Chapter Summaries

Li Musheng broke the scholar’s Formless Puppet Technique, defeated him, and let Cang Yinyue capture his senior sister. Cang Yinyue learned that the pair had come to Shangyang City to impersonate Li Musheng.

• The scholar failed to control Li Musheng with the Formless Puppet Technique, and Li Musheng seized its threads and smashed him into the ground.
• Cang Yinyue regained control of her body, captured the fleeing woman, and brought her back to question her.
• Li Musheng asked the wounded scholar for the Formless Puppet Technique, then killed him when he refused to answer.
• Cang Yinyue interrogated the woman and learned that she and the scholar were disciples of Old Man Wuxiang.
• Cang Yinyue told Li Musheng that the pair had come to Shangyang City to impersonate him.

Li Musheng and Cang Yinyue uncovered a plot by two impostors seeking to pass as the Seventh Prince, and the surviving woman signaled Old Man Wuxiang before dying. They reached Jing Province safely, but Cang Yinyue warned Li Musheng that Shangyang City concealed dangerous enemies.

• Cang Yinyue explained that the scholar and his senior sister had posed as prey to infiltrate General Wu'an's search for the lost Seventh Prince, and Li Musheng described how he had detected the scholar's hidden strength.
• The ugly woman mourned her junior brother, blamed Li Musheng for his death, and dissolved herself into black water and smoke to send a signal to Old Man Wuxiang.
• Cang Yinyue warned Li Musheng to conceal his strength, trust no one in Shangyang City—not even her—and killed three wounded Bloodbath Alliance experts before they continued down the mountain.
• Two days later, Li Musheng and Cang Yinyue entered Jing Province, where Li Musheng observed orderly cities, thriving commerce, and cooperation between martial artists and officials.
• Cang Yinyue told Li Musheng that Jing Province was peaceful for ordinary people but that Shangyang City hid many dangerous enemies.

Li Musheng and Cang Yinyue reached Shangyang City after renewing their agreement that he would remove the tattoo on her face. At the city gate, Cang Yinyue warned him about the Hidden Spy Bureau and the dangers surrounding the imprisoned false prince, then presented him to the guards as a captured criminal.

• Cang Yinyue agreed to keep her pact with Li Musheng and told him to follow her arrangements, while he promised to help remove her tattoo after they reached Shangyang City.
• Li Musheng said Cang Yinyue should first obtain the Bone-Eroding Yin Wind Finger martial art to improve his chances of removing the tattoo.
• On the road, Li Musheng questioned Cang Yinyue about what she knew, and she answered his questions but stayed silent about what she was hiding.
• At Shangyang City's gate, Cang Yinyue warned Li Musheng not to trust the Hidden Spy Bureau and revealed that its Director had been the imprisoned false Seventh Prince's teacher.
• Cang Yinyue told Li Musheng that forces across the imperial capital were watching the false-prince affair, then identified him to the gate guards as a major criminal she had captured.

Li Musheng and Cang Yinyue entered Shangyang City, where he overheard a dispute about the many men claiming to be the Seventh Prince. A confrontation erupted in a restaurant, and an Imperial Secret Police agent asked Li Musheng’s neighboring diner to testify.

• Cang Yinyue brought Li Musheng to a restaurant and went to report his situation to the Hidden Spy Bureau.
• Li Musheng overheard patrons discussing the sixty-one men who had claimed to be the Seventh Prince and the prince imprisoned in the capital.
• Zhang He spoke recklessly about the Seventh Prince and the emperor, and a sinister-faced young man, a woman in green, and a burly man entered to arrest him.
• The burly man fought Zhang He's blue-robed companion and kicked down the wall between their private room and Li Musheng's.
• The woman in green identified herself and her companions as members of the Imperial Secret Police and asked Li Musheng to testify.

A woman in white froze Guo Ning'er, Zhou Chuan, and their companion, then demanded that Ji Feiyun come to see her. Meanwhile, Cang Yinyue arranged for Li Musheng to stay at Aurora Pavilion, but their plans were interrupted when a constable arrived and recognized her.

• The woman in white offered to testify for Guo Ning'er if she brought Ji Feiyun, then used her Ice-Cold True Qi to freeze Guo Ning'er, Zhou Chuan, and the burly man.
• The woman in white sent Zhang He's man in blue to fetch Ji Feiyun within the time it took an incense stick to burn.
• Cang Yinyue told Li Musheng that he would stay at Aurora Pavilion with the Seventh Prince's other claimants until their collective selection in six days.
• Cang Yinyue warned Li Musheng to hide his true strength until His Majesty recognized him as a prince, then offered to take him to Aurora Pavilion.
• A group of constables surrounded the inn, and their leader entered through a window and asked Cang Yinyue why she was there.

