Chapter Summaries

Li Xiao defeated four Second-Turn Martial Masters from the Wild Dog Gang with ease, leaving their forces routed and Zhang Kui astonished. He ordered Zhang Kui to bind the injured leaders and hand them over to the Gang Leader.

• Liu San ordered two Second-Turn Martial Masters to attack Li Xiao while Zhang Kui fought Song Rong.
• Li Xiao used Iron Wire Fist to incapacitate both attackers in a single exchange.
• Liu San and Song Rong teamed up against Li Xiao, but Li Xiao struck Song Rong down and left Sun Biao severely injured.
• Li Xiao broke Liu San’s shoulder, and the Wild Dog Gang members fled, leaving their four Hall Masters behind.
• Li Xiao told Zhang Kui to clean up the street, bind the defeated men, and hand them over to the Gang Leader.

Wang Hai and Wang Jinshan learned that Li Xiao had defeated four Second-Turn Martial Masters from the Wild Dog Gang while protecting Zhang Kui. They resolved to reward Zhang Kui and strengthen their ties with Li Xiao, whose value they now considered far greater than they had expected.

• Wang Jinshan taught Wang Hai to manage the Golden Sand Gang by balancing its factions and using Zhang Kui’s troubles with the Wild Dog Gang as a test.
• Zhang Kui entered Wang Jinshan’s study wounded but excited, thanked Wang Hai for saving his life, and praised his judgment in bringing Li Xiao into the gang.
• Zhang Kui recounted how Li Xiao had easily defeated Liu San and three other Second-Turn Martial Masters from the Wild Dog Gang.
• Wang Hai and Wang Jinshan were shocked by Li Xiao’s strength, and Wang Jinshan ordered Wang Hai to reward Zhang Kui and move him to a better post.
• Wang Jinshan told Wang Hai to learn what Li Xiao needed and satisfy him so the Golden Sand Gang could secure his loyalty.

Zhang Kui visited Li Xiao to thank him for saving his life, bringing money and supplies before pledging his loyalty. Li Xiao accepted Zhang Kui as a potential ally in Willow City, and his father watched with pride and complicated feelings.

• Li Xiao practiced in the courtyard as Li Youde watched, until Zhang Kui arrived with Golden Sand Gang disciples and knelt to thank Li Xiao for saving him.
• Zhang Kui presented Li Xiao with four hundred taels and boxes of Exotic Beast Meat and medicinal herbs for him and his father.
• After sending his disciples outside, Zhang Kui explained that the Golden Sand Gang leadership had left him unsupported and might have hoped he would die or become dependent on them.
• Zhang Kui pledged his life and service to Li Xiao, offering to help him with errands and information within the Golden Sand Gang.
• Li Xiao acknowledged Zhang Kui's loyalty without formally accepting his oath, and Zhang Kui departed after promising not to disturb Li Xiao's family.
• Li Youde patted Li Xiao's shoulder, showing pride and comfort alongside complicated feelings.

After Li Xiao defeated the Wild Dog Gang’s four Second-Turn Martial Masters, his fame surged, frightening the Lin Family and drawing visitors and marriage proposals to his home. He protected his family from opportunists and returned to cultivation, determined to reach higher levels of the Martial Dao.

• News of Li Xiao’s victory spread through Willow City, and people began calling him the “Number One Below the Third Turn.”
• Third Master Lin received Zhu Wenhuan’s promise that the Zhu Family would protect the Lin Family, then ordered everyone to keep a low profile and avoid discussing the Li Family’s past.
• Li Xiao turned away most visitors and rejected all marriage proposals, while Li Youde fretted over his son’s refusal to marry.
• When people began targeting Li Yu to gain influence over Li Xiao, he warned them to leave his family alone and strengthened the courtyard’s defenses.
• The harassment stopped, and Li Xiao resumed cultivation while resolving that his family’s peace and Li Yu’s choice of marriage would remain their own.

Li Xiao’s Dragon-Snake Illusory Body reached Great Accomplishment, strengthening his body and clarifying his path toward the Fourth Turn. Meanwhile, Qian Li met the Yellow Robe Cult Leader to discuss Zhu He’s planned purge, but the Cult Leader had yet to promise direct support.

• Li Xiao trained Dragon-Snake Illusory Body until it broke through to Great Accomplishment, tempering his bones and improving his agility and power.
• Li Xiao’s Panel showed that Dragon-Snake Illusory Body’s Perfection realm corresponded to a Fourth Turn Great Martial Master, while his Divine Intent Diagram progress continued to rise.
• Li Xiao decided to visit the martial arts school, thinking Qian Li would value him more after his breakthrough.
• Qian Li met the Yellow Robe Cult Leader in Black Wind Stronghold’s Gathering Justice Hall and thanked him for warning of Zhu He’s plan to use bandit suppression for a purge.
• Qian Li pointed out that Zhu He had allied with Shi Gandang and asked whether the Yellow Robe Cult Leader would help counter their forces.

