Chapter Summaries

Ming Shuiyun and her friends rushed to the cafeteria for a rare popular lunch, where they joked about grades, love letters, and her future as empress. When students began fighting over the disputed Sword Quest for Succession exam, her friends protected her from the argument and Li Ying’s teasing earned her a smack.

• Zhu Yan’s class ran late, so Ming Shuiyun and five friends hurried to Pig Food Cafeteria before the best dishes were gone.
• Li Ying found Beef Brisket Zha Jiang Yi Mein, and the group enjoyed the rare cafeteria favorite together.
• Kui Nianruo cried over a past exam mistake, but Li Ying pointed out that her orange ranking had placed her among the grade’s top students.
• Li Ying and Lin Xue teased each other about love letters and joked that Qian Yuya’s popularity was driving away Li Ying’s romantic prospects.
• Students in the cafeteria argued over alleged unfairness in the All-Knowing Eye exam and the competing palace factions, while Ming Shuiyun kept her head down.
• Li Ying asked Ming Shuiyun for a Death-Exemption Gold Medallion, and someone smacked her for the request.

After the Sword Bearer’s public scoreboard gave the court a way to approach the Sword Masters and Sword Sheaths, Xianchan Chenchen warned Qin Yueyang that powerful interests would try to use him to reach Qin Leyin. Qin Yueyang accepted a mission to negotiate with the National Salvation and Relief Society and left determined to handle it without troubling his elder brother.

• Xianchan Chenchen recognized that the Sword Bearer’s scoreboard had publicly identified the Sword Masters and Sword Sheaths, giving the court and other factions room to court them.
• Qin Yueyang came to Xianchan Chenchen’s office, where the inspector warned him that people would target him as Qin Leyin’s vulnerable relative.
• Xianchan Chenchen proposed that Qin Yueyang use his family ties to negotiate the Steam Merchant Guild’s entry into the National Salvation and Relief Society.
• Qin Yueyang agreed to take over the negotiations from Shi Huaifeng despite the risks of being courted or manipulated.
• Qin Yueyang left, saying the matter was minor and he could handle it without involving Qin Leyin.

Le Yu taught Shi Wen and Lai Ya combat arts while they suspected he had a hidden motive, then realized the newly posted Huiyao Scoreboard had stirred the Imperial Academy into competing to support the seven Sword Masters. He left class in disguise and waited at the Heavenly Radiance Teaching Building, recognizing that students now saw becoming a Sword Master’s follower as a chance to influence the succession and gain fame.

• Shi Wen asked Le Yu why he was teaching him and Lai Ya combat arts, and Le Yu joked that he wanted them to support him in his old age before beating Shi Wen in a sparring session.
• Lai Ya and Shi Wen said they would train hard to earn points, and Le Yu was surprised that blind Lai Ya knew about the Huiyao Scoreboard.
• Le Yu disguised himself and slipped into the Heavenly Radiance Teaching Building after students began following him and other Sword Masters around the academy.
• Le Yu realized the scoreboard had led students to believe that followers could influence the succession, earn public praise, and become famous throughout Radiance.

Le Yu suspected that Yan Yi was the Sword Bearer known as “Sound” and broke into her research room to search for evidence. He found an old letter signed by Qin Xiao warning that a Sword Bearer had discovered Yan’s investigation of the Sacred Sword, just as footsteps approached the room.

• Le Yu waited near the teachers’ offices, suspecting Yan Yi’s wireless-radio research linked her to the Instant Annihilator “Sound.”
• Yan Yi entered the electrical research room, then hurried downstairs to meet someone.
• Le Yu entered the room and searched its equipment and papers for evidence of Yan Yi’s identity.
• Le Yu found a letter signed by Qin Xiao warning Brother Yan that a Sword Bearer had discovered his Sacred Sword investigation.
• Footsteps sounded outside the research room as Le Yu read the letter.

Le Yu hid in Yan Yi’s research-room cabinet after secretly reading an old letter about the Holy Sword Huiyao and Qin Xiao. Yan Yi and Ning Xinyuan entered and began fooling around, leaving Le Yu trapped and unable to escape.

• Le Yu returned the old letter to Yan Yi’s notebook and hid it in the drawer when he heard footsteps approaching.
• Le Yu realized the letter was over a decade old and connected Qin Xiao’s beliefs to Yan Yi, Bai Yu, Zhu Yan, and Qin Leyin.
• Yan Yi entered the research room with Ning Xinyuan and complained about Director Xuanliu trying to court her.
• Yan Yi teased Ning Xinyuan about being alone, and the two women began playfully wrestling by the experiment table.
• Le Yu stayed motionless inside the cabinet and watched Yan Yi and Ning Xinyuan, unable to risk being discovered.

