Chapter Summaries

The palace-dressed woman saved Li Xiao and confirmed that the Black-Robed Man’s possessions belonged to him. Li Xiao found a booklet describing the cruel creation of spirit ghosts, then kept it without deciding to practice its methods.

• The Daoist Boy crushed an Escape Talisman and vanished, while the palace-dressed woman struck the Black-Robed Man down and gave Li Xiao a recovery pill.
• The palace-dressed woman thanked Li Xiao for protecting Wu Lingshuang, and Wu Lingshuang confirmed that he was entitled to the Black-Robed Man’s possessions.
• The Black-Robed Man described his gamble on the Fengyang Military Governor before dying from his injuries.
• Li Xiao searched the corpse and found The Great Method of Spirit Ghost Breeding, whose instructions horrified Daoist Yang.
• Li Xiao put the booklet away, deciding not to practice its methods for now, as people cleaned the courtyard.

Li Xiao received a Magic Artifact from Wu Lingshuang’s aunt, who erased its former master’s mark and reshaped it into a great saber suited to his Blade Technique. As Wu Lingshuang recovered, her aunt explained that a sudden feeling of unease had brought her out of seclusion, and Li Xiao connected her arrival to the signs of fortune and destiny he had observed.

• Li Xiao asked Wu Lingshuang’s aunt to reshape the Magic Artifact into a great saber, and she warned that altering it could diminish its power.
• Wu Lingshuang’s aunt used eerie blue flames to erase the artifact’s former master’s mark and forge it into a black long saber for Li Xiao.
• Li Xiao accepted the saber and learned that nourishing it with his Qi and Blood would help him bond with it.
• Wu Lingshuang recovered after taking Pills, and her aunt explained that she had come after sensing something was wrong and learning where Wu Lingshuang was.
• Li Xiao concluded that the connection between Wu Lingshuang’s fortune and her aunt’s unease had led her to arrive in time.

Wu Lingshuang’s aunt explained how heavenly-dao suppression and the struggle for fortune and destiny could draw powerful Qi Cultivators into the World’s growing chaos. After leaving, Li Xiao decided to raid the black-robed Qi Cultivator’s residence in Yong'an Prefecture and found a room that drew his attention.

• Wu Lingshuang’s aunt said the Zhou Dynasty’s decline was only the prelude to greater chaos and explained that Qi Cultivators above the Three Flowers level usually avoided mortal conflicts because of heavenly-dao suppression.
• Wu Lingshuang’s aunt said high-level Qi Cultivators would emerge as turmoil weakened that suppression, and confirmed that the Fengyang and Weiyuan Military Governors had Qi Cultivator connections.
• Wu Lingshuang’s aunt warned that Three Flowers- and Five Qi-level Qi Cultivators would intervene, then urged Wu Lingshuang to recover and stay alive.
• Li Xiao concluded that the black-robed Qi Cultivator’s remaining possessions were likely in his lair in Yong'an Prefecture and set out that night without waking Daoist Yang.
• Li Xiao entered Yong'an Prefecture, questioned a soldier about the residence and its guards, then slipped over the wall and sensed the rooms until he focused on a closed door behind the main hall.

Li Xiao searched the Black-Robed Man’s room and found Spirit Stones, True Explanation of Curse Arts, and a complete Basic Qi Guiding Art. After learning that only people with spiritual roots could cultivate, he tried the method and sensed a faint current of qi, which he began guiding toward his dantian.

• Li Xiao found a hidden chest beneath the bed containing several Spirit Stones and an ancient book titled Nail Soul and Shake Bell Incantation.
• Li Xiao read True Explanation of Curse Arts and realized the Black-Robed Man had suffered backlash because his Fortune and Destiny were insufficient.
• Li Xiao discovered a hidden compartment containing Basic Qi Guiding Art and recorded the cultivation method with his panel.
• Li Xiao learned that only people with spiritual roots could sense and draw spiritual qi into the body.
• Li Xiao returned to his room, meditated, sensed a faint current of qi, and tried to guide it into his dantian.

