Chapter Summaries

Zhang Ming returned to Liu Family Village with wild boar meat and accepted coarse rice from Second Aunt, who had cared for him since his parents died. The next morning, he went to help when Big Tiger tried to take Second Aunt’s late husband’s bow, but she chased Big Tiger away herself.

• Zhang Ming roasted some of the wild boar meat, carried what he could back to the village, and met Second Aunt, who gave him coarse rice.
• Zhang Ming reflected on Second Aunt’s late husband’s hunting skills and considered borrowing the family’s bow before falling asleep.
• Zhang Ming ate meat with coarse rice and began his morning training.
• Big Tiger demanded Second Aunt’s bow and arrows, slapped her, and drove her to charge after him with a kitchen knife.
• Zhang Ming arrived with his Hunting Knife after Second Aunt had chased Big Tiger away, and she told him she was unafraid of the Village Chief.

Zhang Ming earned his second aunt’s bow by hitting three targets from twenty paces, while the village suffered a murder, drought, and rising taxes. After recovering from his weak BUFF, he concluded that increasing his Luck required time and power, and that martial arts could not grant him transcendent strength in this world.

• Zhang Ming asked his second aunt for her bow and agreed to hit the target every time from twenty paces before taking it.
• Over the next ten days, Zhang Ming practiced archery and brought food to his second aunt, while Big Ox’s Wife was killed and the drought and taxes worsened.
• Zhang Ming inferred that the Confucian Way and Literary Vein might be this world’s transcendent path after learning that taxes had risen to build the Confucian Way Sacred Stele.
• Zhang Ming hit three targets from twenty paces, and his second aunt gave him the bow and arrows.
• Zhang Ming’s weak BUFF wore off, and he decided he needed time to reach adulthood and power to increase his Luck.

Zhang Ming took the orphaned Erniu into his home, promised to help avenge his parents, and began training him. He brought Erniu into the mountains to teach him hunting skills, where they killed a wild deer and carried its usable parts back to a cave.

• Zhang Ming brought cooked fish and shrimp to Erniu and asked him to live with him.
• Zhang Ming promised to help Erniu avenge his parents and took him away from his nearly empty hut.
• Zhang Ming taught Erniu basic martial training and then led him into the mountains to hunt.
• Zhang Ming taught Erniu how to read the forest and hunt as they ventured deeper into the mountains.
• Zhang Ming shot a wild deer and warned Erniu to stay cautious around wounded animals.
• Zhang Ming and Erniu processed the deer and carried its hide, antlers, meat, bones, and other usable parts to a cave.

After more than a month of hunting and training with Erniu, Zhang Ming became a Master Hunter and planned to use his influence to challenge the Village Chief’s family. He invited the whole village to a feast, while Liu Xizhu and his sons grew suspicious of his sudden success and wondered whether he possessed a secret treasure.

• Erniu grew stronger and recovered from his parents’ deaths as he hunted and trained with Zhang Ming, whose physique rose above the ordinary and whose identity advanced to Master Hunter.
• Zhang Ming built friendships with villagers through hunting gifts and concluded that he could not peacefully take control of the village from the Village Chief’s family.
• Zhang Ming told Erniu to invite the villagers, including the Village Chief’s family, to a feast and promised to help Erniu avenge himself that night.
• Liu Xizhu’s sons complained about Zhang Ming’s success and their past disputes with him, while Liu Xizhu ordered everyone to attend the feast and considered whether Zhang Ming had found a secret treasure.

Zhang Ming orchestrated a village feast to expose Liu Xizhu’s crimes and turn Liu Family Village against him. After Erniu killed Liu Xizhu and the crowd massacred his relatives, Zhang Ming subdued the villagers and forced them to agree on a cover story, leaving him in control of the village.

• Dachao and other villagers accused Liu Xizhu of embezzling compensation, cheating the villagers, and imposing illegal taxes.
• Erniu accused Liu Dahu of murdering his mother and Liu Xizhu of threatening him into silence, then stabbed Liu Xizhu on the platform.
• Zhang Ming urged the villagers to kill Liu Xizhu’s family, and the crowd beat his sons and relatives to death.
• Zhang Ming used his martial strength to stop the chaos and warned the villagers that reporting the deaths would bring punishment from officials.
• Zhang Ming shot Liu Xizhu’s daughter-in-law when she rejected his cover story, and the villagers fell silent as he seized control of Liu Family Village.

