Chapter Summaries

Ling Shuo accepted Meng Sang from Ogao and kept facing assassination attempts as Satria offered his vote for Ling Shuo’s head and attacked Coast ships. Meanwhile, Ji Jue and An Ran reached the An Family, where relatives welcomed An Ran and an elderly man apologized for the reception.

• Ling Shuo took Meng Sang in and suggested sending him to Minkler on Elephant Isle, while Ogao left with Coast specialties and the Cooperation Agreement.
• Peace Cat captured a clumsy would-be assassin, and Ling Shuo continued working openly despite the ongoing threats.
• Satria announced he would rebuild Iron Hook District and trade its vote for Ling Shuo’s head, then attacked Coast ships and displayed the crew’s corpses as a provocation.
• Ji Jue told Ling Shuo to handle Satria as he saw fit and ordered him to leave no survivors.
• Ji Jue and An Ran climbed to the An Family, where An Neng and An De recognized and teased An Ran before an elderly man apologized for their poor welcome.

Ji Jue brought An Ran home to the An Family and asked to remove the nail from his leg, despite the family’s rules and warnings. An Ran’s grandfather appeared and directly challenged Ji Jue to explain his objection to the rules.

• An Jiu welcomed Ji Jue and An Ran into the family home, then warned Ji Jue that the An Family would not take sides in the chieftain selection.
• Ji Jue admitted he wanted to pull the nail from An Ran’s leg, and an unseen family member repeatedly struck him with fruit forks.
• An Jiu explained that the nail was a guarantee An Ning had secured for An Ran, and suggested that An Ran leave the family if he wanted to escape its rules.
• Ji Jue refused to back down, saying he had promised to remove the nail openly so An Ran could return home with honor.
• An Ran’s grandfather appeared, stopped a fruit knife before it hit Ji Jue, and asked whether Ji Jue meant to challenge the An Family’s rules.

Ji Jue visited the An Family to ask them to show mercy to An Ran, but An Ding wanted to hear An Ran speak for himself about the family matter. An Ran finally stood up for his own role in resolving it, and the chapter ended with An Ding asking whether Flying Light could give him what he wanted.

• Ji Jue pleaded with An Ding to show mercy and offered to do anything in return, but rejected An Ding’s offer to exempt An Ran from punishment because he felt he owed An Ning instead.
• An Ding began to offer Ji Jue a task, but An Ran objected that the matter was his responsibility and that the family should handle it themselves.
• An Ding praised An Ran for speaking his mind and welcomed Ji Jue to lunch with the family.
• An Ding teased Ji Jue because An Ning was unavailable during Hidden Breath training, then praised An Ran and suggested he might restore the Four Seasons Sword.
• An Ran asked whether Flying Light could give him what he wanted, and An Ding solemnly asked him the same question.

An Ding questioned An Ran about rejecting Hunter Finger, then agreed to remove his nails and let him choose his own path. He invited An Ran to show his sword skills at the training ground, leaving the family ready to see what he could do.

• An Ran told An Ding that Blade Tooth and the family were different, and said Brother Ji Jue did better.
• Ji Jue explained that he had planned to offer the An Family a sword or other compensation, but An Ding said he would remove An Ran's nails because An Ran was family.
• An Ding explained that An Ran's doubts had already disqualified him from inheriting Hunter Finger, and thanked Ji Jue for raising him well through Blade Tooth.
• Ji Jue said he had helped An Ran because he was his friend and wanted An Ran to live according to his own wishes.
• An Ding changed his mind about his plans and invited An Ran to the training ground, promising not to stop him from going where he wanted if he proved capable.

An Ran returned to the An Family and impressed his relatives with his sword skills, even revealing the beginnings of Vermilion Brilliance during a fierce test by An De and An Neng. Afterward, An Quan arrived and mistook Ji Jue for An Ran’s tutor, showering him with rare Blessings as tuition fees and leaving Ji Jue stunned to learn that An Ran called him Dad.