Li Xiao discovered that he had no Spiritual Root and could not retain Spiritual Qi, but learned that a powerful Qi Cultivator could transplant one. He left with hope focused on Daoist Nun Jingyun and the possibility that the palace-dressed woman might someday reach the required realm.

• Li Xiao repeatedly tried to gather Spiritual Qi but watched it disperse, realizing he could not retain it.
• Li Xiao asked the palace-dressed woman to test him, and her Spirit Testing Jade confirmed that he had no Spiritual Root.
• The palace-dressed woman told Li Xiao that Spiritual Roots could be transplanted by a Qi Cultivator at the Three Flowers level, equivalent to the Martial Dao's Sixth Turn.
• Li Xiao recalled Daoist Nun Jingyun's extraordinary abilities and wondered whether she had reached Three Flowers or beyond.
• Li Xiao considered asking the palace-dressed woman for help if she reached Three Flowers, and she recognized his intention.

Wu Yao explained to Li Xiao how dragon qi and worldly fortune helped qi cultivators overcome bottlenecks, while Li Xiao accepted that he lacked a spiritual root and resolved to advance through the martial dao. Over the next few days, Wu Yao taught him about qi cultivators, and her next revelation began to overturn his understanding of the world.

• Wu Yao told Li Xiao that powerful qi cultivators backed proxies to compete for dragon qi, and encouraged him to pursue the martial dao despite lacking a spiritual root.
• Wu Lingshuang asked Wu Yao about Li Xiao’s prospects, and Wu Yao said he could reach the sixth turn if he survived.
• Li Xiao gave Daoist Yang the complete Basic Qi Guiding Art, and Daoist Yang realized Li Xiao had no spiritual root but praised his martial talent and resolve.
• Li Xiao said he would seek a way to transplant a spiritual root after reaching the fifth or sixth turn of the martial dao, then went to train.
• Wu Yao stayed with Wu Lingshuang and taught Li Xiao about qi cultivation, sects, and blessed lands over the following days.
• On the afternoon of the third day, Wu Yao said something that overturned Li Xiao’s understanding of the world.

Wu Yao explained the Zhou royal house’s hidden strength and why it was waiting for an opportunity amid the chaos. After Wu Lingshuang’s army retook Yong'an Prefecture, Li Xiao asked Wu Yao about Chiyuan Province and learned its connection to the ruined Ten Thousand Souls Sect.

• Wu Yao told Li Xiao and Wu Lingshuang that the Zhou royal house secretly retained powerful martial masters and Qi Cultivator allies while waiting for a chance to pacify the realm.
• Wu Lingshuang led the Weiyuan Army in a counterattack, and after three days of fighting, her forces captured Yong'an Prefecture and executed its Fengyang-appointed commandery governor.
• Li Xiao asked Wu Yao about Chiyuan Province, and she identified it as the former name of present-day Mu Province.
• Wu Yao revealed that the Ten Thousand Souls Sect had controlled Chiyuan Province and created a zombie comparable to a seventh-turn Martial Dao practitioner.
• Wu Yao recounted how the Zhou Royal Offering Hall and its allies destroyed the sect and its zombie, then warned Li Xiao that escaped disciples and ghosts might remain there.

Li Xiao left Wu Lingshuang and Daoist Yang, then traveled for a month and reached Yunzhou on his way to find the Zhao Family and obtain a Three Origins Token. In a restaurant, he heard martial masters discussing a Three Origins Envoy and the sect’s history.

• Wu Lingshuang gave Li Xiao a bottle of Viscera Refining Pills before he departed, and Daoist Yang said he expected Li Xiao to return.
• Li Xiao traveled for a month, entered Yunzhou, and decided to seek the Zhao Family in neighboring Yan Prefecture for a Three Origins Token.
• Li Xiao arrived in a city and went to Drunken Cloud Pavilion to ask around for information.
• Li Xiao overheard martial masters discussing a Three Origins Envoy from Iron Wire Peak and how the Three Origins Sect had gained control of the Three Prefectures.