Zhang Ming led Liu Family Village’s young men on a successful deer hunt to win their loyalty and strengthen his position as village chief. After promising to lead the whole village to prosperity, he became somewhat beloved, raising his Daily Luck to +6, and set his sights on the Fortune Realm.

• Zhang Ming took more than a dozen young men into the mountains and organized them into a hunting team.
• Zhang Ming tracked a herd of wild deer, directed the hunters into an encirclement, and led them to kill sixteen deer.
• The hunt earned Zhang Ming the Hunting Team Captain identity and increased his Daily Luck to +4.
• The villagers praised the haul, and Zhang Ming promised to lead everyone in Liu Family Village to prosperity if they recognized him as village chief.
• The villagers cheered their support for Zhang Ming, whose identity became somewhat beloved Village Chief and whose Daily Luck rose to +6.

After establishing himself as Liu Family Village’s chief, Zhang Ming repaired the village’s waterworks and built support among its people, raising his Daily Luck to 11. He spent his accumulated Luck on his attributes and emerged much larger and stronger, leaving him to figure out how to conceal the change.

• Zhang Ming divided Liu Family Village’s villagers between repairing the waterworks and hunting, and the village completed a canal while accumulating nearly a thousand jin of meat.
• More than ninety percent of the villagers recognized Zhang Ming as their new chief, changing his Identity to Beloved Village Chief of Liu Family Village and raising his Daily Luck to 11.
• Zhang Ming decided he would have to sell the stored pelts, antlers, and other goods himself rather than entrust the village’s wealth to someone else.
• Zhang Ming spent all 200 Luck on attribute points and endured intense pain as his body rapidly transformed.
• Zhang Ming discovered he had grown six centimeters taller and gained fifty jin, and decided to wear a long robe to hide his enlarged frame.

After raising his attributes, Zhang Ming set out for the county town with villagers to buy supplies, and his strength helped the group hunt a wild boar on the road. Meanwhile, Liu Tian told Black Tiger that Zhang Ming was carrying valuable goods, prompting the bandit leader to consider ambushing them on their return.

• Zhang Ming found that his Body and Mind had risen to 2.8 and that his Daily Luck had increased to +15.
• Zhang Ming arranged for Second Aunt to manage the village kitchen and gathered villagers’ requests for supplies before preparing to travel to the county town.
• Zhang Ming left Liu Family Village with seven or eight strong men and an experienced traveler, then killed a wild boar with one arrow during their journey.
• Liu Tian told Black Tiger that Zhang Ming had replaced Liu Xizhu as Village Chief and was heading to town with furs and medicinal herbs.
• Black Tiger became interested in the villagers’ goods and considered waiting to rob them on their return.

Zhang Ming explored Gaoyuan County Town, identified signs of a corrupt, declining dynasty and suspected that Confucianism and Daoist arts were supernatural paths. He prioritized strengthening Liu Family Village and sold its mountain goods to Steward Wang, earning 32 taels and 300 copper coins.

• Zhang Ming surveyed Gaoyuan County Town and inferred that its government was corrupt and the dynasty might be nearing its end.
• Liu Mu led Zhang Ming and the villagers to Steward Wang's manor to sell their furs and medicinal herbs, which they were forced to trade there.
• Zhang Ming overheard Wang Hao and Miss Lian discuss Daoist mystical arts and the Confucian Path, including Righteous Qi.
• Zhang Ming resolved to focus on developing Liu Family Village and used silver to make Steward Wang treat their goods more favorably.
• Steward Wang bought the villagers' goods for a total of 32 taels and 300 copper coins.

After returning from Gaoyuan City with supplies, Zhang Ming planned to organize Liu Family Village into a disciplined stronghold and discovered that his increased physical strength had stirred unfamiliar impulses. The group encountered Black Tiger Stronghold bandits on the road, and Zhang Ming opened the fight by targeting their archers.

• Zhang Ming and seven villagers spent most of their silver on supplies, then left Gaoyuan City with six packhorses.
• On the road home, Zhang Ming wondered whether his enhanced physique had increased his desires and planned to establish a guard unit and new systems for Liu Family Village.
• Zhang Ming heard movement in a bamboo grove and stopped the group, who took cover as he spotted more than twenty Mountain Bandits blocking the road.
• The chief of Black Tiger Stronghold demanded their valuables, but Zhang Ming assessed the bandits and shot an arrow at their archers.