Le Yu secretly watched Ning Xinyuan and Yan Yi’s underground romance until Lou Yinhai arrived to speak with Yan Yi. Ning Xinyuan hid in a cabinet and ended up face-to-face with Le Yu, who was hiding inside it.

• Ning Xinyuan reprimanded Yan Yi for breaking their agreement by linking arms with her in front of students, then ordered her to finish an improved version of her experiment within three days.
• Le Yu watched the two teachers reconcile and reflected on the prejudice same-sex couples faced among the Radiant People.
• Footsteps interrupted Ning Xinyuan and Yan Yi, and Lou Yinhai knocked on the research-room door to urgently speak with Yan Yi.
• Yan Yi tried to conceal that someone was inside, making Lou Yinhai suspicious, while Ning Xinyuan looked for a place to hide.
• Ning Xinyuan opened the cabinet from inside and found Le Yu hiding there, and he covered her startled cry with his hand.

Le Yu and Ning Xinyuan hid together in a storage cabinet while Lou Yinhai arrived with Shang Lingyi to visit Yan Yi’s research room. Lou and Shang Lingyi discussed investing in Yan Yi’s wireless research, while Ning Xinyuan remained concealed.

• Le Yu warned Ning Xinyuan to calm her breathing and heartbeat so Lou Yinhai would not detect them in the cabinet.
• Yan Yi opened the door and greeted Lou Yinhai and Shang Lingyi.
• Lou Yinhai introduced Shang Lingyi as a wealthy heiress and a Royal Academy graduate who was currently unemployed.
• Shang Lingyi said she wanted to invest in Yan Yi’s wireless research and see her research room.
• Lou Yinhai questioned whether Shang Lingyi could understand Yan Yi’s research, and Shang Lingyi joked that she hoped to become the understanding wife of a successful man.

Shang Lingyi visited Yan Yi’s laboratory with Lou Yinhai and probed whether the group had developed a usable long-distance communication device, while Le Yu and Ning Xinyuan hid together in a cabinet. Shang Lingyi left the cabinet unopened, and Le Yu suspected her questions had a hidden purpose as Ning Xinyuan quietly watched his reaction.

• Shang Lingyi asked Yan Yi to show her laboratory, and Yan Yi agreed while Lou Yinhai admired the equipment.
• Le Yu and Ning Xinyuan watched the visitors from inside a cabinet and silently agreed that Le Yu could uncover her mouth.
• Shang Lingyi stared toward the cabinet, frightening Ning Xinyuan, but then looked away without opening it.
• Yan Yi redirected Shang Lingyi’s attention and asked what product she wanted the laboratory to develop.
• Shang Lingyi asked whether Yan Yi’s group had made a usable device that could transmit voices over a distance, and Le Yu considered the hidden meaning of her question.
• Ning Xinyuan glanced between Shang Lingyi and Le Yu and smiled faintly.

Yan Yi demonstrated the Heart-Linked Seal, a costly radio communication device created with Meteorite Luster Ore, while Shang Lingyi asked about its production and buyers. The chapter left Shang Lingyi testing a seal as Lou Yinhai tried to steer the discussion back to radio theory.

• Yan Yi revealed that the Heart-Linked Seal could transmit brief messages over a limited distance, though its voice quality was distorted and it required sunlight to charge.
• Yan Yi explained that her laboratory had made five pairs, but the device could not be mass-produced and each pair cost over twenty Gold Coins.
• Le Yu realized that Meteorite Luster Ore enabled the badges to perform their communication function through Radiant Stone Alchemy.
• Yan Yi said Principal Cha had taken one pair and an unknown masked buyer had purchased another after offering an irresistible price.
• Shang Lingyi asked to inspect the remaining Heart-Linked Seal, and Yan Yi let her test it inside the laboratory.
• Lou Yinhai interrupted the device discussion and resumed explaining radio signal modulation to Yan Yi.

Le Yu and Ning Xinyuan hid inside Yan Yi’s research cabinet while Yan Yi distracted Lou Yinhai and Shang Lingyi, but Yan Yi used the opportunity to tease Le Yu through the door crack. After Shang Lingyi left the laboratory, Le Yu and Ning Xinyuan finally sighed in relief.

• Yan Yi blocked the cabinet door crack while discussing research with Lou Yinhai, and Ning Xinyuan reached for her hand from inside.
• Yan Yi reached into the cabinet and repeatedly touched Le Yu’s face, pinched him, and smeared saliva across his lips while Ning Xinyuan watched.
• Shang Lingyi asked whether more Heart-Linked Seals existed, and Yan Yi proposed continuing the discussion in the neighboring office.
• Lou Yinhai compared outsiders entering a research laboratory to invading someone’s underwear, and Shang Lingyi left with the two Imperial Academy teachers.
• Le Yu and Ning Xinyuan sighed in relief after the laboratory door closed.