Qian Li pressed the Yellow Robe Cult Master for support against Zhu He's plot, and agreed to pledge Black Wind Stronghold in exchange for help and aid in destroying the Feng Family. The cult agreed to assist, and Qian Li revealed his plan to enter Willow City while Zhu He led his forces away.

• Qian Li demanded that the Yellow Robe Cult promise to help Black Wind Stronghold resist Zhu He, but the Yellow Robe Cult Master initially refused to commit without Qian Li's complete allegiance.
• Qian Li agreed to pledge Black Wind Stronghold, on the condition that the cult help repel the attackers and later aid him in wiping out the Feng Family.
• A burly Yellow Robe Cult higher-up reacted to Qian Li's mention of the Feng Family, but another higher-up struck him down before he could finish speaking.
• The Yellow Robe Cult Master promised to help Qian Li destroy the Feng Family after Zhu He's plot was repelled.
• Qian Li proposed leading Black Wind Stronghold into Willow City while Zhu He was away, cutting off his retreat and attacking the Feng Family with the cult's help.

Qian Li secured the Yellow Robe Cult Master's promise to help destroy the Feng Family, while Zhu Wenhuan warned Li Xiao about a planned campaign against Black Wind Stronghold and urged him to stay out of it. Li Xiao returned home to find Li Youde waiting with an order to meet someone the next afternoon.

• Qian Li agreed to join the Yellow Robe Cult in attacking the Feng Family and swore that Black Wind Stronghold would submit to the power behind the cult afterward.
• After the Yellow Robe Cult Master's party left, Qian Li dismissed Wu Tieshan's concerns and said he would decide what came next after destroying the Feng Family.
• Zhu Wenhuan told Li Xiao that Zhu He planned to lead a force against Black Wind Stronghold and advised him to avoid the campaign and focus on cultivation.
• Li Xiao suspected the bandit suppression was part of a larger scheme and pretended to accept Zhu Wenhuan's advice.
• Li Xiao returned home, where Li Youde told him to meet someone the following afternoon.

Li Youde insisted that Li Xiao attend a marriage meeting with the Liu Family’s second young lady, and Li Xiao reluctantly agreed. At dinner, Li Xiao redirected his father’s matchmaking efforts toward Li Yu, leaving the family laughing as she fled to her room in embarrassment.

• Li Youde told Li Xiao that Wang Hai had arranged a meeting with the Liu Family’s second young lady and insisted that Li Xiao attend the next afternoon at Drunken Immortal Restaurant.
• Li Xiao agreed to meet her once, provided his father would not force him into anything afterward.
• At dinner, Li Xiao suggested that the family should also find a match for Li Yu, prompting Li Youde to agree and begin urging her to consider marriage.
• Li Yu pinched Li Xiao’s ear for teasing her, then ran to her room when Li Youde said he would ask around for a suitable match.
• Li Xiao and Li Youde laughed together, while Li Xiao quietly hoped Li Yu would find someone who treated her sincerely.

Li Xiao met Liu Qingyue on a family-arranged blind date and discovered that she was a martial-minded woman disguised as a man. After they agreed that neither wanted marriage, Liu Qingyue asked why he had accepted the meeting.

• Li Xiao dressed in a new brocade robe and went to the restaurant reserved by the Liu Family.
• Liu Qingyue disguised as a young man attacked Li Xiao, but he caught her punch and pushed her into a chair.
• Li Xiao recognized Liu Qingyue as a woman, avoided her second attack, and teased her until she sat down.
• Li Xiao offered to tell their families that Liu Qingyue had rejected him, but she explained that she had wanted to come and cared only about pursuing martial arts.
• Li Xiao said he also had no interest in marriage, and Liu Qingyue asked why he had agreed to meet her.

Li Xiao met Liu Qingyue, who revealed that her family planned to marry her into the Feng Family despite the suspicious disappearances of women with martial talent who had married into it. She asked Li Xiao to help her delay the marriage and buy time to escape her fate.

• Li Xiao questioned Liu Qingyue about why the Liu Family had arranged their meeting, and she admitted that her family needed outside support.
• Li Xiao and Liu Qingyue agreed to tell their families that they were incompatible, and he urged her to rely on her own strength.
• Liu Qingyue explained that her family had repeatedly used her elder sisters as marriage bargaining chips, and that becoming a First-Turn Martial Master had only raised her value as a bride.
• Liu Qingyue told Li Xiao that women with martial talent who married into the Feng Family often became recluses, died of illness, or disappeared, and she feared being next.
• Liu Qingyue revealed that she had arranged the meeting through Wang Hai and asked Li Xiao to appear interested in her so her family would delay sending her to the Feng Family.