Li Xiao learned about the Three Origins Sect and the deadly competition to obtain a Three Origins Token while drinking with Instructor Zhou in Yunzhou. He left worried that the Zhao Family’s token might already have been taken.

• Li Xiao overheard that the Three Origins Sect ruled the Martial Dao in the Three Prefectures through envoys who were at least Fourth Turn.
• Li Xiao paid for Instructor Zhou and his apprentices’ meal, then posed as a traveling merchant from the north.
• Li Xiao asked Instructor Zhou about the Three Origins Token and learned that powerful families were desperate to obtain one for their descendants.
• Instructor Zhou said a family in Yan Prefecture had been slaughtered after word spread that it possessed a Three Origins Token.
• Li Xiao wondered whether the Zhao Family had been targeted, then left the restaurant and rode into the night with Frost Shadow.

Li Xiao learned more about the Three Origins Sect before traveling to Huainan Commandery to seek the Zhao Family, a once-prosperous mining household now weakened by the Prefecture Governor’s suppression. He heard that the Zhao Family had lost most of its mines but remained respected by the local miners.

• Li Xiao spent several days in Yunzhong Commandery gathering information about the Three Origins Sect and decided to focus on obtaining a Three Origins Token.
• Li Xiao left Yunzhong Commandery on Frost Shadow and headed toward southern Yan Prefecture to find the Zhao Family.
• At a roadside tea shed, an old man told Li Xiao that the Prefecture Governor had seized most of the Zhao Family’s mines, leaving them with only a few poor veins in Huainan Commandery.
• After arriving in Huainan Commandery, Li Xiao saw miners working throughout the region and stopped at a noodle stall to ask about the Zhao Family.
• The stall owner and miners praised the Zhao Family for treating workers fairly, though they said its remaining mines had been repeatedly reduced.

Li Xiao visited the declining Zhao Family in Huainan Commandery to seek the Three Origins Token, but Zhao Yuanqing questioned how he learned of it. The chapter ended as Zhao Yuanqing suddenly struck Li Xiao with a probing palm.

• Li Xiao reviewed the Zhao Family’s decline after its Fifth Turn patriarch died and decided to seek its Three Origins Token.
• Li Xiao went to the Zhao residence and told Zhao Fu he had come for the Three Origins Token.
• Zhao Fu denied that the Zhao Family possessed the Token, then hurried away to report Li Xiao’s visit.
• Zhao Yuanqing arrived with Zhao Fu and two other Third Turn Peak elders, and asked Li Xiao where he had learned about the Token.
• When Li Xiao said he had learned of it by chance, Zhao Yuanqing demanded to know who he was and struck toward his chest.

Li Xiao confronted Zhao Yuanqing and demanded the Zhao Family’s Three Origins Token, but Zhao Yuanqing refused. As Li Xiao waited to see how the city’s growing influx of martial masters would affect matters, two Fifth Turn Martial Masters began fighting in the street.

• Li Xiao dodged Zhao Yuanqing’s attack and denied being sent by Ma Qian.
• Zhao Yuanqing admitted that the Zhao Family possessed a Three Origins Token but refused to give it to Li Xiao.
• Li Xiao warned Zhao Yuanqing that the token was a calamity and claimed he could protect the Zhao Family, then left and promised to return.
• Zhao Yuanqing ordered Elder Zhao Fu and the others to investigate Li Feiyu’s origins.
• Li Xiao noticed increasing numbers of visiting martial masters gathering in the city and wondered whether news of the token had spread.
• Two Fifth Turn Martial Masters began fighting in the street below Li Xiao’s restaurant.

Li Xiao witnessed several Fifth Turn Experts converge in a border town over an inheritance from the Sword Sect. The Six Doors Chief Constable claimed the inheritance for the Imperial Court, but the other factions mocked his authority as the confrontation remained unresolved.

