Chapter Summaries

Lin Taichu realized the Jin soldiers were trying to provoke Yanmen Pass into attacking first, so he planned a secret infiltration to learn their intentions. He and Gao Yang disguised themselves and prepared to enter the Jin camp through an abandoned drainage outlet.

• Lin Taichu sent fifty soldiers led by Sun Yong to burn the Jin camp, but Governor Wu ambushed them and fewer than half returned.
• Lin Taichu concluded that the Jin soldiers wanted Yanmen Pass to strike first so they could justify a full-scale attack.
• Lin Taichu decided to infiltrate the Jin camp with Gao Yang and ordered Deputy General Li to defend Yanmen Pass while they were gone.
• Lin Taichu disguised himself as a camp worker, met Gao Yang at a concealed drainage outlet, and prepared to crawl out with him.

Lin Taichu and Gao Yang infiltrated the Jin camp and discovered that its soldiers were starving and unwilling to fight. They learned that the Jin king had changed after a mysterious illness three years earlier and launched a campaign to conquer the Central Plains.

• Lin Taichu and Gao Yang entered the Jin camp disguised among laborers delivering grain carts.
• Lin Taichu and Gao Yang overheard Jin soldiers complain about scarce food and learned that the camp’s apparent grain stores might be a deception.
• Lin Taichu and Gao Yang changed into captured Jin uniforms and were ordered to help prepare the soldiers’ porridge.
• Lin Taichu heard an older soldier explain that the Jin king had become obsessed with war after waking from a three-day illness three years earlier.

Lin Taichu and Gao Yang learned how poverty and the King’s rule had affected Jin soldiers and prisoners, and decided to investigate the King’s sudden change. When they heard an envoy was coming to inspect the camp, they sought a way to get close to him by volunteering to prepare his quarters.

• Lin Taichu and Gao Yang ate meager porridge and saw Jin soldiers’ poverty and prisoners being abused as they delivered water.
• Lin Taichu and Gao Yang discussed investigating the King’s change after his serious illness and planned to approach higher-ranking officers.
• Lin Taichu and Gao Yang overheard that the King would send an envoy to inspect the camp, and decided to get near the visitors.
• Lin Taichu volunteered to prepare the envoy’s quarters, and Gao Yang backed him up by claiming they had both worked at an inn.

Lin Taichu and Gao Yang infiltrated the Jin camp and learned that a mysterious wizard had gained the King’s trust and was directing an attack on Yanmen Pass despite the army’s lack of provisions. Suspecting the wizard had ties to the Central Plains, they left the camp for the Jin Kingdom’s royal city to investigate his background.

• Lin Taichu and Gao Yang searched the envoy’s quarters, then overheard that the Jin envoy and officers planned an attack on Yanmen Pass and that a wizard heavily influenced the King.
• Gao Yang questioned veteran soldiers, who said the wizard had appeared beside the King three years earlier after the King recovered from an illness, and that rumors credited him with supernatural powers.
• Lin Taichu and Gao Yang overheard the envoy say the wizard had a way to solve the Jin army’s provisions shortage and had ordered Yanmen Pass taken before the end of the month.
• Lin Taichu and Gao Yang decided to investigate the wizard in the Jin Kingdom’s royal city and spent two days studying the camp’s patrols and defenses.
• Lin Taichu and Gao Yang slipped out of the camp at night and headed north toward the royal city, passing abandoned villages ravaged by war.

Lin Taichu and Gao Yang infiltrated the royal city and investigated the wizard who controlled the King and claimed he could conjure food. They found evidence of the wizard’s ties to the Central Plains, then saw him hide a box in a secret compartment in his study.

• Lin Taichu and Gao Yang entered the royal city disguised as laborers and overheard that the King relied on the wizard to solve the food shortage.
• Lin Taichu and Gao Yang secretly watched the wizard’s ritual, where he gave the King a potion that triggered a violent and abnormal reaction.
• Lin Taichu and Gao Yang learned that a visitor from the Central Plains had met with the wizard and suspected the man might be connected to the Prime Minister.
• Lin Taichu and Gao Yang volunteered to clean the wizard’s palace and found Central Plains books and artifacts in his study.
• The wizard entered the study with a box and hid it in a secret compartment behind a bookshelf.

