Chapter Summaries

Batumen and the Azure Wolf Tribe defeated the Green Ox Tribe, while Chaolumen learned that Old Daoist Sun and two hundred Imperial Guard Iron Cavalry were reserved as trump cards for the campaign against the Royal Court. The merchants began handling the spoils and captives, who had to be delivered alive to Gao Yuan, as Batumen prepared to meet the reinforcements.

• Batumen led the Azure Wolf Tribe’s cavalry to destroy the Green Ox Tribe after several hours of battle.
• Batumen told Chaolumen that the two hundred Imperial Guard Iron Cavalry and Old Daoist Sun were the tribe’s trump cards against the Royal Court.
• Merchants praised Batumen and agreed to transport the spoils and captives in exchange for a share of the rewards.
• Batumen ordered the merchants to ensure all captives reached Gao Yuan alive.
• Batumen composed himself and went to meet Old Daoist Sun and the two hundred Imperial Guard Iron Cavalry.

Wang Wenshan led Yan Yun’s seasoned Prefecture Army toward Gaoyuan County Town, while clan leaders secretly agreed to aid him against the Azure Wolf Tribe. Guo Si questioned Zhang Ming’s plans and the odds of surviving the coming invasion, but Zhang Ming’s trump card remained undisclosed.

• Wang Wenshan rewarded the returning fifty-thousand-strong Prefecture Army, secured its loyalty, and sent it toward Gaoyuan County Town.
• Song persuaded three clan leaders to help Wang Wenshan in exchange for magistrate positions, and they agreed to betray the Azure Wolf Tribe.
• More than a dozen grassland soldiers burst into the restaurant and declared that the clan leaders would not escape.
• Guo Si asked Zhang Ming how thirty thousand troops could defeat the Northern Royal Court and how the Azure Wolf Tribe could resist Wang Wenshan’s approaching army.
• Zhang Ming urged Guo Si to calm himself, but he did not reveal his trump card.

After reassuring Guo Si that victory was near, Zhang Ming revealed how powerful he had become after spending five million Daily Luck on his body and mind. He considered his strength close to the world’s Fourth Realm and explored how Mana could enhance his abilities.

• Zhang Ming told Guo Si to take tea and prepare to hear news of victory, then declared that he would take four counties from Wang Wenshan.
• Zhang Ming appeared in a hidden chamber as a nearly ten-meter-tall giant and examined his Attribute Panel, which showed his body and mind at 125 times an ordinary person’s.
• Zhang Ming reflected that each attribute point beyond 100 cost a hundred thousand Daily Luck, an amount he expected to accumulate in four days.
• Zhang Ming tested his strength and judged that his physical power and Third Realm Mana might let him contend with or defeat someone in the Fourth Realm.
• Zhang Ming said his Mana and mental power could survey Gaoyuan County Town and wondered whether Confucian and Daoist supernatural abilities used Mana to transform the body.

Zhang Ming led the Azure Wolf Tribe’s twenty thousand cavalry against Governor Wang Wenshan’s supposedly hundred-thousand-strong Prefecture Army. Zhang Ming’s Evil Energy Berserk Technique overwhelmed Wang’s Confucian empowerment, and the Azure Wolf cavalry began breaking the enemy line.

• Zhang Ming marched out from Gaoyuan County Town with twenty thousand Azure Wolf Tribe cavalry to confront Wang Wenshan’s army on open ground.
• Wang Wenshan empowered the Prefecture Army with Confucian Supernatural Abilities, multiplying the soldiers’ strength and rallying their resolve.
• Zhang Ming used the Evil Energy Berserk Technique to strengthen the Azure Wolf Tribe soldiers and their horses, raising their combat power far beyond the Prefecture Army’s.
• Wang Wenshan tried Confucian abilities to dispel the red mist but failed to affect the Azure Wolf army.
• The two armies clashed, and the empowered Azure Wolf cavalry tore through the Prefecture Army’s formation as its line began to collapse.