Liu Qingyue asked Li Xiao to help her escape a forced marriage alliance with the Feng Family, offering a mysterious family Token said to be connected to Qi Cultivators in return. Li Xiao agreed to investigate and help, while Liu Qingyue prepared to retrieve the Token from the Liu Family Secret Vault.

• Liu Qingyue pleaded with Li Xiao to help her avoid marrying into the Feng Family and promised to repay him.
• Li Xiao warned that helping her could make the powerful Feng Family resent him, so Liu Qingyue offered her family's mysterious Token as compensation.
• Liu Qingyue described the Token's strange material, markings, mountain-cave origins, and effects on people who kept it nearby, and Li Xiao became eager to inspect it.
• Li Xiao agreed to mediate once he confirmed the Token's authenticity and value, and Liu Qingyue offered to find a way to remove it from the guarded Secret Vault.
• Li Xiao proposed that Junior Brother Wang spread word of his interest in Liu Qingyue to stabilize the situation, then asked her to explain everything about the Feng Family and her family's troubles.

After meeting Liu Qingyue, Li Xiao let his family believe their introductions might lead to marriage, while privately becoming fixated on the possibility of Qi Cultivators and immortality. At the martial arts school the next morning, he learned the Master of the Hall might enter seclusion and that the bandit-suppression campaign was likely imminent.

• Li Xiao returned from his meal with Liu Qingyue and told Li Youde and Li Yu that she was decent and that they would continue getting to know each other.
• Li Xiao used the Jade Pillow to study the intent diagrams, then lay awake imagining whether Qi Cultivators and immortal cultivation could exist in the world.
• Li Xiao went to the martial arts school the next morning, where Wang Hai said Liu Qingyue had praised him and offered to handle the Liu Family's affairs.
• Wang Hai told Li Xiao that the Master of the Hall might enter seclusion and that the bandit-suppression campaign would probably begin within days.

Wang Hai celebrated his breakthrough to Second-Turn Martial Master, while Zhu He gathered Willow City’s martial arts leaders and family heads to propose a joint expedition against Black Wind Stronghold. Qian Li and Shi Gandang pledged their schools’ support, as Zhu He’s effort to unite the city’s forces moved forward.

• Wang Hai broke through to Second-Turn Martial Master, but Qian Li did not accept him as a True Disciple.
• Wang Hai hosted a banquet for the Martial Arts Hall disciples to celebrate his breakthrough.
• Zhu He summoned Willow City’s martial arts leaders and family heads to organize an attack on Black Wind Stronghold.
• Zhu He offered the assembled factions a share of the spoils and access to the stronghold’s lands in return for contributing forces.
• Qian Li agreed to support the expedition, and Shi Gandang pledged the Qingshi Martial Arts School’s strength as well.

Zhu He secured the support of Willow City's martial arts schools and major families for a campaign against Black Wind Stronghold. After the coalition dispersed, he met secretly with Shi Gandang and Zhang Fuhai and revealed plans to use Prince of Nanyang and the Yellow Robe Cult while also subduing Willow City's other forces.

• The masters of Mad Demon Cudgel, Flying Swallow Martial Arts School, and Subduing Demon Leg Martial Arts School hesitated but felt unable to oppose Zhu He's call for a bandit campaign.
• Feng Yuxiang declared the Feng Family's support, prompting the other Inner City families to pledge men and resources as well.
• Zhu He established a coalition to suppress Black Wind Stronghold, and the gathered forces discussed their plans before dispersing.
• After the others left, Shi Gandang returned with Zhang Fuhai to meet Zhu He in private.
• Zhu He learned that Prince of Nanyang had agreed to support the campaign and instructed Zhang Fuhai to watch the Yellow Robe Cult while Shi Gandang probed Black Wind Stronghold.
• Zhu He planned to destroy Black Wind Stronghold and use the campaign to bring Willow City's troublesome forces under control, while keeping his dealings with Prince of Nanyang and Zhang Fuhai hidden from the Yellow Robe Cult.

Qian Li revealed his plan to use Zhu He's actions to leave Willow City vulnerable, then attack the Feng Family with the Yellow Robe Cult Master. He used his own blood and flesh to feed Exotic Insect: Zhi, preparing to harvest the loyalty it had cultivated in his disciples.

