Chapter Summaries

Xu Yi agreed to work Elder Song’s bellows in exchange for having his Dragon Crocodile Hide armor forged within five days, after realizing the work could help temper his body. Elder Song explained the Five Elements and other attributes, including why the hide’s ability to expand and contract gave it a rare space attribute.

• Elder Song showed Xu Yi the Star-Moon Sword and agreed to forge his armor within five days if Xu Yi worked the bellows three more times.
• Xu Yi accepted because he had felt the bellows’ rhythm send a mysterious force into his blood and marrow.
• Xu Yi asked Elder Song what attributes were and how the Dragon Crocodile Hide had a space attribute.
• Elder Song explained the Five Elements, special attributes such as gale and thunder, and the time and space attributes.
• Elder Song explained that cutting Dragon Crocodile Hide removed its ability to expand and contract, and Xu Yi bowed to thank him.

Xu Yi sought help finding substitutes for the scarce ingredients in his body-refinement medicine and consulted Linglong Pavilion’s apothecary. The apothecary recognized the prescription as an ancient formula, but its mysteries remained to be explained.

• Xu Yi agreed to serve Elder Song after seven days, then left the Dragon Crocodile Hide with him and went to Linglong Pavilion.
• The brown-haired woman told Xu Yi that the rare medicinal ingredients had not been found and that sourcing them from other prefectures would take several days.
• Xu Yi proposed consulting an apothecary about substitute ingredients, and the brown-haired woman agreed to arrange a meeting in exchange for his autograph.
• Xu Yi signed several copies for the brown-haired woman, who happily went to fetch Linglong Pavilion’s best apothecary.
• The Fatty Steward examined Xu Yi’s ingredients, questioned their potency, and concluded that the prescription was an ancient formula with a five-element arrangement.

Xu Yi bought a powerful medicine to help him cultivate the Overlord Strength Art, then headed to Guangwu Pavilion to find a cultivation ground. On the way, he learned that two tomb raiders were trying to sell a supposedly ancient manual at the Casual Market.

• Fatty Steward identified Xu Yi’s prescription as a dangerous Ancient Prescription and first offered a milder medicine, but Xu Yi insisted on a stronger dose.
• Fatty Steward prescribed a Five Elements Pill and a Tiger Fetus Tendon-Expanding Pill, warning Xu Yi not to take them alone.
• Xu Yi canceled his earlier order, paid a thirty-gold fee, and spent five hundred and seventy gold coins on the pills.
• Xu Yi left for Guangwu Pavilion and passed through the Casual Market, where he saw mounted guards beat two men and confiscate their gold.
• A vendor explained that the two men had dug up a grave that had already been looted, then tried to sell a discarded secret manual as an ancient treasure.

Xu Yi examined a mysterious manual recovered from an ancient tomb and realized its strange contents might be worth exploring. He bargained with its owners, Guo and his younger brother, but the chapter ended with them still arguing over the price.

• After hearing that dozens of buyers, including a Qi Sea Realm cultivator, had failed to understand the manual, Xu Yi asked its owners to let him inspect it.
• Xu Yi studied the unusual book for an hour, then offered to buy it.
• Guo demanded fifteen hundred gold, but Xu Yi said he would pay only one hundred and walked away.
• Guo's younger brother stopped Xu Yi, and Xu Yi explained that he had not understood the manual but found its method of drawing circles worth exploring.
• Xu Yi lowered his offer to ninety-nine gold, and Guo angrily countered with two hundred gold.

Xu Yi bought a cultivation manual and began secluded training at Guangwu Pavilion, where he discovered his strength had improved before taking two pills to cultivate. The pills’ fierce medicinal power caused him extreme pain as he forced his blood and energy through memorized pathways.

• Xu Yi bought a book from the short-haired young man and the burly man for ninety-seven gold, then left while they fought over the payment.
• Xu Yi entered Guangwu Pavilion, tested his strength at three thousand jin, and inspected the training room and its underground medicine-refining chamber.
• Xu Yi slept in the room, then prepared the cauldron and soaked in boiling water before sitting down to cultivate.
• Xu Yi swallowed two pills without biting them, as Fatty Steward had instructed.
• Xu Yi endured the pills’ burning effects and drove his blood and energy through his meridians despite the severe pain.