• A Three Origins Sect expert used the Flying Cloud Leg to overwhelm a man wielding the Vacuum Great Handprint and revealed that his sect had learned about an inheritance.
• Li Xiao recognized the Three Origins Sect fighter’s technique as the three supreme arts of his sect.
• Three more Fifth Turn Experts arrived: a withered old man, a burly man representing Northern Plains, and a Six Doors Chief Constable.
• The newcomers revealed that the inheritance lay in a mine north of the city and that it belonged to a hall of the Sword Sect.
• The Three Origins Sect expert and the other factions agreed to compete for the inheritance, while the Chief Constable claimed it for the Imperial Court.
• The withered old man and the burly man mocked the Chief Constable, accusing Six Doors of coveting the inheritance while failing to restore order across the realm.

Feng Tianning returned to the ruined Feng Mansion and learned that his elder brother had been murdered and the Feng Family in Willow City had been wiped out. After hearing Li Xiao’s name and suspecting the Prefecture Governor knew more than he admitted, Feng Tianning went to confront the Prefecture Governor.

• The Chief Constable struck the withered old man with his saber, sending him flying back as Li Xiao watched from an inn window.
• Feng Tianning returned to Feng Mansion and found the residence deserted and in disrepair.
• Feng Fu told Feng Tianning that his elder brother had been assassinated and the Feng Family in Willow City had been wiped out.
• Feng Fu named Li Xiao as the suspected killer, and Feng Tianning vowed to remember the name.
• Feng Tianning left for the Prefecture Governor's residence, brushing aside Feng Fu's attempt to stop him.

Feng Tianning confronted Governor Zhao over the deaths of his eldest brother and the Feng Family, but Zhao refused to help and easily defeated him when he attacked. Feng Tianning then arrived at the Li Mansion, where Wang Hai and the others were celebrating, and demanded to know where Li Xiao was.

• Feng Tianning accused Governor Zhao of neglecting the Feng Family's destruction and his eldest brother's death, but Zhao dismissed his claims and refused to name the killer.
• Zhao revealed that the killer was a Fourth Turn Great Martial Master with Dual True Intent and said he would not risk offending him for the sake of the dead.
• Feng Tianning attacked Zhao with his sword, but Zhao repelled him, held him by the throat, and spared him because of Feng Tianning's Master.
• Li Xiao watched two Fifth Turn figures fighting in the distance while Wang Hai and the others celebrated Wang Hai's breakthrough at the Li Mansion.
• Feng Tianning entered the Li Mansion with a bloodied sword and asked where Li Xiao was.

Feng Tianning attacked the Li Mansion and badly wounded Wang Jinshan, Hu Feng, and Wang Hai while demanding Li Xiao. Liu Qingyue’s talisman shielded her, Li Yu, and Li Youde from his sword, and Daoist Nun Jingyun appeared just as Feng Tianning was about to kill Wang Jinshan.

• Feng Tianning identified himself as Feng Yuxiang’s second son and wounded Wang Jinshan with a single sword sweep.
• Feng Tianning demanded that Li Xiao come out and threatened to kill the people he cared about for revenge.
• Liu Qingyue secretly activated Daoist Nun Jingyun’s Spirit-Guiding Talisman as Wang Hai and Hu Feng charged Feng Tianning.
• Feng Tianning defeated Hu Feng and Wang Hai, then struck at Li Yu, Liu Qingyue, and Li Youde, but the talisman formed a barrier that repelled his sword.
• Feng Tianning turned to kill the wounded Wang Jinshan, but an unseen force froze him before his sword could land.
• Daoist Nun Jingyun appeared in the doorway and held Feng Tianning under a terrifying pressure.

Daoist Nun Jingyun rescued Liu Qingyue and the wounded, and Liu Qingyue accepted her as a master before killing Feng Tianning. The next morning, Liu Qingyue left with Jingyun to cultivate, promising Li Yu and Li Youde she would return and help Li Xiao.