Hans recounted his rise from a conscripted villager to a battle-hardened centurion, his disillusionment with aristocratic privilege, and his return to war after discovering Niu Cuihua had tricked him. After Provincial Governor Wang Wenshan empowered the army to fight the Azure Wolf Tribe, Hans was captured in the defeat and sent to a prisoner camp, where survivors could work for wages or leave.

• Hans joined the Prefecture Army to earn money to marry Niu Cuihua and was sent to fight the Five Directions Cult after only ten days of training.
• Hans was promoted through the ranks during the war and realized that aristocrats and Confucian figures, not ordinary soldiers, determined battlefield victories.
• Hans returned home after two years and learned that Niu Cuihua had tricked him into enlisting to claim his family's fertile fields, so he killed her family.
• Provincial Governor Wang Wenshan ordered the army back to war, and Hans served under the aristocratic son who had risen to become a general.
• Wang Wenshan empowered the army before its battle against the Azure Wolf Tribe, but the transformed Barbarians defeated them and Hans was captured.
• A commander ordered the surviving prisoners sent to a camp to help expand the county town and repair roads, with wages offered to those who stayed.

Batumen led the Azure Wolf Tribe in an assault on the Grassland Royal Court, but its overwhelming numbers began to turn the battle against him. Old Daoist Sun then empowered the two hundred Imperial Guard Iron Cavalry, transforming them and their horses into towering War Knights and leaving both armies stunned.

• Batumen led the Azure Wolf Tribe to the Grassland Royal Court and began the battle without negotiation.
• Shamans strengthened both armies, but a mysterious flame burned away the Royal Court’s gray weakening magic.
• Batumen led the Azure Wolf Tribe’s thirty thousand soldiers into the Royal Court’s two hundred thousand cavalry, initially driving the enemy back.
• The Royal Court’s forces attacked from the flanks and began to encircle the Azure Wolf Tribe, eroding its advantage.
• Batumen signaled Old Daoist Sun, who used Killing Intent mana to transform the Imperial Guard Iron Cavalry and their horses into gigantic War Knights.

The Azure Wolf Tribe’s War Knights crushed the Grassland Royal Court’s army, allowing Batumen to replace its banner with the Azure Wolf banner and establish the Azure Wolf Royal Court. Zhang Ming’s territory then expanded to eight of Yan Yun’s counties, and he waited for the right moment to move toward the Central Plains.

• Batumen ordered the Azure Wolf Tribe’s War Knights to attack, and they routed the Grassland Royal Court’s forces.
• The Azure Wolf Tribe defeated the remaining resistance and raised the Azure Wolf Banner over the Northern Grasslands.
• Zhang Ming sent forces to seize Yan Yun’s Four Counties after repelling Provincial Governor Wang Wenshan.
• Zhang Ming’s Identity changed to Azure Wolf Royal Court Leader and Common Lord of Yan Yun’s Eight Counties, reflecting his expanded rule.
• Zhang Ming noted that his territory now held more than two million people and decided to wait while Great Yu remained stable.

After Wang Wenshan’s defeat, the other five northern governors refused to help Yan Yun, while Zhang Ming’s new territories stabilized and prospered. A year later, revelations that the Liu, Wang, and Zhao families had engineered conflicts across Great Yu sparked a realm-wide uprising, and Kyoto prepared for war.

• Wang Wenshan sought an alliance from the other five northern governors, but they all refused to send troops against the Gray Wolf Barbarians.
• Zhang Ming and his officials extended their policies across the grasslands and Yan Yun’s four counties, strengthening his control and increasing Daily Luck.
• Over the following year, Great Yu’s aristocratic clans and local powers expanded their armies as violence and disorder spread.
• Confirmed information revealed that the Liu, Wang, and Zhao families had secretly fomented conflicts among rival clans and local powers.
• A proclamation to Remove the King's Evil Advisors spread across the land, and numerous forces raised troops against the Three Dukes.
• The Liu, Wang, and Zhao families prepared to fight, and Kyoto and its three states mobilized one million elite soldiers and ten million auxiliary forces.