Ji Feiyun intervened when Guan Shanxue attacked his room and learned she had overheard Imperial Secret Police agents plotting against the Seventh Prince. After Ji Feiyun left, Guan Shanxue provoked Cang Yinyue, who effortlessly sealed her true qi.

• Cang Yinyue greeted Ji Feiyun, who blocked Guan Shanxue's icy attack before it could hit her and Li Musheng.
• Guan Shanxue accused the Imperial Secret Police of helping the Fifth Prince by gathering leverage against Li Musheng and Vice Minister of Revenue Gao Changrui.
• Ji Feiyun warned Guan Shanxue to stay quiet, freed Zhou Chuan and the other constables, and left after hearing Gao Changrui was approaching.
• Ji Feiyun told Cang Yinyue that Head Constable Fu, her fiancé, had been asking for her.
• Guan Shanxue insulted Cang Yinyue, then tried to attack her, but Cang Yinyue sealed Guan Shanxue's true qi before she could move.

Cang Yinyue and Li Musheng left the tavern together, and she explained her ties to the Cang Family and the Taiyin Origin Sect, as well as her hatred for the First Madam who branded her face. Back at the tavern, Gao Changrui confronted Zhang He after finding Guan Shanxue immobilized.

• Cang Yinyue thanked Li Musheng for helping her put on an act to leave the tavern without fighting Guan Shanxue, and praised his acupoint-sealing martial art.
• Li Musheng offered to teach Cang Yinyue his martial art, but she refused to accept such a valuable technique without earning it.
• Cang Yinyue told Li Musheng that her engagement to Head Constable Fu was arranged by her family for the Cang Family's power, and explained the family's ties to Imperial Concubine Ji and the Taiyin Origin Sect.
• Cang Yinyue revealed that the First Madam gave her the face tattoo and said she would kill the woman someday; she also admitted that she had once poisoned her.
• Gao Changrui's group found Guan Shanxue unable to move, and Gao Changrui slapped Zhang He after he lecherously suggested taking advantage of her.

After Gao Changrui ordered Zhu Zhi to leave the confrontation with Guan Shanxue to the Imperial Secret Police, Ji Feiyun returned to Six Fans Gate and assigned investigations into a mysterious young man and five deaths at Aurora Pavilion. He then saw constables carry the injured Guan Shanxue into the government compound.

• Gao Changrui told Zhu Zhi to notify the Imperial Secret Police about Guan Shanxue and warned him to avoid taking sides while the princes struggled for power.
• Ji Feiyun told Zhou Chuan not to pursue Gao Changrui and asked him to follow the young man who had appeared beside Cang Yinyue.
• Ji Feiyun gave Guo Ning'er a letter for Steward Lin at the Fifth Prince's Residence.
• Ji Feiyun took Cao Po to investigate the five unexplained deaths at Aurora Pavilion, which the Heavenly Brocade Guard had handed to the Imperial Secret Police.
• Ji Feiyun saw constables carry Guan Shanxue into the government compound on a stretcher.

Ji Feiyun failed to undo the acupoints sealed on Guan Shanxue, while Cang Yinyue left her to wait for them to release on their own. Li Musheng entered Aurora Pavilion as a candidate Seventh Prince and confronted a young man who said he had come to die.

• Two constables brought Guan Shanxue to the Imperial Secret Police, where Ji Feiyun found nearly all her acupoints sealed.
• Ji Feiyun could not break through the qi sealing Guan Shanxue's acupoints, so the constables sought help from other experts and her father.
• Cang Yinyue returned, saw Guan Shanxue on the stretcher, and left without helping her.
• Li Musheng completed the admission procedures Cang Yinyue had handled and followed a young eunuch to his room in Aurora Pavilion.
• A young man with a sandalwood folding fan said another candidate had come to die, and Li Musheng warned him that he did not have long to live.

Li Musheng identified a dangerous black qi within a young man and saved a young eunuch when it attacked him. An Quan recognized the qi as Northern Qi Meditation Qi, a lost secret art of the fallen Great Qi court.

• Li Musheng told the young man to press an acupoint, and the young man fainted from the pain.
• Little Anzi examined the young man, was attacked by black mist from his Heavenly Spring Acupoint, and Li Musheng removed it.
• Li Musheng warned Little Anzi that the young man would be beyond saving after six hours, then left for his room.
• Little Anzi carried the unconscious young man to An Quan and recounted what had happened.
• An Quan attempted to examine the young man's acupoint, recognized the black mist as Northern Qi Meditation Qi, and explained that it was a lost Great Qi secret art.

