Chapter Summaries

After transmigrating into the captured escort master Xu Bai, Xu Bai discovered a system that granted him the Bone Severing Blade Technique and Bone Severing Heart Sutra at maximum level, making him a Ninth Rank Martial Artist. He began considering how to escape Fierce Tiger Stronghold as two bandits arrived to make the prisoners write down their circumstances for ransom.

• Xu Bai woke in Fierce Tiger Stronghold's prison and recalled that bandits had ambushed and captured his escort group.
• Xu Bai noticed scratches on the wall and discovered that staring at them filled a progress bar, granting him the Bone Severing Blade Technique and Bone Severing Heart Sutra at maximum level.
• Xu Bai learned that he had become a Ninth Rank Martial Artist and considered using his new strength to escape.
• Xu Bai called for the guards, and two bandits arrived with paper and a brush, ordering the prisoners to write down their circumstances for ransom.

Xu Bai used the bandits’ demand for ransom letters to get free and kill two captors, then freed the escorts and began using a disguise and a trap to take control of the stronghold. He left a third bandit cornered in the cell while the escorts prepared to help.

• Xu Bai convinced a bandit to unlock his chains so he could write a ransom letter, then drew the bandit’s blade and killed him and another attacker with the Bone Severing Blade Technique.
• Xu Bai warned the escorts to stay quiet, took the keys, changed into a bandit’s clothes, and freed them.
• Xu Bai noticed the stolen carriage and its cargo remained in the stronghold’s open area, then lured a nearby bandit into the cell by claiming there was a big fish.
• An escort held a blade to the newly arrived bandit’s neck while Xu Bai demanded that he take off his clothes.

Xu Bai and the escort guards disguised themselves as bandits to infiltrate the stronghold, where Xu Bai confronted the Great Stronghold Master. Xu Bai killed him after overcoming his golden armor and dodging a hidden Sleeve Arrow.

• Xu Bai forced a bandit to change clothes, learned the Great Stronghold Master had ordered the robbery, and killed him when he could provide no further answers.
• Xu Bai and the escort guards lured bandits into the cell, changed into their clothes, and killed them until they could move through the stronghold disguised.
• Xu Bai entered the Great Stronghold Master's house and attacked him with the Bone Severing Blade Technique, but his first strike bounced off golden inner armor.
• The Great Stronghold Master counterattacked with the Ghost-Head Saber and fired a Sleeve Arrow, which Xu Bai dodged.
• Xu Bai sent the Ghost-Head Saber flying with one strike, then slashed the Great Stronghold Master's neck.

Xu Bai discovered that the Fierce Tiger Stronghold’s robbery was part of a scheme by the Extreme Life Sect to create True Qi through a woman’s resentment and silver. As the corpse in the opened Wooden Box began to move, Xu Bai drew his saber and faced the emerging hand.

• Xu Bai killed the Great Stronghold Master, took his Golden Silk Soft Armor and weapons, and searched his room.
• Xu Bai found a Wooden Box containing a bound, wounded Red-Clothed Corpse covered in translucent grease.
• Xu Bai opened the Wooden Box from the carriage and found it filled with silver and a letter from the Extreme Life Sect.
• Xu Bai read that the Great Stronghold Master had been instructed to torment and kill a woman, seal her in a box with Corpse Oil, and surround her with silver to cultivate True Qi.
• Xu Bai realized the Fulong Escort Agency had unknowingly become a pawn in the scheme and turned toward the corpse’s box.
• The Wooden Box trembled and opened, and a grease-covered, deathly pale hand reached through the crack as Xu Bai drew his saber.

Xu Bai killed a Red-Clothed Corpse that attacked him at Fierce Tiger Stronghold, then persuaded the surviving guards to divide the silver and agree on a cover story. After finding nothing else, they burned the stronghold and set out for Sheng County.

• Xu Bai severed the Red-Clothed Corpse's hands and legs before beheading her, ending her attack.
• The guards admitted they knew nothing about the Red-Clothed Corpse, and Xu Bai told them to divide the silver in the Wooden Box.
• Xu Bai explained that they would claim Fierce Tiger Stronghold had seized all the money and that they had escaped after risking their lives.
• Xu Bai and the guards searched the other houses, found nothing, burned Fierce Tiger Stronghold, changed into escort agency clothes, and left for Sheng County.

After leaving Sheng County’s County Office, Xu Bai abandoned escort work and searched the town for a way to trigger his golden finger. He found a pale golden progress bar on a book and brought it to the bookstore counter, where the owner questioned whether he really wanted it.

• Xu Bai left the County Office with the guards after the magistrate quickly concluded his questioning about Fierce Tiger Stronghold.
• Xu Bai told the guards he was quitting escort work and warned them to keep quiet about the silver they had taken.
• Xu Bai exchanged a silver ingot for smaller money at the Money House and paid the proprietor for directions to a bookstore.
• Xu Bai searched the bookstore’s shelves for a progress bar and found one on the final book he checked.
• Xu Bai brought the book to the counter, and the bookstore owner asked whether he was certain he wanted it.