Lin Taichu and Gao Yang uncovered evidence that the wizard was cursing the Jin king and conspiring with Great Qi’s prime minister, then secretly gave it to the First Prince. Five days later, rumors spread that the First Prince and his brothers had rebelled, and the palace was under lockdown.

• Lin Taichu and Gao Yang found letters describing the wizard’s plot with Great Qi’s prime minister and a box of strange insects, then overheard the princes accuse the wizard of harming their father.
• Lin Taichu and Gao Yang stole the evidence and arranged to contact the First Prince by slipping him a letter at a temple.
• The First Prince met them at an abandoned temple, examined the letters and insects, and took the evidence to consult his brothers and expose the wizard.
• Five days later, soldiers patrolled the royal city after the king became critically ill, and Lin Taichu and Gao Yang heard that the three princes had joined forces to rebel.

Lin Taichu and Gao Yang joined the First Prince’s fight against the wizard after the wizard framed the princes for rebellion. As the princes tried to take the King to safety, the wizard summoned his enormous bat, Kain, which overwhelmed the defenders.

• Gao Yang hid with Lin Taichu in a palace storeroom as Jin soldiers hunted the First Prince and his supporters.
• Lin Taichu and Gao Yang found the First Prince fighting the wizard’s men and joined the battle, targeting the wizard-controlled Guards.
• The wizard’s forces attacked the King’s stretcher, and Lin Taichu and Gao Yang helped the King’s protectors carry him away.
• The wizard summoned his giant bat, Kain, which scattered the Guards and broke Gao Yang’s spear.
• Lin Taichu, Gao Yang, and the First Prince realized they could not defeat Kain and the wizard’s forces together.

Lin Taichu and Gao Yang stayed behind to hold off Kain while the princes escaped with the king. After wounding Kain and evading its attacks, they tried to push a heavy incense burner onto it.

• The First Prince led the Second Prince and Third Prince away with the king while Lin Taichu and Gao Yang held off Kain and the wizard.
• Lin Taichu and Gao Yang took cover behind a rockery and identified Kain’s eyes as a possible weak point.
• Lin Taichu blinded Kain with powder, and Gao Yang struck one of its eyes with an iron rod.
• The wounded Kain chased Lin Taichu and Gao Yang into the main hall, where they hid behind pillars.
• Gao Yang spotted a heavy bronze incense burner, and he and Lin Taichu pushed it toward Kain.

Lin Taichu and Gao Yang injured Kain and confronted the wizard, who revealed his plan to use the Jin Kingdom to conquer the Central Plains. The First Prince arrived with soldiers, but Kain revived and grew stronger as he slaughtered them, then unleashed a piercing howl.

• Lin Taichu and Gao Yang toppled an incense burner onto Kain, breaking one of his wings.
• The wizard revealed he had been the Central Plains’ Imperial Advisor and had controlled the Jin Kingdom’s king to prepare a conquest.
• The wizard attacked Lin Taichu and Gao Yang with black lightning, but the First Prince arrived with several hundred soldiers.
• Kain revived, attacked the soldiers, and rapidly healed and grew stronger by drinking their blood.
• The First Prince ordered the soldiers to retreat and use spears, but Kain killed more soldiers and let out a shrill howl that shook the hall.

Kain transformed into a half-bat, half-wolf monster and attacked Lin Taichu and Gao Yang in the hall. Lin Taichu blinded Kain with powder, but Gao Yang’s iron rod struck his head instead of his eyes, leaving the fight unresolved.

• Kain transformed as the sky over the royal city turned blood-red, and the wizard tried to flee from him.
• Kain attacked Lin Taichu and Gao Yang, wounding both before fighting off the soldiers who tried to help.
• Gao Yang suspected Kain’s eyes were his weakness, so he drew Kain toward the entrance while Lin Taichu prepared his remaining powder.
• Kain began evolving again and his poisonous black mist corroded the floor as Lin Taichu threw powder into his eyes.
• Gao Yang swung his iron rod at Kain’s eyes, but Kain lowered his head and the rod struck his wolf head.

Lin Taichu, Gao Yang, and their allies fought Kain in the main hall, blinding it and escaping when the roof collapsed. Kain emerged from the ruins and pursued them as they fled the royal city, leaving the threat unresolved.