• An Ding brought An Ran to the martial arts ground, where An Ran projected sword qi through a winding cave and struck a bell sixteen li away.
• An Ran used the Dragon Soaring Technique to intercept and return a storm of marbles thrown by the White Deer children.
• An De and An Neng escalated their attacks with an iron hammer and an axe-blade, and An Ran held his ground against their coordinated assault.
• An Ran unleashed an incomplete Vermilion Brilliance that disrupted Flying Light, but the technique tore open his hands and arms.
• An Quan arrived, gave Ji Jue rare Blessings as tutoring fees, then greeted An Ran as his son and tried to lift Little An, hurting his back.

An Ding held An Ran’s capping ceremony, formally making him head of a new Blade Tooth branch and sending him onto his own path. Ji Jue reunited with the unseen An Ning, who secretly accepted his gifts, while An Quan worried that both his children would soon leave home.

• An Ding overruled An De’s objections and arranged An Ran’s capping ceremony, then transferred him out of Hunter Finger and named him head of the new Blade Tooth An Family.
• An Ran accepted An Ding’s charge to stand on his own and joined his cheering relatives while Ji Jue watched from a distance.
• Ji Jue waited alone and spoke to the hidden An Ning, who admitted she had already come to see him before disappearing with his gifts.
• An Ning angrily inspected Ji Jue’s gifts, found his information on eleven suspected wolves in White State, and hugged the paper while lying on her bed.
• An Quan asked An Ding why both his children seemed about to leave home, and An Ding told him to blame the sins of his past life.

The An Family’s application to free An Ran from Hunter Finger prompted Lord Hermit to open the way for branches to break with tradition, setting off upheaval across the Wild Bazaar as the West Sea descended into escalating conflict. While Meng Fengzuo struggled to salvage his political plans, Chen Xingzhou united branches across several Federation regions and rose sharply in the rankings; Ji Jue explained that Chen succeeded because he offered them enough while remaining weak enough to accept.

• The An Family requested permission for An Ran to leave its main branch and inherit Blade Tooth independently, and headquarters circulated the application with the Hermit’s handwritten approval.
• Branches across the Four Systems began expelling members and declaring new allegiances, while the Blood Tooth branch split into eastern and western factions.
• Conflict across the West Sea spiraled out of control as Seven Cities supplied weapons and the branches abandoned agreements, leaving Federation spokespeople unable to secure stable support.
• Meng Fengzuo cursed Ji and worried that the West Sea’s turmoil would outlast the one-week Wild Bazaar election, even as Han Hui rose to eleventh place.
• Chen Xingzhou climbed to seventeenth place after coordinating a new investment alliance among branches in Haizhou, Cloud Province, and Su Province and gathering votes across several regions.
• Ji Jue told Ling Shuo that Chen Xingzhou had united the branches by giving them enough and being weak enough.

Ji Jue and Ling Shuo discussed how changing circumstances could overturn the balance of power, while Ji Jue reflected on how Chen Xingzhou had united the southeast through the Southeast Chamber of Commerce Alliance. Chen Xingzhou warned that Han Hui was preparing to move against him because East City planned its own merchant alliance, leaving Chen and Han as irreconcilable rivals.

• Ji Jue explained how environmental change had driven the dinosaurs to extinction and compared that upheaval to shifts in power in the Wilderness.
• Ji Jue described how Chen Xingzhou used the Southeast Chamber of Commerce Alliance to unite distant regions and secure a powerful position for himself.
• Ji Jue encouraged Ling Shuo to study Chen Xingzhou’s strategy, and Ling Shuo left convinced he could earn greater responsibilities.
• Chen Xingzhou called Ji Jue and revealed that Han Hui had sent him a gold money tree as a warning from East City.
• Ji Jue guessed that Han Hui saw Chen Xingzhou as an obstacle because East City intended to establish its own merchant alliance.
• Chen Xingzhou explained that East City had been preparing to connect Thousand Isles, Central Earth, and the Empire through maritime trade, making its conflict with Haizhou unavoidable.

Ji Jue challenged Chen Xingzhou’s willingness to accept a narrow survival as victory, just as Han Hui launched the Vast Sea Alliance to crush the Southeast Chamber of Commerce Alliance. The Vast Sea Alliance’s market surge and political pressure weakened Chen Xingzhou’s support, while Seven Cities faced trouble of its own.