Xu Bai bought Kidney Strengthening Essentials from a bookstore and comprehended the Kidney Hammering Technique at home. He discovered that it could temporarily boost his True Qi but left him weak, so he decided not to use it lightly.

• Xu Bai bought Kidney Strengthening Essentials and paid the bookstore owner to replace the shop’s books with new ones next month.
• Xu Bai returned to his house west of the city and read Kidney Strengthening Essentials while its comprehension progress bar filled.
• Xu Bai comprehended the Kidney Hammering Technique, and his status panel recorded it as a max-level Tier 1 skill.
• Xu Bai tested the technique and found that striking his kidney with True Qi temporarily increased his power.
• Xu Bai became pale and unsteady from the technique’s side effect and resolved not to use it casually.

Xu Bai recovered from the Kidney Hammering Technique and went to Welcoming Inn for a meal. There, he overheard jianghu wanderers discussing the death of Golden Saber Swordsman Zhao Chen and the Extreme Life Sect, then noticed something amusing about their food.

• Xu Bai recovered from the weakness caused by the Kidney Hammering Technique and considered using it on other people.
• Hungry, Xu Bai went to Welcoming Inn, ordered roast chicken, braised beef, and yellow wine, and surveyed the inn for anything that might trigger his golden finger.
• Several armed jianghu wanderers sat beside Xu Bai and ordered every signature dish.
• Xu Bai overheard them say that Golden Saber Swordsman Zhao Chen, an Eighth Rank Martial Artist, had died at Blind Mountain and turned into something strange, possibly because of the Extreme Life Sect.
• The waiter brought the wanderers' food, and Xu Bai nearly laughed when he saw it.

Xu Bai paid for a group of martial wanderers and questioned their middle-aged leader about the Extreme Life Sect and the world’s cultivation systems. As he prepared to leave at dusk, the innkeeper arrived to apologize, drawing Xu Bai’s attention with her striking charm.

• Xu Bai paid the middle-aged man’s group’s bill to keep the authorities from being called, then asked about the Extreme Life Sect.
• The middle-aged man explained that the sect created uncontrolled aberrations, including the Corpse Fiend that Zhao Chen had become.
• Xu Bai learned that the world held many paths beyond martial arts, including cultivation based on Essence, Qi, and Spirit.
• Xu Bai prepared to leave the inn as night fell, while the middle-aged man repeatedly watched the money pouch at his waist.
• The innkeeper approached Xu Bai and apologized for the earlier trouble, and Xu Bai found her alluring.

Xu Bai left the inn after noticing a golden progress bar on Yun Xiang’s Maple Leaf Tattoo, then turned on the men who followed him to rob his money. He killed the middle-aged man and his accomplices in a dark alley.

• Yun Xiang returned Xu Bai’s silver and told him not to flaunt his wealth, while he repeatedly glanced at the progress bar on her tattoo.
• Xu Bai noticed the middle-aged man and his companions following him, so he entered a dark alley and prepared an ambush.
• Xu Bai killed three of the men with a Sleeve Arrow and bricks before confronting the middle-aged Ninth Rank Martial Artist.
• Xu Bai fought the middle-aged man with his Ghost-Head Saber and feigned an attack with an empty Sleeve Arrow to create an opening.
• Xu Bai cut the middle-aged man’s throat, then showed him that the Sleeve Arrow mechanism on his arm was empty.

Xu Bai killed the jianghu men who attacked him, then studied the nameless book he found among their belongings through the night. At dawn, he comprehended the Heart Slaughtering Technique, but the message announcing it appeared to freeze before his eyes.

• Xu Bai killed the middle-aged man after distracting him with an empty Sleeve Arrow, then searched the bodies and found copper coins and a nameless book with a golden progress bar.
• Xu Bai erased his tracks, took the Sleeve Arrows, and returned to his room with the book.
• Xu Bai spent the night studying the book, eventually finding a sheet of incomplete annotations that described a low-grade cultivation method.
• Xu Bai continued observing the book until dawn, when he comprehended the Heart Slaughtering Technique.
• Xu Bai tried to interact with the frozen message, and the text began changing into a new line.

Xu Bai fused the Bone Severing Heart Sutra with the Heart Slaughtering Technique, gaining the Severing Slaughter Heart Sutra and learning more about how his golden finger worked. He went to the Welcoming Inn to eat and study the golden progress bar on Yun Xiang’s maple-leaf tattoo.

• Xu Bai fused the Bone Severing Heart Sutra and the Heart Slaughtering Technique into the Severing Slaughter Heart Sutra, increasing his True Qi and bringing the new technique to Rank 1.5.
• Xu Bai reasoned that techniques of the same type could fuse, but their ranks did not simply add together, and he considered testing whether combining many low-rank techniques could improve his strength.
• Xu Bai left to eat and look at the golden progress bar on Yun Xiang’s hand.
• Xu Bai learned that the County Office had buried the corpses without investigating further and considered how Great Chu kept Jianghu fighters in check.
• Xu Bai arrived at the Welcoming Inn, ordered his usual meal, and watched Yun Xiang work at the counter as a golden progress bar appeared over her maple-leaf tattoo.