An Quan investigated the black qi that had killed five people at Aurora Pavilion and learned it was Northern Qi Meditation Qi, which Li Musheng had somehow dispersed from Little Anzi. Li Musheng examined the Heavenly Revelation Secret Treasury key before joining the other prospective Seventh Princes, where he noticed that one candidate was a woman in disguise.

• An Quan learned that Little Anzi’s black qi was Northern Qi Meditation Qi and ordered case files on the young man and Li Musheng.
• Li Musheng inspected the lodestone key and considered whether it could help him find other keys and opportunities in Shangyang City.
• Little Anzi told Li Musheng that the black mist came from a secret technique of the Great Qi imperial family, and Li Musheng denied cultivating it.
• Li Musheng joined the other prospective Seventh Princes in Aurora Pavilion’s main hall and recognized a handsome candidate as a woman.

Li Musheng met Li Yuan, a woman disguised as a man who seemed to recognize him, while the Heavenly Brocade Guard investigated the deaths at Aurora Pavilion. The investigation found ten people infected with Northern Qi Meditation Qi, and the Imperial Secret Police arrived as Yu Jin sought the culprit.

• Yu Jin asked the eunuchs to inspect the young people for Northern Qi Meditation Qi, and An Quan noticed Li Musheng but found no true qi in his meridians.
• Li Yuan introduced herself to Li Musheng, who recognized that she was a woman in disguise, and she invited him to stay by her side for protection.
• The eunuchs discovered Northern Qi Meditation Qi in ten people, including several newly identified victims.
• Yu Jin warned that the culprit had to be found quickly, and a guard reported the arrival of the Imperial Secret Police.

Yu Jin enlisted Ji Feiyun and Gong Lishan to help find the murderer at Aurora Pavilion, and Cao Po tracked a strange scent to a black-armored guard. The guard revealed his supernatural power and threatened to kill everyone in the pavilion.

• Yu Jin ordered a thorough investigation of everyone who had contacted the dead or the newly afflicted, and Gong Lishan suggested searching for the scent of Slug Grass.
• Ji Feiyun offered Cao Po’s Qi-Sensing Technique, and Cao Po followed a scent through the hall before pointing out a black-armored guard behind Li Musheng.
• Yu Jin ordered the guard forward as Li Yuanling pulled Li Musheng away from him.
• The guard revealed his young face, shattered his armor and spear into powder, and released black mist that formed chains around him.
• The guard declared that everyone in Aurora Pavilion would die that day.

The armored warrior overwhelmed Yu Jin, An Quan, and the other experts with his Northern Qi Meditation Qi, forcing Ji Feiyun to summon reinforcements. A gray-robed old man severed the warrior’s arm, but the warrior escaped before he could be caught.

• Yu Jin and the four chief eunuchs attacked the armored warrior together, but their strikes failed to injure him and his black qi chains bound them.
• Gong Lishan led the hall’s Innate Realm experts in an assault, but the armored warrior knocked him back and sent guards and young eunuchs flying with shattered floor tiles.
• Ji Feiyun launched a signal for Imperial Secret Police reinforcements as the armored warrior blasted Yu Jin and the others away, then attacked Gong Lishan and Ji Feiyun.
• A gray-robed old man appeared behind the armored warrior and severed one of his arms with a sword strike.
• The armored warrior struck back with a black tiger-shaped blast of qi, then fled and vanished before the gray-robed old man could stop him.

Li Musheng captured the one-armed armored soldier who had attacked Aurora Pavilion and tried to learn whether he knew how to open the Heavenly Revelation Secret Treasury. He hid the prisoner in his room, then returned to Li Yuanling and suggested they talk elsewhere.

• The gray-robed elder stayed at Aurora Pavilion instead of pursuing the fleeing armored soldier, while Li Musheng secretly followed him.
• The armored soldier tried to steal clothes in a courtyard and was about to kill the woman who caught him when Li Musheng appeared and carried him away at incredible speed.
• Li Musheng asked whether the armored soldier had a key to the Heavenly Revelation Secret Treasury, but the soldier claimed he had none and withheld further information.
• Li Musheng took the soldier back to Aurora Pavilion and hid him beneath the bed in Room Seventeen before returning to the great hall.
• Li Yuanling found Li Musheng unharmed, and he asked her to speak somewhere away from the many eyes and ears in the hall.

Li Yuanling revealed herself as Princess Huarong and recognized Li Musheng as the Seventh Prince, but he remained detached and returned to his room. Aurora Pavilion was placed under much tighter security as the authorities hunted the escaped armored guard, whose Northern Qi Meditation Qi had afflicted several people.