Wang Wenshan weighed whether to join the campaign to Remove the King's Evil Advisors after receiving Temujin Zhang Ming’s offer of non-aggression. Meanwhile, Zhang Ming ordered a crackdown on faction officials whose abuses had harmed hundreds or thousands of people, then continued monitoring the faction through his Attribute Panel and Mana clones.

• Wang Wenshan received a letter from Temujin Zhang Ming promising that Gao Yuan would not invade Yan Yun if the Provincial Government reopened trade routes during the campaign.
• Zhang Ming told Guo Si that Wang Wenshan would join the campaign because refusing would cost him his life, and praised Guo Si’s work maintaining the faction.
• Erniu brought Zhang Ming records of corruption among the faction’s middle and upper ranks, including wage theft, enslavement, and violence against hired workers.
• Zhang Ming ordered the Six Fan Gates to prosecute everyone named in the records and proposed an annual month of severe crackdowns.
• Zhang Ming reflected that his Attribute Panel tracked the faction’s condition and that his improved Mana clone technique had advanced beyond ordinary spellwork.

Zhang Ming spent a year researching Talisman Cultivation, talismans, and a way to control his enormous body. His experiments produced a limited Heaven and Earth Manifestation and led him to suspect that Mana and Vital Energy had been deliberately designed for different roles, though he suppressed his unease.

• After raising his Physique and Spirit to 215, Zhang Ming devoted a year to researching the Talisman Cultivator path, talismans, and reducing his body size.
• Zhang Ming discovered that his body-altering technique changed his physical attributes: shrinking weakened him, while enlarging strengthened him.
• Zhang Ming realized that Mana could influence the world with subtlety, unlike Vital Energy, and feared that their differences suggested deliberate design.
• Zhang Ming pushed aside his suspicions and concluded that his version of Heaven and Earth Manifestation could compress him tenfold or enlarge him by onefold.

Zhang Ming investigated the limits of talisman vessels and uncovered that Talisman Cultivators relied on Soul Power to nurture their treasures. He prepared to test his imperfect Soul Nurturing Method, while suspecting the Daoist Sect might have created the grassland shamans’ cultivation system and anticipating that Great Yu’s turmoil could arrive sooner than expected.

• Zhang Ming discovered that Golden Thread Jade could serve as a talisman vessel, but its rarity made developing the path of talismans impractical in the Fortune Realm.
• Zhang Ming reasoned that talisman vessels might work in other worlds, since the supernatural and human nature differed between worlds.
• Zhang Ming concluded that the Talisman Art Secret used Soul Power to nurture talismans into Talisman Treasures.
• Zhang Ming prepared to test his Soul Nurturing Method, intending to compensate for its poor efficiency with his unusually strong soul and recovery.
• Zhang Ming suspected the Daoist Sect had devised the grassland shamans’ Cultivation Methods and began considering how to prepare for possible countermeasures.
• Zhang Ming reflected that Great Yu’s chaos might arrive sooner than he had expected.

The allied forces captured major cities and advanced toward Kyoto after the defenses of the Liu, Wang, Zhao clans mysteriously weakened. After the Three Dukes died and six new Dukes took control of the court, the Imperial Seal vanished, leaving Great Yu’s national fortune in danger.

• The allied forces captured their first great city after its defenders and Azure Qi unexpectedly weakened, then seized more cities and advanced toward Kyoto.
• The Liu, Wang, Zhao clans realized that a mysterious force had used them to plunge Great Yu into chaos, and the Three Dukes turned to ash.
• The young emperor and loyal ministers helped the alliance withdraw after the Three Dukes died, and powerful families took their vacant positions.
• Six men became Dukes and jointly controlled the court after a new political struggle in Kyoto.
• The Imperial Seal disappeared, and the six Dukes realized Great Yu’s cities and national fortune would decline without it.