• Kain wounded Gao Yang and pressed its attack, while a soldier saved Lin Taichu from its claws but was killed, and the First Prince was knocked down.
• Sun Yong arrived with soldiers and used arrows to distract Kain, giving Lin Taichu and Gao Yang the chance to strike its eyes and blind it.
• Lin Taichu helped Gao Yang and the injured First Prince escape the main hall as Kain crashed around inside and the roof collapsed on it.
• Kain burst out of the ruins, and Lin Taichu, the First Prince, Sun Yong, and the others mounted their horses and fled as it chased them toward the outskirts of the city.

Lin Taichu and the others fled Kain into the Forging Workshop, where they tried to restrain the monster and use a furnace to defeat it. Kain broke one of its restraints, and Lin Taichu provoked it while its other legs remained chained.

• Lin Taichu led the injured Gao Yang, the First Prince, Sun Yong, and the soldiers toward the Forging Workshop to escape Kain.
• The group entered the workshop and climbed to the second floor as Kain smashed through the doors and pursued them.
• Lin Taichu drew Kain’s attention while Sun Yong and the soldiers chained its legs to furnace supports.
• Kain tore apart a support and knocked a soldier down, forcing Lin Taichu to make his move toward the furnace.
• Lin Taichu charged at Kain’s freed hind leg with his Short Blade, enraging the monster, which lunged at him but remained restrained by its chained front legs.

Lin Taichu and the others defeated Kain by pushing it into the forge, then captured the wizard and learned how to undo his control over the king. The wizard prepared the required herbal and blood soup, leaving the group ready to give it to the king and attempt to free him.

• Lin Taichu, Sun Yong, and the Soldiers shoved Kain into the forge, where it burned to death.
• The First Prince confronted the captured wizard, and Lin Taichu and Sun Yong pressured him to reveal how he controlled the king and how to undo it.
• The wizard explained that the king needed a soup made from Calming Heart Grass and the wizard’s blood, followed by an incantation.
• A soldier fetched Calming Heart Grass from the Imperial Hospital, and the group escorted the wizard to the palace.
• The wizard prepared the soup in the Side Hall while Lin Taichu and Gao Yang watched him closely.
• The wizard finished the dark-red soup and said it should be given to the king before he recited the incantation.

Lin Taichu and Gao Yang helped the King recover from the sorcerer’s control, and the King imprisoned the sorcerer and agreed to end the Jin Kingdom’s war with the Central Plains. He resolved to negotiate peace, then acknowledged that his kingdom also needed to catch up in agriculture and craftsmanship.

• Lin Taichu fed the King soup while the sorcerer used a Black Token and a chant to dispel the talisman’s control.
• The King regained consciousness, remembered the sorcerer’s actions, and ordered the Soldiers to imprison him.
• The King offered Lin Taichu, Gao Yang, and Sun Yong rewards, but they declined and agreed to stay in the palace briefly before leaving.
• Lin Taichu and Gao Yang told the King they had come from Qingzhou to stop the war, and the King acknowledged the harm war had caused his people.
• The King decided the Jin Kingdom would stop attacking the Central Plains and send envoys to negotiate a peace agreement.
• The King noted that the Jin Kingdom had fallen behind the Central Plains in agriculture and craftsmanship.

The King of Jin ended the war and sent the First Prince with fifty officials and craftsmen to the Central Plains to learn from them. Lin Taichu and Gao Yang returned toward the capital with the captured wizard, who was to face judgment by the emperor.

• The King ordered Jin’s troops to halt their attacks and sent the First Prince to lead fifty people to study in the Central Plains.
• Sun Yong volunteered to accompany the First Prince, and Lin Taichu gave him a letter for the Prefect of Qingzhou before the party departed.
• Lin Taichu and Gao Yang declined the King’s rewards and left the royal city with the wizard imprisoned in a Prison Cart.
• Lin Taichu and Gao Yang saw merchants and farmers returning to the border road as the two kingdoms settled into peace.
• The Central Plains border garrison admitted Lin Taichu’s party after he presented the Prefect’s token, then supplied fast horses and escorts for their journey to the capital.