• Li Yuanling questioned Li Musheng about the Seventh Prince, then revealed that she was Princess Huarong and explained why she believed Li Musheng was her adopted elder brother.
• Li Musheng told Li Yuanling to leave Aurora Pavilion, while she insisted on staying to protect him for her godmother.
• Li Musheng returned to his room and dismissed the armored guard hiding beneath his bed, saying he would leave the questioning to Cang Yinyue.
• The Heavenly Brocade Guard and Imperial Secret Police took control of Aurora Pavilion, replaced its guards, and thoroughly inspected the young people there.
• The authorities searched for the escaped armored guard because his Northern Qi Meditation Qi had afflicted Yu Jin, An Quan, Ji Feiyun, Gong Lishan, and others.

Li Musheng brought the captured young armored soldier to Cang Yinyue in Lanshan Ward and asked her to interrogate him about the Heavenly Revelation Secret Treasury. While he waited on her roof, a masked man fleeing two pursuers threw a cloth-wrapped object at him and called it a treasure.

• Li Musheng tracked Cang Yinyue to her courtyard and handed her the captured young armored soldier to question about the Heavenly Revelation Secret Treasury.
• Cang Yinyue recognized the soldier as the Great Qi remnant who had escaped Aurora Pavilion and was stunned that Li Musheng had captured him.
• Cang Yinyue took the soldier inside and promised to extract whatever information Li Musheng wanted within half an hour.
• Li Musheng waited on the roof, where he spotted a masked man being chased by a woman in red and an old man.
• The masked man threw a cloth-wrapped object at Li Musheng and shouted that the treasure was his.

Li Musheng overpowered the masked man’s pursuers and seized the promised treasure. He opened the package and discovered it contained a bronze token marked “Hidden Kill Order.”

• The old man attacked Li Musheng while trying to reclaim the cloth-wrapped object, but Li Musheng shattered his arm and kicked him back toward the chase.
• The masked man fled with the treasure while the woman in red pursued him, but Li Musheng appeared in his path and demanded what he had promised.
• The masked man offered Li Musheng a gold bar and tried to escape, but Li Musheng immobilized him and took the black-cloth-wrapped object from his robes.
• The woman in red attacked Li Musheng with a blade and poisonous mist, but he knocked her into the pavement and killed her.
• Li Musheng unwrapped the object and found a bronze token bearing the words “Hidden Kill Order.”

Li Musheng captured the Red Rakshasa Woman, Lame Grass-Skimmer, and Dead-Face Elder, then learned that the token they fought over was the Hidden Kill Order. He kept the dangerous token and left the criminals with Cang Yinyue, who killed all three to protect his identity.

• Li Musheng brought the half-dead Red Rakshasa Woman and Lame Grass-Skimmer back to Cang Yinyue’s courtyard, where she also found the unconscious Dead-Face Elder.
• Cang Yinyue identified the three villains and explained that Li Musheng’s token was the Hidden Kill Order, which could help its bearer inherit command of the Hidden Kill Pavilion after surviving three assassination attempts.
• Cang Yinyue warned Li Musheng that the token was dangerous, but he tucked it into his robe and kept it.
• Li Musheng left the three wanted criminals with Cang Yinyue as payment for her help and asked her to interrogate one about the Heavenly Revelation Secret Treasury Key.
• Cang Yinyue killed all three criminals to ensure they could not reveal Li Musheng’s identity.

Cang Yinyue learned that Green Mountain Tower was searching for the Heavenly Revelation Secret Treasury, with a possible key linked to the Second Prince. She also revealed that the Great Qi remnants planned to steal the Dragon-Controlling Divine Sword, while Li Musheng considered how to pursue the clues.

• Cang Yinyue told Li Musheng that the captured remnant had no treasury key but knew Shangyang City might hold one or two, with one possibly connected to the Second Prince.
• Cang Yinyue warned Li Musheng that the Second Prince's Residence was heavily protected, and Li Musheng asked where it was before proposing they investigate Green Mountain Tower first.
• Cang Yinyue said she would ask the Imperial Secret Police to investigate Green Mountain Tower and urged Li Musheng not to act rashly before his identity as the Seventh Prince was confirmed.
• Cang Yinyue revealed that the Great Qi remnants had planned to cause chaos at Aurora Pavilion so they could infiltrate Longyuan Lake and steal the Dragon-Controlling Divine Sword.
• Cang Yinyue explained that the Dragon-Controlling Divine Sword was one of five Great Qi divine artifacts and shared a rumor that an Innate Realm martial artist recognized by one could reach the Celestial Being Realm in a single night.