Xu Yi endured the agony of circulating his qi and blood forward and backward until his body recovered, but the ordeal caused his soul to partially leave his body. As hunger and fear overwhelmed him, a thunderous crash drove his soul back inside.

• Xu Yi completed nine circuits of qi and blood, dissolved the remaining medicine, and endured its effects as they surged through him.
• Xu Yi reversed the flow of his qi and blood and forced it through eight circuits over three days, gradually widening his meridians.
• After completing the ninth backward circuit, Xu Yi’s body recovered, but he found himself unable to move and was overcome by hunger and fear.
• A portion of Xu Yi’s soul had separated from his body because the prolonged agony had disrupted their connection.
• A thunderous crash struck, sending Xu Yi’s soul darting back into his body.

Xu Yi left his training room starving, paid to cut ahead in line at Guangwu Pavilion’s cafeteria, and confronted a group that forced its way toward the serving windows. After eating one of their roast suckling pigs, he reached for the second as Master Lei’s men threatened him.

• Xu Yi rushed to the cafeteria after his strange feeling vanished and hunger overwhelmed him.
• Xu Yi saw that an alchemy experiment had destroyed a training room, then silently mourned the dead man who had accidentally helped him escape his terror.
• Xu Yi paid a gold coin to take the seventh place in line, prompting other hungry martial artists to buy their way forward too.
• Master Lei led two or three dozen men through the queues, and one burly man charged Xu Yi before the thin man in green steadied him.
• Xu Yi shoved aside two of Master Lei’s men, devoured their roast suckling pig, and reached for the second as the group shouted threats.

Xu Yi drove off the Hero Society fighters who had bullied the Rogue Cultivators, then ate his fill and returned to his training room. After purging a remarkable amount of impurities from his body, he studied a nameless secret manual and spent hours drawing and writing, leaving his unusual martial practice underway.

• Xu Yi ignored Master Lei's attack, then threw him five zhang and sent the other Hero Society fighters fleeing.
• Xu Yi ordered more food and used Master Lei's gold to buy provisions for the Rogue Cultivators behind him.
• Xu Yi ate until he was satisfied, bought new clothes and writing tools, and returned to the training room basement.
• Xu Yi repeatedly bathed in the heated cauldron until the water stopped collecting impurities, sensing that his body had grown denser and stronger.
• Xu Yi read the nameless secret manual and filled dozens of sheets with careful drawings and writing using a ruler and compass.

Xu Yi studied a mathematical treatise and mastered a movement technique he named the Return to Origin Steps. After spending two days and nights in seclusion, he emerged to find the Hero Society waiting to confront him, with his duel scheduled for the next day.

• Xu Yi studied the treatise's straightedge-and-compass constructions and painstakingly drew a regular seventeen-sided polygon.
• Xu Yi mastered the circle-based movement technique and named it the Return to Origin Steps.
• Xu Yi discovered that two days and nights had passed and hurried out, realizing his duel was the next day.
• Master Lei and more than a hundred members of the Hero Society surrounded Xu Yi outside the training room to reclaim their lost face.
• Xu Yi strode forward, and the crowd loosened its circle as they remembered his strength.

Xu Yi agreed to settle his conflict with the Hero Society by comparing strength with its leader, Zhao Baling. After Zhao Baling struck the Force Tester for 6,500 jin, Xu Yi delivered a punch that left the gathered fighters stunned.

• The man in blue threatened that the Hero Society would pursue Xu Yi unless he settled the grudge, and Xu Yi agreed to meet its leader.
• Xu Yi met Zhao Baling, who proposed a strength contest and offered to apologize on Xu Yi’s behalf if Zhao lost.
• Zhao Baling struck the Force Tester for 6,500 jin, earning the fourth-highest ranking on the stone tablet.
• Xu Yi ignored the crowd’s taunts and hit the Force Tester with a single punch that silenced everyone.

Xu Yi fled Guangwu Pavilion after demonstrating tremendous strength and breaking its Force Tester, then hurried to the Alchemy Hall to collect the armor he had commissioned from Elder Song. Elder Song gave him the armor and reminded him that he had to report for three days of service starting the day after tomorrow.

