad Fist, suppressing him so completely that he could not move or use his true qi.
• Peach Blossom Scholar leaped clear as Meng Zhao’s crimson True Dragon dissolved just before striking Mad Fist, leaving him alive and drenched in sweat.
• Wu Huaien witnessed the move and judged that Meng Zhao’s Martial Dao could let him contend with a Grandmaster, making Wu Huaien reconsider his plans.
• Meng Zhao’s attack exposed Mad Fist as the fake Yellow Springs Holy Son, confirming that the impostor was not connected to the Yellow Springs Demonic Sect.
• Beitang He realized Peach Blossom Scholar had misled him and glared furiously at Mad Fist and Peach Blossom Scholar, while Peach Blossom Scholar could not deny the impostor’s hostile intentions.

Meng Zhao accused Peach Blossom Scholar and his companions of luring him into an assassination plot with Wu Huaien, a hidden Heartless Path Grandmaster. Peach Blossom Scholar admitted the plot targeted Meng Zhao, but insisted Beitang He was not in danger and that he would protect him.

• Meng Zhao accused Sinful Valley of using Beitang He to draw him away from the army and join Wu Huaien in an attempt to assassinate him.
• Meng Zhao’s guards formed a defensive perimeter around him and Beitang He, while Beitang He feared the danger posed by a Grandmaster and searched the shackled prisoners for Wu Huaien.
• Peach Blossom Scholar, Mad Fist, and Wu Huaien were stunned that Meng Zhao had deduced their plan and identified the hidden Grandmaster.
• Mad Fist recalled Meng Zhao’s Scarlet Dragon Fist with admiration and gratitude, knowing Meng Zhao had spared his life.
• Peach Blossom Scholar admitted Meng Zhao had guessed their intentions and told Beitang He that the plot targeted Meng Zhao alone and that he would protect the Heir.

Meng Zhao provoked the hidden Grandmaster Wu Huaien into revealing himself and attacking. Wu Huaien’s invisible assault met the defenses of Meng Zhao’s Dragon-Controlling Emperor Scripture, and their clash became visible.

• Beitang He considered exploiting Meng Zhao’s death to seize Yangwu’s military authority and the Meng Family’s holdings, while Peach Blossom Scholar and Meng Zhao saw through his change in attitude.
• Meng Zhao declared that he intended to kill or subdue Peach Blossom Scholar and Wu Huaien, and explained that he had spared Mad Fist to preserve evidence of the man’s identity.
• Meng Zhao insulted Wu Huaien’s courage and Grandmaster temperament, provoking the disguised assassin into breaking his cold-iron shackles.
• Wu Huaien unleashed his Heartless Method and Worldly Power against Meng Zhao, carving sword-like marks through the snow-covered ground and driving Beitang He and the guards back.
• Meng Zhao’s true qi and will reinforced his body against Wu Huaien’s attack, turning their invisible exchange into a visible clash.

Meng Zhao calmly resisted Wu Huaien’s Grandmaster pressure, while Wu Huaien wrestled with his fear of failure and chose to continue the assassination. Meng Zhao judged that he could defeat Wu Huaien, but wondered how to gain the greatest benefit from the confrontation.

• Meng Zhao’s purple, dragon-scale aura deflected Wu Huaien’s probing pressure and revealed his formidable Martial Dao.
• Wu Huaien recalled how defeat had driven him to cultivate the Heartless Method and how the Yellow Springs Holy Son’s warning had made him doubt his ability to kill Meng Zhao.
• Wu Huaien suppressed his doubts with the Heartless Method and decided to attack, believing he could silence witnesses and keep pursuing Meng Zhao if the attempt failed.
• Meng Zhao recognized that Wu Huaien was a Grandmaster with weaker foundations and concluded that his own strength and Trump Cards could secure victory.
• Meng Zhao considered how to maximize his gains rather than simply kill Wu Huaien.