After learning that Great Yu’s court had lost more authority, Zhang Ming concluded that the realm was nearing upheaval and prepared Gao Yuan’s forces for what might follow. He also resumed his attempt to become a Talisman Cultivator using the successful results of his experiments, and felt a strange connection form as he began nurturing a Spirit Fire Talisman.

• Old Daoist Sun reported the removal of the king’s evil advisors, the deaths of the Three Dukes, and the establishment of the Six Dukes to Zhang Ming.
• Guo Si agreed with Zhang Ming that Great Yu could not recover without a sage and that people would soon turn to strength; Zhang Ming told him to wait for an opening and continue military reforms.
• Zhang Ming ordered Guo Si to accelerate the formation of the War Knights corps and told Old Daoist Sun to speed up the establishment of an extraordinary force.
• In the underground laboratory, Zhang Ming observed ten experimental subjects nurturing Spirit Fire Talismans and judged Experimental Subject Seven’s progress the most promising.
• Zhang Ming began nurturing a Spirit Fire Talisman in his own body, and a strange connection surged forth.

As Great Yu weakened, powerful clans and local tyrants began conquering their neighbors, then Yuan Kui proclaimed himself emperor and founded the Yuan Dynasty. The other five dukes soon founded states of their own, and the loss of the Imperial Seal made Great Yu’s collapse seem inevitable.

• Great clans and powerful local tyrants began conquering minor territories and imposing order as Great Yu’s authority faltered.
• Yuan Kui performed a Heaven-sacrificing ceremony, founded the Yuan Dynasty, established Yuan Capital, and proclaimed himself emperor.
• The realm was stunned that Yuan Kui had rebelled despite serving as one of Great Yu’s Six Dukes.
• The great clans and local tyrants of Zhou, Wu, Zheng, Wang, and Feng proclaimed themselves emperors and founded states in turn.
• News spread that the Imperial Seal had been lost, leaving the County Town’s Azure Qi without Kyoto’s National Luck Azure Sea to regulate it.
• Great Yu’s loyalists mourned its fate while ambitious figures saw the imperial throne as within reach.

As the realm descended into chaos and states rose across Great Yu and the Barbarian lands, Zhang Ming agreed to found the New Dynasty and set its temporary capital in Gaoyuan City. Governor Wang Wenshan, fearing Gaoyuan’s growing strength, resolved to seek another way to stop Temujin after realizing he could not prevent the proclamation by force.

• Great Yu’s nobles and powerful Barbarian tribes founded states, sparking widespread conflict across the realm.
• Guo Si and Batumen urged Zhang Ming to proclaim himself emperor, and Zhang Ming scheduled the ceremony for a week later.
• Zhang Ming named the state the New Dynasty and chose Gaoyuan City as its temporary capital.
• Wang Wenshan learned of Gaoyuan’s preparations and concluded that Temujin planned to found a state and proclaim himself emperor.
• Unable to stop Gaoyuan through force or covert schemes, Wang Wenshan considered proclaiming himself emperor and vowed not to submit to the Barbarians.

Zhang Ming founded the New Dynasty at a Heaven Worship Ceremony, and the heavens answered with auspicious clouds and azure radiance across his territory. He discovered that the dynasty’s national luck let him hear his subjects’ thoughts, used it to order a murder case retried, and found that his national luck dragon was nearly a hundred zhang long.

• Zhang Ming proclaimed the New Dynasty and vowed to govern with benevolence during the Heaven Worship Ceremony.
• Auspicious clouds and azure radiance appeared over Gaoyuan City and the territories under Zhang Ming’s rule, and the people celebrated the dynasty’s founding.
• Zhang Ming connected to the National Luck Azure Sea and heard his subjects’ prayers, complaints, and cries for justice, but cut off the connection when the thoughts caused him pain.
• Zhang Ming ordered Guo Si to retry a murder case in Xia Liu Village and investigate the village tyrant’s collusion with local officials.
• Zhang Ming inspected the national luck dragon and found it nearly a hundred zhang long, despite ruling only a little over three million people.