Le Yu and Ning Xinyuan escaped the laboratory and agreed to keep each other’s secrets about what had happened there. Their private understanding was interrupted when Ming Shuangli found them together in the stairwell.

• Le Yu collected the strands of hair he had shed and checked that he and Ning Xinyuan had left no traces in the laboratory.
• Ning Xinyuan helped Le Yu straighten his clothes, and the two discreetly left the laboratory together.
• Le Yu and Ning Xinyuan agreed not to tell Yan Yi or anyone else what they had discovered while hiding in the cabinet.
• Ning Xinyuan warned Le Yu not to use the secret against her, then reassured him that his work for Shuiyun Palace made him unlikely to do so.
• Ming Shuangli ran up the stairwell, saw Le Yu standing close to Ning Xinyuan, and teased him about what they were doing.

Le Yu used Ning Xinyuan’s apparent engagement to keep Ming Shuangli from exposing them while they sought a way to approach Teacher Yan. After Ning Xinyuan left, Le Yu prepared to test whether she was really the Instant Annihilator “Yin.”

• Ming Shuangli caught Le Yu embracing Ning Xinyuan, but Le Yu persuaded her to keep Ning Xinyuan’s identity secret by saying he was protecting his fiancée.
• Ming Shuangli demanded proof of their engagement, and Ning Xinyuan kissed Le Yu before hiding in his arms.
• Le Yu sent Ming Shuangli to tell Nieruo to wait for him at the pavilion so they could work together.
• After Ming Shuangli left, Ning Xinyuan departed, and Le Yu took out a metal badge to test whether she was the Instant Annihilator “Yin.”

Le Yu investigated Yan Yi and Ning Xinyuan as possible links to the elusive “Yin,” but neither revealed a sign of being the Instant Annihilator. He then asked Nieruo to ambush an unidentified woman still inside the Heavenly Radiance Teaching Building.

• Le Yu reasoned that Yan Yi was unlikely to be a sword sheath, though he suspected she was concealing something about the Heart-Linked Seals.
• Le Yu signaled the Heart-Linked Seal while watching Ning Xinyuan descend the stairs, but she showed no reaction and the badge reported that the subscriber was busy.
• Le Yu concluded that Ning Xinyuan was not “Yin” and turned his attention to other suspects.
• Le Yu found Nieruo caring for her Cherry Tooth Longblade and learned that Twin Carp Palace had ordered her to follow a skincare routine.
• Le Yu asked Nieruo to ambush an unknown woman who was still inside the Heavenly Radiance Teaching Building.

Shang Lingyi secured funding and supplies for Yan Yi’s research before Le Yu and Nieruo confronted her, but her keen sense of smell exposed that Le Yu carried Yan Yi’s scent. After class, Ming Chaoyan secretly passed a message to Ning Xinyuan, who warned that Qin Leyin had been looking for her.

• Shang Lingyi promised Yan Yi 1,000 Gold Coins, Meteorite Luster Ore, and other research materials, while Lou Yinhai and Yan Yi eagerly tried to keep her at the academy.
• Shang Lingyi left the teaching building and encountered Nieruo and Le Yu, who led her into the woods to confront her.
• Shang Lingyi identified Yan Yi’s scent on Le Yu and realized it had reached him through Ning Xinyuan.
• After class, Ming Chaoyan secretly passed a metal badge to Ning Xinyuan and told her that Qin Leyin had been looking for her.
• Ning Xinyuan thanked Ming Chaoyan and joked that Qin Leyin would be the one to save if she and Yan Yi fell into the water, since he must have pushed them in.

Le Yu and Nieruo confronted Shang Lingyi in the woods and identified her as the Many-Faced, a sword sheath who could take on countless identities. She revealed that she had peeled the real Shang Lingyi’s face off, leaving Le Yu and Nieruo ready to fight.

• Le Yu warned Shang Lingyi that Cha Huan might stop responding if she repeatedly called for help.
• Le Yu challenged Shang Lingyi to remove her makeup and guessed that she was the Many-Faced.
• Shang Lingyi claimed she had come to test Yan Yi at someone’s request and warned that a real Shang Lingyi was already at the family home without her face.
• The Many-Faced explained that human faces could not be worn as masks, then confirmed she had peeled off the real Shang Lingyi’s face.