Meng Zhao weighed the Northern Lands’ growing dangers and considered how to strengthen his forces, including whether he could subdue Wu Huaien. When Wu Huaien offered to make Meng Zhao his disciple, Meng Zhao rejected the offer as a ploy to lower his guard and recognized that the Grandmaster would stop at nothing to kill him.

• Meng Zhao considered taking in Zhou Wangqiao and absorbing Lingwu City’s eleven factions to strengthen the Meng Family, while debating whether to kill or subdue Wu Huaien.
• Wu Huaien praised Meng Zhao’s technique and offered to teach him the Ancient Heartless Path as his disciple.
• Beitang He was astonished by Wu Huaien’s offer, while Peach Blossom Scholar suspected it was a trap.
• Meng Zhao dismissed the offer because he believed his own strength surpassed Wu Huaien’s and distrusted the Demonic Path man’s intentions.
• Meng Zhao concluded that Wu Huaien was trying to weaken his guard and fighting spirit before striking.

Meng Zhao rejected Wu Huaien's attempt to persuade him and faced his attack with a three-foot Energy Wall. The wall blocked Wu Huaien's Heartless Slash, absorbed its power, and expanded as it advanced toward him.

• Meng Zhao exposed Wu Huaien's attempt to undermine his resolve and challenged him to fight openly.
• Wu Huaien abandoned his offer of friendship, activated the Heartless Method, and struck Meng Zhao with the Heartless Slash.
• Meng Zhao recognized the illusory blade radiance and summoned a three-foot Energy Wall infused with dragon qi.
• The Energy Wall stopped the Heartless Slash after it cut only three inches into it.
• The Energy Wall devoured the blade radiance, repaired itself, expanded to thirty feet thick, and pressed toward Wu Huaien.

Wu Huaien struggled to explain how Meng Zhao’s techniques and physique let him withstand attacks powerful enough to challenge Grandmasters. Convinced that Meng Zhao must have secretly reached the Grandmaster Realm, Wu Huaien stopped fighting and praised him for hiding his strength.

• Wu Huaien watched Meng Zhao absorb his Heartless Slash into a thirty-foot Energy Wall and wondered how true qi could withstand and absorb Worldly Power.
• Wu Huaien split the Energy Wall with a colossal crescent slash, while Meng Zhao dissolved the slash with three loose-handed strikes.
• Wu Huaien saw that Meng Zhao appeared unaffected by the collision’s backlash and considered whether his rumored Dragon Body or hidden martial arts explained it.
• Wu Huaien recalled Meng Zhao’s rapid rise, his reputation as Shen Tianci’s equal, and the Yellow Springs Holy Son’s confidence in him.
• Wu Huaien stopped attacking and told Meng Zhao he believed he had secretly cultivated to the Grandmaster Realm.

Meng Zhao answered Wu Huaien’s attempt to probe whether he had reached the Grandmaster Realm by launching an attack with his self-created True Dragon Profound Dao. His shifting white dragon form left the gathered martial artists in awe and forced Wu Huaien to face the threat of death.

• Wu Huaien suggested that Meng Zhao had cultivated the martial path of a Grandmaster, while secretly using the claim to test him.
• Meng Zhao recognized Wu Huaien’s intentions and challenged him to exchange dozens of moves before attacking first.
• Meng Zhao transformed into a lifelike white True Dragon and used the snowstorm to strengthen his True Dragon Profound Dao.
• Beitang He took Meng Zhao’s attack as a sign that he could safely withdraw, while the other martial artists marveled at Meng Zhao’s Dragon Body and varied transformations.
• Wu Huaien felt the True Dragon’s killing intent and realized that a moment’s carelessness could cost him his life.

Meng Zhao transformed into a True Dragon and fought Wu Huaien, revealing strength that let him withstand the grandmaster’s Heartless Slash. The battle remained an apparent stalemate, while Peach Blossom Scholar suspected Meng Zhao had secretly cultivated grandmaster martial arts.