• Chen Xingzhou told Ji Jue that surviving Han Hui’s counterattack would count as a victory, but Ji Jue questioned whether he was content merely to endure.
• Ji Jue gave Chen Xingzhou permission to act as he pleased, and Chen Xingzhou cursed after Ji Jue hung up.
• Han Hui’s Heavenly Prosperity Industries announced the Vast Sea Alliance with major Federation corporations, and the alliance went public with a lavish launch event.
• Han Hui dismissed the Southeast Chamber of Commerce Alliance as no real challenge, while Vast Sea Alliance shares surged and Han Hui climbed the Wild Bazaar rankings.
• Suzhou Wild Bazaar wavered under East City’s offer, its standing fell from seventeenth to thirtieth, and Seven Cities encountered trouble.

Ling Shuo learned that East City and Ash Port were undermining Seven Cities through sabotage, trade pressure, and suspected leaks, but Ji Jue urged him to stop defending and confront their opponents. As Ling Shuo prepared to act, the mortally wounded Ogao appeared in Meng Sang’s room and urgently warned that something was about to happen to William.

• Ling Shuo received reports of a client’s death, canceled orders, and a suspiciously cheap Federation shipment tied to Sea Abyss Cape and the Ash Port route.
• Ling Shuo concluded that Ling Liu and East City were behind a coordinated campaign of sabotage and warned Ji Jue that a mole was exposing their routes.
• After further attacks and trade blockades threatened Seven Cities’ Northern Frontier agreement, Ji Jue urged Ling Shuo to treat anyone who refused to submit as an enemy.
• Ling Shuo agreed to fight the West Sea factions, and Ji Jue sensed that an opportunity had arrived.
• A badly wounded Ogao appeared in Meng Sang’s room and urged him to contact Mister Ji, warning that something was going to happen to William.

Ji Jue refused Ogao’s plea to save William, and Ogao killed himself after sending Meng Sang away. As William fled the attack on Shiye, Ji Jue unified Seven Cities and forged a vast blade of Blazing Light, then launched it toward its target.

• Ji Jue restored Ogao enough to hear his account of Sea Abyss Cape’s betrayal and showed him footage of the assault on Shiye, but refused to send missiles to help William.
• Ogao realized Ji Jue benefited most from William’s death, sent Meng Sang away, and shot himself.
• William was attacked at the banquet by rebels and Satria, escaped the siege, and ran as Ogao had instructed him, despite the poison spreading through his soul.
• Surrounded by Shadow Beasts, William turned to fight, then heard a familiar voice from his shattered phone tell him to lower his head as a blazing light appeared overhead.
• Ji Jue integrated Seven Cities through its earth veins and forged Non-Aggression’s Spirit Essence Refinement into a blade of Blazing Light.
• Ji Jue activated Annihilation Mode and sent the sword streaking across the sky toward its target.

Ji Jue used Seven Cities’ Damocles defense system to destroy the attackers on Stone Page and save William and Ogao. By daybreak on the fifth day of the Wild Bazaar election, Seven Cities declared war on Misty Reef, Sea Abyss Cape, and powers across the West Sea.

• Ji Jue activated the Sword Hanging Overhead, which split apart the giant beast and began striking hostile targets across Stone Page.
• Labanca ordered the attackers to retreat, but Ji Jue’s sword killed Satria and trapped the fleeing Rebirth Form in flames.
• William arrived and learned that Ogao was alive, then beat him before the two reconciled and shared a cigarette.
• Ji Jue told William that Ogao had vouched for him and handed him the undamaged bullet he had removed from Ogao’s wound.
• At daybreak, Seven Cities declared war on Misty Reef, Sea Abyss Cape, and the West Sea’s allied powers.

As Seven Cities retaliated against the West Sea branches with a wave of attacks, An Ran stopped an assassin at Luo Island while Ji Jue announced that he would escort a cargo ship alone through the dangerous waters. Ji Jue then boarded the Prosperity and sailed into the West Sea, openly baiting his enemies to attack him.