Le Yu and Nieruo confronted Thousand Faces, who revealed that her transformations came from the Ultimate Divine Weapon Water of Variants and depended on fulfilling others’ wishes. She explained that betrayal by people she had helped turned her into their avenger, and declared herself the tribulation of those who repaid goodness with evil.

• Thousand Faces described how she had ruined Shang Lingyi’s face and admitted to using disguises to deceive and kill people.
• Le Yu and Nieruo prepared to attack, but Thousand Faces argued that her transformation ability came from the Divine Weapon Water of Variants.
• Thousand Faces explained that Water of Variants recorded appearances through the positive mental feedback of people whose wishes she fulfilled.
• Thousand Faces recounted how people she had helped betrayed or framed her, destroying her desire to keep doing good deeds.
• Thousand Faces said she had begun punishing ungrateful people by peeling off their faces and declared that she would become the tribulation of those who repaid kindness with betrayal.

Le Yu and Nieruo confronted Thousand Faces in the Imperial Academy grove, where she exposed her fabricated stories and defended her secrecy. Nieruo and Le Yu challenged her to face them, and Nieruo opened the fight with a powerful sword strike.

• Le Yu and Nieruo stalled Thousand Faces while waiting for Cha Huan to finish work and leave the academy.
• Thousand Faces admitted that her tales about Shang Lingyi and other matters were fabricated to manipulate people through empathy.
• Nieruo accused Thousand Faces of hiding hatred, pain, and loneliness beneath her words, while Le Yu challenged her bitterness toward the world.
• Thousand Faces prepared for battle by tying back her hair and changing her noblewoman's dress into fighting clothes.
• Nieruo unleashed Cherry Dragon Sword Dance: Floating Boat, cleaving a path through the grove with a powerful strike.

Le Yu and Nieruo ambushed Thousand Faces, but her ability to match their strength made defeating her impossible. She escaped after trading questions with Le Yu, revealing a warning about how she stole identities and that her name meant “never.”

• Le Yu and Nieruo attacked Thousand Faces with their combat arts, but she effortlessly countered them and explained that martial arts depended on emotional compatibility.
• Thousand Faces discussed the spirits behind Cherry Dragon Sword Dance and the Eight Rice Flow, while Le Yu and Nieruo realized she grew stronger to match stronger opponents.
• As darkness approached, Thousand Faces offered to exchange one question each with Le Yu and Nieruo, and Le Yu asked her real name.
• Thousand Faces asked Le Yu whether he understood her loneliness, then revealed that she needed to help someone before transforming into them.
• Thousand Faces warned Le Yu to beware of anyone offering goodwill, said her name meant “never,” and vanished into the woods.
• After the ambush failed, Nieruo suggested that he and Le Yu return by separate routes, making Le Yu realize that Nieruo feared him.

Le Yu spoke candidly with Yin about investigating her and his supposed fiancée, while secretly trying to win her trust. After learning more about Qianmian’s Water of Variants, he left Ning Xinyuan convinced that he planned to pursue her, and Yan Yi began suspecting Ning Xinyuan wanted to cheat.

• Le Yu told Yin that he had visited Yan Yi’s studio, admitted he had been investigating Yin, and promised to stop unless she revealed more clues.
• Le Yu described his distant fiancée to Yin and said he valued their conversations, while privately using his honesty to build Yin’s trust and hoping to rely on her strength.
• The Huiyao Four Guards sent Le Yu details about Water of Variants, including its soul fragments, transformation ability, and defensive effect, and Commander warned that rumors were about to arise.
• Ning Xinyuan interpreted Le Yu’s description of his fiancée as a confession that he had chosen her and planned to pursue her.
• Yan Yi came to Ning Xinyuan for more teaching advice, but Ning Xinyuan put her off, leaving Yan Yi with the suspicion that she wanted to cheat.

Ming Shuiyun’s dormmates speculated that Qin Leyin secretly loved her, though she remained unconvinced and hurried off to breakfast. Ming Yueyan then began writing a tragic romance pairing Qin Leyin with Jing Zhengwei, imagining Qin Leyin helping him rise before being ordered to kill him.

• Ming Shuiyun found skincare products from the Witch’s Love Merchant Guild and said Qin Leyin’s younger sister had given them to her.
• Ming Qingyun and Ming Yueyan argued that Qin Leyin’s distance from Ming Shuiyun might conceal his deepening affection for her.
• Ming Shuiyun rejected their theory, then rushed out to get breakfast before she was late.
• Ming Yueyan started writing a romance in which Qin Leyin secretly helped Jing Zhengwei rise to power before turning against him on his master’s orders.
• Ming Qingyun questioned whether anyone would like Ming Yueyan’s story.