• Daoist Nun Jingyun defeated Feng Tianning, freed Liu Qingyue from the talisman barrier, and invited her to become a disciple.
• Liu Qingyue accepted Jingyun as her master and pleaded for help; Jingyun gave Wang Jinshan and Hu Feng Life-Extending Pills and restored Wang Hai's severed arms.
• Liu Qingyue killed Feng Tianning with Wang Hai's broken saber after he threatened that his master would avenge him.
• Liu Qingyue said farewell to Li Yu and Li Youde and left the Li Mansion with Daoist Nun Jingyun to cultivate.
• Feng Tianning's headless corpse was left at the Mass Grave, while his bloodstained longsword was taken away.

Xuanzhenzi revived himself in Feng Tianning’s body by replacing its heart and using the Exotic Insect, then destroyed the cave and vowed to avenge his disciple. Meanwhile, Li Xiao left the city and began refining his organs with a Viscera Refining Pill.

• Xuanzhenzi found Feng Tianning’s headless corpse at Mass Grave and carried it to a hidden mountain cave.
• Xuanzhenzi stitched Feng Tianning’s head back on, removed his own beating heart, and placed it in Feng Tianning’s chest beside a white Exotic Insect.
• Xuanzhenzi collapsed as Feng Tianning’s body began to breathe, and he declared that he had completed the ritual and gained a new body.
• Xuanzhenzi emerged in Feng Tianning’s body, burned and buried the cave, revealed that his new body could grow four arms, and vowed to avenge Feng Tianning.
• Li Xiao left the city after witnessing two Fifth Turn Martial Masters fight and began cultivating in a hidden valley outside Huainan Commandery.
• Li Xiao swallowed one of Wu Lingshuang’s Viscera Refining Pills, which released a gentle warmth through his body.

After improving his Swift Wind Thunderclap Arrow and reflecting on the limits of his martial skills, Li Xiao arrived in Huainan Commandery and learned that rumors of the Sword Sect’s inheritance had drawn martial artists to the city. He left the Long Blade Sect disciple alive for the moment, having just heard that the rumored inheritance was in a mine north of the city.

• Li Xiao used a Viscera Refining Pill and practiced Swift Wind Thunderclap Arrow, raising its experience by sixty points.
• Li Xiao reviewed his Panel and considered how his perfected martial skills might fall behind once opponents used true qi.
• Li Xiao reached Huainan Commandery and noticed the streets were crowded with martial artists and a disciplined group from the Long Blade Sect.
• Li Xiao followed a Long Blade Sect disciple into an alley and threatened him with a saber until he answered questions.
• The disciple told Li Xiao that a rumor of the Sword Sect’s inheritance in a mine north of the city had attracted the crowds, and described the Sword Sect as an ancient power whose Sect Master had reached the Ninth Turn.

Li Xiao learned that rumors of the Sword Sect’s inheritance had drawn powerful martial artists to Huainan Commandery, then broke into the Zhao Mansion to demand the Three Origins Token. After clashing with the Zhao family’s Second Zhao Brother, he warned the family they could not protect the token and pressed them to hand it over.

• Li Xiao heard that rumors of the Sword Sect’s inheritance had drawn martial artists from across the region to Huainan Commandery and decided to avoid the dangerous competition.
• Li Xiao entered the Zhao Mansion at night and overheard Zhao Yuanqing and his two younger cousins decide not to get involved in the North City mine.
• Li Xiao revealed himself to the three Zhao family members and asked Zhao Yuanqing to make an exception and give him the Three Origins Token.
• Second Zhao Brother attacked Li Xiao with Eagle Claw Skill, but Li Xiao repelled him with a palm strike and did not pursue.
• Li Xiao drew his Black Long Saber and warned Zhao Yuanqing that the Zhao family could not protect the Three Origins Token, demanding that they hand it over.