• A bomb destroyed the Smooth Prosperity Chamber of Commerce executives, and a cascade of deaths, explosions, and accidents struck West Sea organizations throughout the day.
• An Ran confronted an assassin posing as a traveler on Luo Island’s skybridge, defeated him with a single sword technique, and had a Peace Cat drag him away.
• Seven Cities launched attacks across the West Sea, targeted suspected enemies and business partners, and formed an alliance with Stone Page, Shattered Reef, and Coral Land.
• Seven Cities Coast announced that Ji Jue would repair and escort the fleet carrying Second Phase cargo to the Northern Frontier.
• Ji Jue boarded the Prosperity alone at Luo Island and sailed slowly into the West Sea, openly challenging his enemies to come after him.

Ji Jue’s departure for the North Sea threw the West Sea’s plans into disarray, while Meng Fengzuo and Ling Liu responded to the shifting conflict and Han Hui prepared an alliance with the Slaughtering Finger Lineage. A Shadow Scale assassination attempt on Chen Xingzhou failed because its target was a fake, and Chen Yu Bo remained obliviously safe on Yingtai Mountain with Sheriff.

• Ji Jue sailed alone toward the North Sea, prompting Ling Liu and Meng Fengzuo to abandon their original plans and reassess the threat he posed.
• Ling Liu ordered a captured Seven Cities supporter killed after he refused to talk, while Meng Fengzuo reported to Han Hui and received instructions to arrange the Slaughtering Finger Lineage’s arrival.
• Han Hui assured Meng Fengzuo that he would use every means necessary against Chen Xingzhou and left the West Sea situation in Meng Fengzuo’s hands.
• A Shadow Scale assassin ambushed a sedan believed to carry Chen Xingzhou, but Cliff Horn’s elder defeated the attack and revealed that the decapitated target was a fake.
• Shadow Scale warned that younger members might target Chen Xingzhou’s family, while the Cliff Horn elder noted that Chen Yu Bo’s lodging on Yingtai Mountain was heavily protected.
• Chen Yu Bo played with Sheriff and asked the island’s elderly host to bring him a lint roller, unaware that the host wondered why Chen Xingzhou had turned Yingtai Mountain into a daycare.

Ji Jue’s voyage aboard the Prosperity was attacked by an East City Natural Disaster, but the ship’s defenses calmed the sea around him. While spectators expected him to fight, Ji Jue analyzed the Xu Family’s secret inheritance and began broadcasting its principles to everyone watching.

• Ji Jue enjoyed a midnight meal aboard the Prosperity while many factions secretly watched his voyage.
• [Wei] and [Hai] waited for a confrontation until Meng Fengzuo ordered the Natural Disaster attack to begin.
• A fired-clay seal tossed into the sea unleashed a violent storm and summoned drowned spirits to the Prosperity.
• The Prosperity’s Juque and the spirit of Dragon Mountain repelled the spirits and established a calm boundary around the ship.
• Ji Jue wrote notes analyzing how the Natural Disaster had been summoned, alarming Xu Lingwei and the Xu Family disciples.
• Xu Lingwei tried to have the notes erased, but the information rapidly spread through the observers’ perceptions.

Ji Jue dismantled the Xu Family’s curse restrictions while enduring their White Emperor Dragon King Seal calamity, and he held out through an entire night without giving Shalbah an opening. Meng Fengzuo’s exhaustion plan failed to wear him down, so he turned to Kasu for the next assault.

• Ji Jue used Zhan Lu and the Containing Form Mirror to analyze and break the Xu Family’s curse restrictions, discovering that they had placed a curse on the forbidden inheritance.
• Xu Lingyi confronted Meng Fengzuo over the damage to the Xu Family, but Meng Fengzuo insisted that the calamity was meant to exhaust Ji Jue and ordered it to continue.
• The Prosperity endured the White Emperor Dragon King Seal’s calamity for twelve hours and through the night, while Juque faced less frequent suppression.
• Shalbah reported that he had found no opening to attack Ji Jue and that the Prosperity had lost less than one-third of its Spiritual Substance reserves.
• Meng Fengzuo asked Kasu to take over after the attrition plan failed, and Kasu warned that he would not risk his life for anyone else before vanishing.