Zhang Ming defeated Black Tiger Stronghold, took its surviving bandits as slaves, and brought them back to Liu Family Village. He planned to use them to develop the village and wondered how their presence affected his daily luck.

• Zhang Ming killed the Boss of Black Tiger Stronghold and forced the surviving bandits to surrender.
• Zhang Ming learned that the stronghold had forty-six people, then led the villagers to capture it and seize its supplies.
• Zhang Ming returned to Liu Family Village with thirty-five surviving bandits as slaves and found that they had added only one point to his daily luck.
• Zhang Ming told Second Aunt that Black Tiger Stronghold no longer existed and that its men were now village slaves.
• Second Aunt checked that Zhang Ming was unharmed and proudly reflected on how far the child she had raised had come.

After exposing Liu Tian as the spy who informed Black Tiger Stronghold, Zhang Ming spent three months developing Liu Family Village and saving up 1,500 luck. With the village stable and his supernatural-information wish unsuccessful, he prepared to use the luck to increase his attributes gradually.

• Zhang Ming investigated the village for a spy, identified Liu Tian, and made him confess to informing Black Tiger Stronghold before assigning him to slave labor.
• Over three months, Liu Family Village expanded its farms and infrastructure, while Zhang Ming used the new labor force to support twenty full-time soldiers.
• Zhang Ming’s daily luck rose to 20, and his accumulated luck reached 1,500, though his body remained at 2.8 despite intense training.
• Zhang Ming wished for information about the world’s supernatural side, but the Heavenly Fate Pearl returned no information because his fortune was insufficient.
• Zhang Ming decided to spend his luck on attributes gradually and wondered how much his body would change.

Zhang Ming realized that a restriction on his attribute panel made further growth far slower, while the declining Great Yu faced war on its northern frontier. He decided that staying hidden in Liu Family Village was no longer a viable plan.

• Zhang Ming plowed more than a thousand mu of farmland in a single day, showing off his immense strength and enjoying the work.
• Zhang Ming checked his attribute panel and found that raising an attribute by one point now required 1,000 Luck.
• Zhang Ming worried that the Luck cost might rise again as his Physique and Will increased, making his plan to lie low for years impractical.
• Zhang Ming recalled that Great Yu was in decline and Gaoyuan County Town was frequently harassed by northern nomads.
• Zhang Ming learned that supernatural powers had entered the conflict, adding an external reason for him to emerge from hiding.

Zhang Ming assessed Liu Family Village’s military and economic strength and decided to investigate Gaoyuan County Town more boldly. Meanwhile, the Azure Wolf Tribe prepared to exploit the county town’s weakened Azure Qi and launch an invasion.

• Zhang Ming learned that the Five Directions Cult’s rebellion had seized four of Great Yu’s Nineteen Prefectures while grassland raiders threatened the border.
• Zhang Ming inspected Erniu’s twenty archers, praised their accuracy, and granted the men extra food.
• Zhang Ming calculated that Liu Family Village could field seventy fighters and expected its grain and other resources to grow substantially.
• Zhang Ming decided to leave the mountains and investigate Gaoyuan County Town the next day.
• The Azure Wolf Tribe’s leader learned that the county town’s Azure Qi had fallen to three chi and ordered his men to cause more chaos before the army arrived.

Zhang Ming traveled from Liu Family Village to Gaoyuan County Town and gathered information about its worsening unrest. After finding little by eavesdropping on the powerful at night, he heard something in an alley as he headed back to the inn.

• Zhang Ming reached Gaoyuan County Town in a few hours and entered without paying the gate fee after the captain moved aside in fear.
• Zhang Ming used his heightened senses to gather residents’ complaints and learned that economic hardship, drought, and conflict had worsened in the county town.
• Zhang Ming suspected someone was deliberately fueling the sudden wave of bloody clashes between commoners and the powerful.
• Zhang Ming searched the residences of aristocratic families, wealthy clans, the government office, and gangs at night but gained little useful information.
• Zhang Ming heard something in a small alley while returning to the inn.