• Wu Huaien’s Heartless Slash shattered against Meng Zhao’s dragon claw, convincing Wu Huaien to fight seriously.
• Wu Huaien condensed his Worldly Power into a saber and unleashed the seven-move Heartless Slash against Meng Zhao’s True Dragon Battle Art.
• Meng Zhao appeared to fall behind as Wu Huaien’s Worldly Power outmatched his Innate True Qi, but he secretly used his own Worldly Power to maintain a stalemate.
• Mad Fist and Peach Blossom Scholar watched from a distance, shaken by the fighters’ overwhelming strength.
• Peach Blossom Scholar suspected Meng Zhao had cultivated grandmaster martial arts and wondered why he was concealing his strength.

Meng Zhao fought Wu Huaien while concealing his Grandmaster Realm cultivation, using the duel to test his techniques before revealing his true strength. After nearly two hundred exchanges, Meng Zhao declared that one move would defeat Wu Huaien and leave him terrified of the name Meng Zhao.

• Wu Huaien sensed Meng Zhao's concealed Worldly Power and realized that Meng Zhao had become a Grandmaster, while suspecting he was being used as a whetstone.
• Meng Zhao and Wu Huaien fought for nearly two hundred exchanges, devastating the surrounding land and leaving Wu Huaien with a conspicuous scratch on his neck.
• Beitang He excitedly congratulated Meng Zhao on becoming a Grandmaster, and Meng Zhao described the breakthrough as minor.
• Wu Huaien regretted accepting the Hell Path's assassination commission, realizing that he had underestimated Meng Zhao and that the failed attempt could bring the target's retaliation.
• Meng Zhao told Wu Huaien that their testing was over and promised to defeat him with one move, shatter his will, and make him flee at the name Meng Zhao.

Meng Zhao unveiled his Grandmaster martial arts and summoned a colossal Purple True Dragon Manifestation, astonishing Lingwu City and crushing the hopes of his enemies. Wu Huaien faced the manifestation directly and resolved to fight Meng Zhao with everything he had.

• Meng Zhao unleashed his Myriad Heavens Imperial Dragon Ziwei Emperor Scripture and manifested a towering Purple True Dragon that stirred storms across Lingwu City.
• Dragon City watched the display and abandoned his hopes of opposing Meng Zhao, growing more determined to flee the Northern Lands.
• Meng Zhao’s allies celebrated while his enemies dropped their schemes, and the Yellow Springs Holy Son decided Lingwu City was secure as long as Meng Zhao remained there.
• Gu Sinan and Yun Fei recognized Meng Zhao’s overwhelming strength and stopped considering asking him to help kill the Yellow Springs Holy Son.
• Zhou Wangqiao felt reassured that pledging allegiance to the Meng Family had been the right choice.
• Wu Huaien felt despair before Meng Zhao’s manifestation but resolved to unleash his strongest move and fight for a chance to survive.

Wu Huaien unleashed Heaven and Earth Mourn Together, awakening the emotions he had severed and transforming into a vast blade of human desire. Meng Zhao praised his strength and sent his true dragon manifestation’s claw against Wu Huaien’s descending strike.

• The chapter explained how the Heartless Path’s seventh patriarch created Heaven and Earth Mourn Together, which later evolved into a forbidden killing method fueled by a disciple’s love seed and emotions.
• Wu Huaien recalled his family, love, marriage, and children, and his returning emotions overwhelmed him with tears and regret.
• Wu Huaien’s love seed absorbed his surging emotions and transformed his body into a hundred-zhang Blade of Human Desire.
• Meng Zhao’s true dragon manifestation reached out with a powerful claw, and Wu Huaien tilted his blade and slashed toward it.

Meng Zhao decisively defeated Wu Huaien, crushing his transformed blade and leaving the Heartless Path grandmaster gravely injured and mentally broken. He had Wu Huaien captured for his own purposes while Peach Blossom Scholar and Mad Fist remained trapped at the scene.