Ji Jue fought Kasu and the other attackers aboard the Prosperity, identifying their techniques and enduring their combined assault. He taunted Xu Lingyi by cursing Han Hui, an old dog in East City, and the chapter ended with Xu Lingyi stunned by Ji Jue’s apparent fearlessness.

• Kasu attacked Ji Jue at close range, using the Slaughter Finger inheritance’s speed and killing techniques.
• Ji Jue recognized Kasu’s techniques and named him the Slaughter Finger, then taunted him with guesses about his inheritance.
• Kasu, Xu Lingyi, and Meng Fengzuo launched a coordinated assault using Seize Extinction, the Five Emperors Great Demon Seal, and shattered-space illusions.
• Ji Jue’s steel body and hands resisted the combined attacks, and he struck the seal hard enough to crack it.
• Ji Jue challenged Xu Lingyi to curse the old dog in East City, then pointed toward East City and shouted at Han Hui.
• Xu Lingyi froze as Ji Jue mocked him for fearing the person he had just cursed.

Ji Jue revealed the completed Rebirth Form: Nine Forms and declared that his opponents’ futures were in his hands. Kasu, Meng Fengzuo, and their allies unleashed their strongest powers, but Ji Jue charged them as their preparations remained unfinished.

• Xu Lingyi struggled with Ji Jue’s taunts as the White Emperor Demon Lord Seal released the Rebirth Form’s power.
• Meng Fengzuo tried to persuade Ji Jue to withdraw from the Wild Bazaar conflict, but Ji Jue rejected his offer and warned that they had no tomorrow to consider.
• Ji Jue assimilated Juque, Zhan Lu, Pan Ying, Red Firmament, and Chun Jun, completing the Rebirth Form: Nine Forms.
• Kasu activated Superconductor and the Realm of Encirclement: Lapis Lazuli, while the others invoked powerful realms and transformations, including Meng Fengzuo’s change into Wei Wancheng.
• As Meng Fengzuo waited for Ling Liu’s preparations to finish, Ji Jue rushed toward the gathered challengers in a burst of black flames and violet lightning.

Ling Liu’s curse and assault crippled Seven Cities while Ling Shuo was tortured by visions of the dead. Ling Liu offered his son a place at his side, but Ling Shuo refused and died holding to the belief that he had chosen his own path.

• Ling Liu opened the urn’s curse, which killed the fishing boat’s crew and overwhelmed Seven Cities’ defenses as attackers invaded Luo Island.
• Ling Liu revealed that two tortured captives were Ling Shuo’s biological parents and used their blood and curses to torment him.
• As the attack spread, Ling Shuo collapsed in the chairman’s office, his body rotting under the curse.
• Ling Liu visited Ling Shuo in his torment, told him Ji Jue was about to die, and offered him a chance to return to Ash Port and keep Seven Cities.
• Ling Shuo spat at Ling Liu and refused his offer, remembering Ji Jue’s patience and declaring that he had chosen his own path.

Ling Shuo escaped the Mouth of Destruction and realized the silver fog had turned against Ling Zong’s forces, while armored monsters began defending Luo Island. In the Sea Abyss, Quidini and countless others joined the Cursed Armor Legion and prepared to deploy.

• Ling Shuo escaped the taboo beast with the silver ring’s help, woke in an alley, and told his subordinates they were safe.
• Ling Zong’s search party lost control of the fog as a colossal metal monster descended and attacked them.
• Kavochi tried to protect his family from an intruder, but Nomad killed the attacker and left without acknowledging Kavochi as his father.
• Kavochi called after Nomad and told him that Mona missed him, but the armored centaur continued into the mist.
• Quidini accepted Paradise’s summons and joined other Outsiders as they were fitted with Cursed Armor and assigned weapons.
• The assembled Cursed Armor Legion prepared to deploy, raising their masks beneath the Red Firmament.