After ascending the throne, Zhang Ming discovered that national fortune had not eroded his cultivation and suspected his Attribute Panel’s luck-modification procedure protected him. Half a year later, with his power growing and National Fortune at 98, he recognized luck as a force capable of letting him kill even Fourth Realm cultivators within Gaoyuan City.

• Zhang Ming examined himself after the Heaven Sacrifice Ceremony and found that his cultivation and extraordinary physique remained intact despite receiving national fortune.
• Zhang Ming suspected his Attribute Panel’s special luck-modification procedure had protected him and wondered whether his accumulated luck could connect to the national fortune.
• Half a year later, Zhang Ming’s Body and Will had reached 300, his daily luck had risen to 100,000 points, and his stored luck totaled 500,000 points.
• Zhang Ming realized the path of luck surpassed cultivation and could let him behead a Fourth Realm cultivator inside Gaoyuan City, even without cultivation of his own.
• Zhang Ming lamented that the Dragon of National Fortune could not leave the capital and noted that his Attribute Panel now listed National Fortune at 98.

Zhang Ming learned how National Fortune Points worked and decided they might power an [Ignite Comprehension]-like boost to develop spells and Supernatural Abilities. He anticipated a coalition against the New Dynasty and resolved to use the first boost to strengthen his soldiers, though victory would not let him conquer all six northern states.

• Zhang Ming learned that National Fortune Points were powerful high-grade energy that could be spent on abilities such as wish-making, divination, and enhanced comprehension.
• Zhang Ming considered using National Fortune Points to ignite comprehension and advance spells and Supernatural Abilities beyond the favored path of fortune.
• Zhang Ming noted that the New Dynasty had to preserve its National Fortune because the National Fortune Dragon's strength affected the nation's stability.
• Zhang Ming assessed Great Yu's decline and concluded that Yan Yun State Governor Wang Wenshan might seek aid from the other northern states against the New Dynasty.
• Zhang Ming anticipated a major battle and decided to use the first National Fortune-powered comprehension boost to find ways to rapidly strengthen his soldiers.

Wang Wenshan persuaded the governors of the other five northern states to form a coalition against Zhang Ming’s Barbarian New Dynasty by offering the Wang Family’s Confucianism inheritance. After learning that the six-state army was advancing, Zhang Ming mobilized his forces and prepared to meet it, confident that victory would put the northern states within his reach.

• Wang Wenshan urged the other five state governors to destroy the newly founded Barbarian New Dynasty before it grew stronger.
• The Governor of Bing Province challenged Wang Wenshan’s appeal for aid, and the governors demanded to know what reward he would offer.
• Wang Wenshan promised the Wang Family’s Confucianism inheritance, and the governors agreed to form a coalition army.
• Several days later, Zhang Ming learned that the six northern states had sent a coalition army of six hundred thousand men toward his territory.
• Zhang Ming ordered Guo Si, Batumen, Old Daoist Sun, Chaolumen, and the others to raise troops and prepare for battle.
• Zhang Ming counted on his three hundred thousand troops and Imperial Guard Iron Cavalry to defeat the coalition and claim the six northern states.

Old Daoist Sun told Zhang Ming that the Heavenly Mystery Lineage wanted the Nine-story Pagoda built, and Zhang Ming ordered him to delay its completion for several years. As the New Dynasty’s war with the northern six provinces began, both sides committed to battle convinced they held the advantage.

• Old Daoist Sun reported that the Heavenly Mystery Lineage had urged him to build the Nine-story Pagoda and said Hidden Dragon pagodas elsewhere were already forty percent complete.
• Zhang Ming authorized preparations for the pagoda but told Old Daoist Sun to delay its completion for as long as possible, ideally for several years.
• Zhang Ming gave Old Daoist Sun battle plans to relay to Batumen.
• The northern six provinces marched six hundred thousand troops toward the New Dynasty, dividing them among a central army, a vanguard, and a rear reserve.
• The New Dynasty and the allied army met on the grassland beyond Gaoyuan City, each believing its forces had the advantage.