Lin Taichu and Gao Yang reported their success in the Jin Kingdom to the Emperor, who punished the wizard and agreed to pursue peace and trade with the Jin Kingdom. With the Central Plains stable, Lin Taichu left for the Sand Country to train and grow strong enough to protect others.

• Lin Taichu and Gao Yang told the Emperor how they had resolved the Jin Kingdom's crisis and brought the wizard back.
• The Emperor ordered the wizard imprisoned and sentenced him to public execution, then agreed to negotiate peace and mutual trade with the Jin Kingdom.
• Lin Taichu refused a reward and told Gao Yang he planned to return to the Sand Country to train against magical beasts.
• Gao Yang supported Lin Taichu's decision and agreed to monitor the Jin Kingdom and the First Prince's studies in Qingzhou.
• The Emperor allowed Lin Taichu to leave for training on the condition that he stay within the country and return every few months.
• Lin Taichu set off for the Sand Country after Gao Yang asked him to duel again when he returned.

Lin Taichu returned to Sand Country and found its outskirts strangely empty of magical beasts. Near a vast fissure, he encountered a high-tier Sand Centipede and defeated it with an iron chain and fire, though his shoulder was injured.

• Lin Taichu dismissed his horse at the edge of Sand Country and walked into the desert, finding far fewer magical beasts and no signs of the Sand Wolves he had encountered before.
• Lin Taichu followed strange tracks and fresh gouges in the rock until he found a deep fissure winding through the desert.
• A Sand Centipede burst from the sand and attacked Lin Taichu, whose Short Blade barely scratched its shell and whose shoulder was injured by its strike.
• Lin Taichu hooked the Sand Centipede's antenna with an iron chain, anchored the chain to a rock, and set the trapped beast on fire with Fire Tinder.
• The Sand Centipede's struggles stopped after the flames spread across its body.

After recovering from his fight with the Sand Centipede, Lin Taichu followed the demonic energy deeper into the desert and discovered a strange sandstorm. He found a gigantic White Bear at its center, and the beast spotted him as he prepared to approach.

• Lin Taichu treated his injured shoulder, rested, and chose to follow the demonic energy instead of approaching the crack near the Sand Centipede's corpse.
• Lin Taichu traveled deeper into the desert, where darkened sand and blood-stained stones signaled that dangerous magical beasts were nearby.
• Lin Taichu found a massive, unusually contained sandstorm and followed the dense demonic energy toward its center.
• Lin Taichu saw a gigantic White Bear standing unharmed inside the sandstorm and realized its power surpassed that of Kain and the Sand Centipede.
• The White Bear fixed its red eyes on Lin Taichu and roared, alerting him that it had noticed him.

Lin Taichu was swept into the center of White Bear’s sandstorm and fought the demon in close quarters. After wounding White Bear, Lin Taichu ignited herbs on his Short Blade and stabbed the burning weapon into the bear’s abdominal wound.

• White Bear strengthened the sandstorm and pulled Lin Taichu into its calm center after Lin Taichu’s iron chain snapped.
• Lin Taichu dodged White Bear’s corrosive demonic energy, but White Bear charged and cut his arm with a claw.
• Lin Taichu dodged a paw strike and stabbed White Bear in the abdomen with the Short Blade, then was flung away.
• White Bear gathered demonic energy into sharper claws and charged Lin Taichu again.
• Lin Taichu tied dried herbs to the Short Blade, lit them with Fire Tinder, and drove the flaming blade into White Bear’s wound.

After killing White Bear and recovering from his injuries, Lin Taichu defeated a sand wolf with ease and realized his strength had improved. He returned to White Bear’s corpse after noticing its spiritual fragrance was attracting magical beasts, which kept their distance because he had killed it.

• Lin Taichu survived White Bear’s final struggles, treated his wounds in a sand cave, and waited for the sandstorm to pass.
• After recovering, Lin Taichu killed an approaching sand wolf and noticed that the fight with White Bear had strengthened him.
• Lin Taichu realized the sand wolf’s presence near White Bear’s corpse was unusual and recalled smelling a faint fragrance when White Bear died.
• Lin Taichu returned to White Bear’s corpse and found its wound releasing a refreshing fragrance as the green blood glimmered.
• Several groups of magical beasts gathered near the corpse but fled or stayed back when they saw Lin Taichu, and he understood they feared the beast’s killer.