• Xu Yi left after Zhao Baling praised his strength, and Steward Wang discovered that Xu Yi's punch had dented the Force Tester and cracked the boulder behind it.
• Zhao Baling told Steward Wang that Xu Yi was only at the peak of the Body Tempering Realm, prompting Steward Wang to report the unexpected visitor to the Pavilion Master.
• Xu Yi overheard that the person who broke the tester would have to pay for it, settled his bill, and hurried out of Guangwu Pavilion.
• Xu Yi went to the Alchemy Hall to collect his armor before going to the battlefield the next day, and the attendant brought him to Elder Song.
• Elder Song gave Xu Yi a ball of azure light and warned him to serve at his beck and call three times over the following seven days, beginning the day after tomorrow.

Xu Yi received Dragon Crocodile Armor from Elder Song and learned about its limits and weapon ranks. After Xu Yi revealed his identity, Elder Song recognized him as the fighter scheduled to face Wan at the Ascending Dragon Platform and worried he would lose.

• Elder Song gave Xu Yi the forged Dragon Crocodile Armor and demonstrated that it could stop a sword strike.
• Elder Song explained that the armor ranked among top-tier Mortal Weapons and could resist most attacks short of a peak Qi Sea expert’s full-strength blow, while warning Xu Yi not to grow overconfident.
• Xu Yi thanked Elder Song, promised to finish his labor, and asked about the difference between Mortal Weapons and Blood Weapons.
• Xu Yi removed his bamboo hat, revealing that he was Yi Xu, and offered his identity as the fortune he had promised Elder Song.
• Elder Song recognized Xu Yi and lamented that he had agreed to give him the armor despite his upcoming fight against Wan at the Ascending Dragon Platform.

Xu Yi secured Elder Song’s help and learned about Blood Weapons while preparing for his upcoming fight. After placing most of his money on the outcome and buying pastries for Qiu Wa, he returned home to find two constables waiting outside his dark, closed courtyard.

• Xu Yi reminded Elder Song that the Dragon Crocodile Armor made him difficult to defeat, and Elder Song accepted his offer to share in the betting fortune.
• Xu Yi asked Elder Song about Blood Curses, and Elder Song explained how Blood Weapons let Qi Sea Realm cultivators wield powerful weapons from a distance.
• Xu Yi reflected that he wanted to refine his iron essence himself and learn artificing, with Elder Song as a crucial mentor.
• Xu Yi spread most of his remaining gold across bets at three betting houses, then bought a box of pastries for Qiu Wa.
• Xu Yi returned home at night and found two constables outside his shut, unlit courtyard.

Xu Yi returned to find his home attacked and Uncle Mu and Qiu Wa kidnapped, with the Black Dragon Hall demanding that he keep a ring from appearing at the Ascending Dragon Platform. He left Yuan Qinghua recovering and vowed to destroy the Black Dragon Hall.

• Xu Yi met Gao Junmo, learned that Fire Barbarians had attacked his home and that Uncle Mu and Qiu Wa were missing, and promised to attend the decisive battle at noon.
• Xu Yi found Yuan Qinghua about to be thrown out of Chunlai Hall, paid for his treatment, and learned the Black Dragon Hall had sent a warning through him.
• Yuan Qinghua told Xu Yi that the kidnappers demanded he keep the ring from appearing at the Ascending Dragon Platform if he wanted Uncle Mu and Qiu Wa to live.
• Xu Yi left Yuan Qinghua to recover, plunged into the An River to calm himself, and vowed to destroy the Black Dragon Hall.

Guang'an gathered for the highly anticipated battle between Xu Yi and Wan Tengyun at the Ascending Dragon Platform. Before the fight began, Gao Junmo mocked Wan Youlong over his son’s new relationship with the younger Elder Shui, leaving Wan humiliated.

• Vendors and spectators crowded eastern Guang'an as the Ascending Dragon Platform filled for Xu Yi’s noon battle with Wan Tengyun.
• Gao Junmo and three White-uniformed Captains arrived outside Box Jiazi, where they met Wan Youlong’s party and Elder Shui.
• Wan Youlong boasted that Wan Tengyun would defeat Xu Yi and reminded Gao Junmo that Elder Shui had become his son’s godfather.
• Gao Junmo pointed out that Elder Shui was younger than Wan Youlong, then mocked him for having a forty-nine-year-old godfather despite being fifty-three.
• Wan Youlong endured the laughter in silence, while the Black Dragon Hall elders privately regretted seeking the Shui family’s patronage.

Gao Junmo confronted Wan Youlong over the attack on Xu Yi’s family, but Elder Shui refused to hand over the alleged captives. Xu Yi entered the Ascending Dragon Platform seeking revenge, where Wan Tengyun made a grand entrance and threatened to kill him before their match began.