• Meng Zhao's True Dragon manifestation crushed Wu Huaien's blade, and the onlookers realized Meng Zhao had won through overwhelming strength.
• Peach Blossom Scholar and Mad Fist stayed put, fearing Meng Zhao would kill them if they tried to flee.
• Wu Huaien fell into the snow with shattered limbs, damaged cultivation, and a broken Martial Dao Will.
• Beitang He praised Meng Zhao's peerless martial arts and said he could contend for the title of number one in the world.
• Meng Zhao sealed Wu Huaien's meridians and qi apertures, then ordered his guards to watch over him because he still had a use for him.

Meng Zhao considered recruiting Peach Blossom Scholar and questioned him about his plot with Wu Huaien. Peach Blossom Scholar explained how he had used the Yellow Springs Holy Son to draw Wu Huaien into the assassination scheme, leaving Meng Zhao impressed by his talent and curious about the Holy Son.

• Meng Zhao judged Mad Fist useful for covert work and recognized Peach Blossom Scholar's talent for strategy.
• Meng Zhao told Peach Blossom Scholar he wanted to recruit him, then asked how he had met Wu Huaien and plotted to assassinate him.
• Peach Blossom Scholar explained that, as Sinful Valley's representative in Lingwu City, he used his connections to approach Wu Huaien through the Yellow Springs Holy Son.
• Peach Blossom Scholar said the Holy Son's Unyielding Bone Physique had attracted Wu Huaien, while the Holy Son refused to join the plot and left Peach Blossom Scholar exposed.
• Meng Zhao listened to the account, felt goodwill toward the Yellow Springs Holy Son, and acknowledged Peach Blossom Scholar's skill at scheming.

Peach Blossom Scholar revealed that the Heaven Swallowing Dao Child had directed the plot to assassinate Meng Zhao. Meng Zhao reconsidered their past feud and the Dao Child’s plans for his nine substitutes, leaving with a renewed sense that the two were destined to become enemies.

• Peach Blossom Scholar confessed that the Heaven Swallowing Dao Child had secretly ordered him to plot Meng Zhao’s assassination.
• Meng Zhao recalled how he had stolen the Eclosion Worm from the Heaven Swallowing Dao Child and killed his substitute Wei Qi.
• Meng Zhao considered how the Heaven Swallowing Dao Child might have traced the old incident and why he cultivated nine substitutes.
• Meng Zhao reasoned that Wei Qi’s death might have damaged the Heaven Swallowing Dao Child’s plan to build an unparalleled foundation.
• Meng Zhao recognized that his actions had deepened their feud into a likely fight to the death, while allowing that the Dao Child might have prepared other substitutes.

Meng Zhao revealed that Heaven Swallowing Dao Child had nine powerful substitutes and explained his enmity with Wei Qi and their master. He also reasoned that the Eclosion Worm could greatly benefit a prodigy like Heaven Swallowing Dao Child, while Peach Blossom Scholar recounted how he had come to assist one of the substitutes.

• Meng Zhao told Beitang He, Mad Fist, the guards, and Peach Blossom Scholar that Heaven Swallowing Dao Child had nine substitutes who cultivated parts of the Heaven Swallowing Sun Devouring Great Law.
• Meng Zhao explained that he had defeated and killed Wei Qi, one of the substitutes, and disrupted Heaven Swallowing Dao Child's plans for his strongest foundation.
• Meng Zhao considered how the Eclosion Worm's risks and cocoon transformations could make it a powerful match for Heaven Swallowing Dao Child.
• Peach Blossom Scholar realized that Heaven Swallowing Dao Child had asked him to plot against Dragon King Meng because of the old grudge.
• Peach Blossom Scholar described how Heaven Swallowing Dao Child had once saved his life and won his consideration by giving him benefits.

Meng Zhao secured Peach Blossom Scholar and Mad Fist as subordinates, then returned to the Lingwu Meng Family to arrange their supervision. News of his Grandmaster status and victory over Wu Huaien transformed Lingwu City, leaving Meng Zhao revered and feared while rumors stirred about the Meng Family’s growing power.