• Qian Li celebrated that Zhu He would take troublesome people out of Willow City, leaving him free to pursue revenge against Feng Yuxiang and the Feng Family.
• Qian Li revealed that he had stolen Exotic Insect: Zhi from his former Sect and used its flesh and blood to influence disciples toward loyalty and devotion.
• Qian Li admitted that his Fourth Turn cultivation limited his ability to feed Zhi and strengthen its effects.
• Qian Li cut a large piece of flesh from his thigh and placed it in Zhi's dark red liquid, watching the insect absorb it.

Qian Li prepared enhanced flesh and blood for an upcoming operation by sacrificing pieces of his own body to Zhi. The next day, he announced that Willow City’s powers would form a joint army to attack Black Wind Stronghold, and the Iron Wire Fist Martial Arts School would participate.

• Qian Li cut five pieces of flesh from himself and fed them to Zhi, producing potent Qi and Blood material in the Stone Vat.
• Qian Li sealed the vat, treated his wound, and returned from the basement to his study as dawn broke.
• Li Xiao arrived at a crowded martial arts school training ground, where Wang Hai told him that Qian Li had summoned everyone to discuss an important matter.
• Qian Li announced that Willow City would organize a joint army under County Lieutenant Zhu He to destroy Black Wind Stronghold.
• Qian Li told the disciples that the Iron Wire Fist Martial Arts School had already agreed to join the campaign.

Qian Li announced the Iron Wire Fist Martial Arts School’s participation in the campaign against Black Wind Stronghold and treated the disciples to Exotic Beast Meat. Li Xiao sensed that the meat carried a strange, guiding influence and grew wary of Qian Li’s connection to the stronghold.

• Qian Li warned that the campaign would be dangerous, selected disciples to join it, and ordered them to prepare and obey orders.
• Qian Li announced that all disciples could eat their fill of Exotic Beast Meat, prompting cheers across the training ground.
• Wang Hai complained to Li Xiao that the school’s meat tasted worse than the food his family provided, and Li Xiao warned him to eat less if he could not stomach it.
• Li Xiao tasted the meat and sensed an abnormal influence beneath its Qi and Blood energy, though he determined it was not poisonous.
• As the disciples eagerly ate, Li Xiao questioned whether Zhu He knew that Qian Li secretly controlled Black Wind Stronghold.

Li Xiao discovered that Qian Li had fed the disciples Exotic Beast Meat as a means of influencing them, then secretly vomited up his portion to remove its effects. After returning home, he received an invitation from the Liu Family to visit Liu Qingyue the next day.

• Qian Li sent elite Second-Turn Martial Masters and selected disciples to the bandit-suppression expedition while planning to use the disciples as bait against Zhu He and Shi Gandang.
• The disciples ate the Exotic Beast Meat and practiced Iron Wire Fist, while Li Xiao realized its hidden mental influence was seeping into him.
• Li Xiao went to the latrine, forced himself to vomit up the meat, and confirmed that the strange mental fluctuation had left his body.
• Li Xiao considered taking advantage of Qian Li and Zhu He's conflict, then left the martial arts hall after cautioning himself about the affected disciples.
• Li Youde brought Li Xiao a Gold-Sprinkled Invitation from the Liu Family inviting him to visit Liu Qingyue the next day, and urged him to prepare gifts.

Li Xiao prepared for and made a formal visit to the Liu Family, carrying gifts chosen by his father, Li Youde. The Liu Family welcomed him with great respect, and the visit began with everyone gathered in the reception hall.

• Li Youde insisted that Li Xiao dress formally and helped him choose medicinal herbs, brocade, and pastries as gifts for the Liu Family.
• Li Youde lectured Li Xiao on visiting etiquette, while Li Xiao reflected on his father's hopes and wondered whether the visit would involve the Qi Cultivators and the Token.
• Li Xiao left for Liu Mansion the next morning with encouragement from Li Youde and Li Yu.
• Liu Chengye and several Liu Family elders and stewards greeted Li Xiao at the gate and welcomed him into the reception hall.
• Liu Chengye accepted Li Xiao's gifts and seated him in the honored guest's place as the Liu Family gathered around him.

Li Xiao visited the Liu Family, where Liu Chengye cleared the hall so he could speak privately with Liu Qingyue. Liu Qingyue arrived dressed formally and explained that she had invited him as a guest because the Token was guarded inside the family’s Secret Vault.

• Li Xiao noticed Liu Qingyue’s parents standing apart from the family gathering and inferred that they had little influence within the Liu Family.
• Liu Chengye told Li Xiao that Liu Qingyue was preparing food for him, then recognized his disinterest in the gathering and dismissed the elders, stewards, and Liu Qingyue’s parents.
• Maids brought food into the hall, and Liu Qingyue arrived wearing an elegant pale-yellow dress.
• Liu Qingyue sent the maids away and told Li Xiao she had invited him to the family home because the Token was secured in the Secret Vault and she could not remove it without raising suspicion.