• Gao Junmo challenged Wan Youlong over the Fire Barbarians’ attack on Xu Yi’s family, while Qi Baihan threatened to tear down the Black Dragon Hall.
• Elder Shui tried to mediate, but refused Gao Junmo’s request that Wan Youlong hand over the old man and the young one.
• Gao Junmo invited Elder Shui and Wan Youlong to watch the match in Room Jia-Chou, confident in Yi Xu’s abilities.
• Xu Yi rose from the underground lift and entered the arena, focused on killing.
• Wan Tengyun arrived on a white crane to loud cheers, then threatened to sever Xu Yi’s neck with one stroke.
• Xu Yi walked toward Wan Tengyun before the bell, while Wan Tengyun accused him of planning a surprise attack.

Xu Yi overwhelmed Wan Tengyun in the duel despite Wan Tengyun’s spirit-stone-fragment wings and golden armor. With Wan Tengyun defeated and pinned beneath his foot, Xu Yi left him asking how he had been beaten.

• Wan Tengyun revealed crystal wings powered by spirit-stone fragments, and Elder Shui recognized the material.
• Gao Junmo feared the wings would give Wan Tengyun an advantage and doubted Xu Yi could win.
• When the bell rang, Xu Yi seized Wan Tengyun’s ankle and repeatedly slammed him into the ground.
• Xu Yi shattered Wan Tengyun’s golden armor and struck him down until the duel was over.
• Xu Yi pinned Wan Tengyun’s head beneath his foot, and Wan Tengyun asked how Xu Yi had defeated him.

Xu Yi defeated Wan Tengyun on the Ascending Dragon Platform and signaled Gao Junmo to arrange a hostage exchange. After the Black Dragon Hall reported rescuing the old man, Gao Junmo and Wan Youlong agreed to suspend the duel for half an hour, leaving the fight set to resume afterward.

• Xu Yi used the Return to Origin Steps and his strength to overwhelm Wan Tengyun, break his golden armor, and leave him at his mercy.
• Xu Yi raised a finger as a signal, and Gao Junmo understood that he was to negotiate with Wan Youlong.
• Ma Wensheng reported that the Black Dragon Hall had defeated the Fire Barbarians and rescued the old man.
• Wan Youlong and Gao Junmo agreed to spare Wan Tengyun and exchange him for the old man, though Gao Junmo questioned why the child was missing.
• Gao Junmo and Wan Youlong requested a half-hour suspension, and the Adjudication Hall approved it.

After Xu Yi won his duel, he found Uncle Mu and learned that Qiu Wa was not a human girl but a spirit dwelling in a wooden carving. Uncle Mu explained how he had rescued her three years earlier, leaving Xu Yi to reconsider the strange signs he had noticed about her.

• Xu Yi left the arena and asked Gao Junmo where Qiu Wa and Uncle Mu were; Gao Junmo directed him to Uncle Mu and went to the Adjudication Hall.
• Xu Yi found Uncle Mu and feared that something had happened to Qiu Wa, but Uncle Mu said she was still there.
• Uncle Mu revealed a purple wooden carving and told Xu Yi that it was Qiu Wa.
• Uncle Mu recounted rescuing Qiu Wa from a whirlpool three years earlier and explained that she had repeatedly given him her life force to keep him alive.
• Xu Yi connected Qiu Wa's weakened condition after Uncle Mu's injuries and her reluctance to attend school with the life force she had given and Uncle Mu's fear for her safety.

Xu Yi learned that Qiu Wa had spent her life force saving Uncle Mu, leaving her trapped in a wooden doll. After Uncle Mu took his own life, Qiu Wa and Xu Yi were left grieving over him.

• Xu Yi realized Qiu Wa had been a ginseng spirit and had tried to heal him after his fight with Gao Pan.
• Uncle Mu explained that Qiu Wa had used up her life force to heal his spear wound, leaving her unable to transform from a wooden doll.
• Uncle Mu told Xu Yi he was hungry and asked to speak with Qiu Wa alone.
• Uncle Mu urged Qiu Wa to let him go, then stabbed himself in the chest with an iron awl.
• Xu Yi rushed back with food and caught Uncle Mu as he collapsed, but Qiu Wa could not revive him before he died.