Zhang Ming ambushed a group of Azure Wolf Tribe agents plotting to help their army seize Gaoyuan County Town and defeated them with ease. He left them questioning whether he was a Confucian or Taoist supernatural being, while he realized the men had used no supernatural techniques.

• The Azure Wolf Tribe leader learned that Gaoyuan County Town's Azure Qi had fallen by half a foot and said the tribe's army would arrive within ten days.
• The leader decided to keep County Magistrate Wu alive because the Great Shaman could make him serve the tribe.
• Zhang Ming entered the courtyard and confronted the agents as they celebrated their plan to take Gaoyuan County Town.
• The leader and the other Azure Wolf Tribe men attacked Zhang Ming with sabers, but he dodged and defeated them with his palms.
• The defeated men asked Zhang Ming whether he belonged to Confucianism or Taoism, while he felt relieved that they had shown no supernatural abilities.

After interrogating Chaolumen and the other grassland men, Zhang Ming learned the basics of Confucian and Taoist cultivation and how the city’s Azure Qi affected their power. He decided that, since he could not easily enter either tradition through legitimate means, he would take a crooked path to investigate them.

• Zhang Ming tortured and questioned Chaolumen and the other men for two days, cross-checking their accounts until they revealed what they knew.
• Chaolumen explained that Confucianism and Taoism each had four realms, clashed with each other, and relied on different sources of power.
• Zhang Ming learned that Confucianists could draw immense strength from a city’s Azure Qi, while Taoists and Confucianists without that support had far less influence.
• Zhang Ming reasoned that Gaoyuan County Town lacked Confucian cultivators and had little Azure Qi, and concluded that Taoists were unlikely to interfere there.
• Zhang Ming considered approaching White Egret Academy or finding a Taoist master, but recognized that neither path was readily available to him.
• Zhang Ming decided to take a crooked path and looked toward the grassland men held in the neighboring room.

Zhang Ming defeated Chaolumen and the Azure Wolf Tribe warriors with his overwhelming strength, then recruited them after Chaolumen declared him the Son of the Eternal Heaven God. Zhang Ming saw the title as a possible claim to rule the grasslands.

• Zhang Ming challenged Chaolumen and the other Azure Wolf Tribe warriors to flee or defeat him if they refused to follow him.
• Zhang Ming used his immense strength to knock down the dozen men in moments, leaving them unable to fight back.
• Chaolumen agreed to serve Zhang Ming if he answered whether he was a Daoist Protector God, and Zhang Ming said he had been born strong.
• Chaolumen recognized Zhang Ming as the legendary Son of the Eternal Heaven God, and the other warriors knelt and paid their respects.
• Zhang Ming considered using the title to establish legitimate grounds to rule the grasslands.

Zhang Ming planned to seize control of the grassland tribes, beginning with the Azure Wolf Tribe, and adopted the name Temujin as he entered its camp. The chapter ended with the tribe's leader, Bater, looking at him and asking, “Temujin?”

• Zhang Ming threatened Chaolumen until he explained how strength and tribal custom could help Zhang Ming take the Azure Wolf Tribe.
• Chaolumen proposed that Zhang Ming join the tribe, win the title of greatest warrior, and gain prestige through battle before seeking leadership.
• Zhang Ming shared his vision of a peaceful, prosperous grassland, and Chaolumen's view of him changed.
• Chaolumen brought Zhang Ming to the Azure Wolf Tribe's camp, where they met its leader, Bater.
• Bater looked at Zhang Ming and asked, “Temujin?”

Disguised as Temujin, Zhang Ming joined the Azure Wolf Tribe after defeating Chief Bater in a single blow. Bater secretly plotted to kill him, while Zhang Ming urged Chaolumen to help replace the chief and change the tribe’s fate.

• Zhang Ming claimed to be a warrior from the Yuan Tribe who wanted to join the Azure Wolf Tribe and challenged Bater to test his strength.
• Zhang Ming defeated Bater with one sweeping kick, then formally joined the tribe as Temujin.
• After Zhang Ming and Chaolumen left, Bater told his son to arrange for Temujin to be poisoned or cursed before the siege of Gaoyuan County Town.
• Zhang Ming warned Chaolumen that Bater likely planned to kill him and argued that the tribe needed a more capable leader.
• Chaolumen fell silent and considered Zhang Ming’s argument that the tribe could escape its dependence on the weather only if Bater was removed.