• Peach Blossom Scholar and Mad Fist agreed to work for Meng Zhao under Beitang He's witness, and Meng Zhao had them watched as they returned with him to the Lingwu Meng Family.
• Over the next three days, Meng Zhao and Beitang He’s military administration office sharply reduced open violence in Lingwu City by mediating disputes and overseeing life-and-death contracts.
• News spread that Meng Zhao had reached the Grandmaster realm and displayed a towering true dragon phenomenon, drawing martial artists to Lingwu City to pay their respects.
• Beitang He publicized that Meng Zhao had defeated and captured Wu Huaien, a Hell Path Grandmaster, further raising Meng Zhao’s standing and deterring opposition.
• Some people began to suspect that the Meng Family was accumulating Grandmaster victories and wondered whether it intended to rise even higher.

Meng Zhao’s Grandmaster victory over Wu Huaien raised the Meng Family’s influence and brought order to Lingwu City, while crowds gathered to admire his achievements. Gu Sinan and Yun Fei watched from disguise and wondered whether the Eclosion Worm had caused Meng Zhao’s extraordinary progress.

• Meng Zhao’s fame drew martial artists and scholars to the Meng Family, and the City Lord’s Mansion and Yangwu Army established a military administration office to regulate Jianghu figures in Lingwu City.
• Meng Zhao worked to subdue Peach Blossom Scholar and Mad Fist, interrogate Wu Huaien, and obtain the Heartless Path’s inheritance.
• Martial artists visited the battlefield where Meng Zhao had defeated Wu Huaien, and the site became known as Dragon King Slope after visitors gained insights from the lingering martial essence.
• Gu Sinan and Yun Fei disguised themselves among the crowd outside Meng Family Manor and abandoned their plan to recruit Meng Zhao against the Yellow Springs Demonic Sect.
• Gu Sinan wondered whether the Eclosion Worm had contributed to Meng Zhao’s rapid rise, while the narration clarified that Meng Zhao’s own physique and talent were the true source of his strength.

Yun Fei and Gu Sinan discussed Meng Zhao’s strength and whether to propose a marriage between him and Tan Cai'er. They favored the match but worried about Meng Zhao’s many concubines, especially the pregnant woman he had taken into his household.

• Yun Fei dismissed the importance of whether Meng Zhao possessed an Eclosion Worm, saying Meng Zhao’s strength made it impossible to investigate him.
• Gu Sinan acknowledged Meng Zhao’s extraordinary cultivation and doubted whether even Ye Huan could surpass him without comparing battle records.
• Gu Sinan suggested using the opportunity to raise the possibility of Meng Zhao marrying Tan Cai'er, and Yun Fei supported the match.
• Gu Sinan worried that Tan Cai'er's weak martial arts would leave her unable to manage the Meng family estate, but Yun Fei argued that martial strength did not determine her worth as a wife.
• Yun Fei said Meng Zhao’s concubines and his pregnant woman were the greatest concerns surrounding the proposed marriage.

Meng Zhao received Li Ya'er of the Imperial Tang Li Family, who came to congratulate him on becoming a Martial Dao Grandmaster and to establish a more respectful relationship. Li Ya'er presented a hundred-year vicious python’s inner core, while his visit’s full purpose remained unclear.

• Gu Sinan told Yun Fei that Meng Zhao’s proclivities would not prevent Tan Cai'er from becoming his principal wife, and they agreed to wait for Meng Zhao to propose marriage.
• Meng Zhao returned from Yangwu Grand Barracks to receive Li Ya'er at Meng Family Manor.
• Li Ya'er congratulated Meng Zhao on reaching the Martial Dao Grandmaster realm and gave him a hundred-year vicious python’s inner core.
• Meng Zhao accepted Li Ya'er's gift and considered that the Li Family had come to regard him and the Meng Family with greater respect.