Xu Bai spent the day eating at the Welcoming Inn and staring at Yun Xiang’s Maple Leaf Tattoo to build its progress, but she stayed upstairs or went out for most of the day. He learned she had been acting strangely since the inn opened, and when she finally returned at night, he caught the scent of blood on her.

• Xu Bai watched Yun Xiang’s Maple Leaf Tattoo while eating at the Welcoming Inn, and its progress bar slowly increased.
• Xu Bai returned to the inn at noon and again for dinner, but Yun Xiang never appeared at the counter.
• Xu Bai gave the waiter silver and learned that Yun Xiang had stayed upstairs since the inn opened three months earlier, though she sometimes went out and returned at night.
• Xu Bai left the inn after questioning the waiter, but stopped when Yun Xiang approached in the street.
• Yun Xiang greeted Xu Bai, and he noticed the scent of blood when she spoke.

Xu Bai noticed the suspicious smell of blood on Yun Xiang and returned to her inn the next morning to keep advancing the progress bar on her Maple Leaf Tattoo. There, he met Iron Calculation Immortal, whose strange reading warned of a bloody disaster that could neither be resolved nor ignored.

• Xu Bai left the inn after noticing the faint smell of blood on Yun Xiang, then decided to return daily until he filled the tattoo's progress bar.
• Xu Bai returned the next morning and watched the progress bar rise as Yun Xiang worked behind the counter.
• Iron Calculation Immortal entered the inn with a tattered banner and spoke quietly with Yun Xiang before approaching Xu Bai.
• Iron Calculation Immortal told Xu Bai that he faced a strange, flickering bloody disaster that seemed to lack an opportunity for resolution.
• Xu Bai asked what kind of man Yun Xiang liked, pretending to be her admirer, and Iron Calculation Immortal explained that he had only come to repay money he had borrowed from her.

Xu Bai kept watching Yun Xiang’s Maple Leaf Tattoo while building its progress bar, then encountered a Corpse Fiend outside his home at night. He killed it quickly and wondered whether it had been sent to test him.

• Iron Calculation Immortal warned Xu Bai to stop targeting the boss, then hurried away.
• Xu Bai watched Yun Xiang leave Welcoming Inn at noon and continued visiting the inn each day to fill the tattoo’s progress bar.
• After the progress bar reached ninety percent, Xu Bai returned home and noticed a shadow outside his window.
• Xu Bai struck the figure with his Ghost-Head Saber and recognized it as a Corpse Fiend.
• Xu Bai used the Bone Severing Blade Technique to cut off the Corpse Fiend’s head and wondered if the attack had been a probe.

Xu Bai suspected the Extreme Life Sect had sent a Corpse Fiend to test him, but after several quiet days he continued building progress by observing Yun Xiang’s Maple Leaf Tattoo. The progress bar filled, granting him the max-level hidden weapon technique Maple Leaves Like Rain, and he left the inn for an unknown shop.

• Xu Bai found seams on the Corpse Fiend, carried it and its head away, and spent the night waiting for another attack that never came.
• Diners at Welcoming Inn discussed a headless, repeatedly stitched corpse found by the yamen, leading Xu Bai to suspect the Extreme Life Sect was behind the Corpse Fiend.
• Xu Bai kept up his routine at Welcoming Inn for several days while no further aberrations appeared and his progress bar continued to rise.
• Xu Bai filled the progress bar by observing Yun Xiang’s Maple Leaf Tattoo and comprehended the max-level Tier 2 hidden weapon technique Maple Leaves Like Rain.
• Xu Bai paid his bill, left Welcoming Inn, and made his way through twisting roads to a shop.

Xu Bai commissioned ten thousand Iron Beads for his Maple Leaves Like Rain technique and openly followed Yun Xiang through Sheng County. The chapter ended as he entered a dead-end alley and someone reached for his shoulder.

• Xu Bai ordered ten thousand Iron Beads from the Blacksmith Shop and arranged to collect them the next morning.
• Xu Bai collected the Iron Beads, paid for them, and packed them into a pouch for protection.
• Xu Bai went to Welcoming Inn and waited until Yun Xiang left before following her through town.
• Yun Xiang noticed Xu Bai following her but said nothing as she wandered anxiously through the afternoon and into the night.
• Yun Xiang entered a dead-end alley, and a hand reached from the side to grab Xu Bai's shoulder.

Xu Bai forced Iron Calculation Immortal to reveal that he worked for the Bureau of Surveillance and used a compass to track Yun Xiang to a gathering of the Extreme Life Sect. After reaching the gathering, Xu Bai attacked Iron Calculation Immortal and exposed his disguise, leaving the real Iron Calculation Immortal's identity uncertain.

• Iron Calculation Immortal stopped Xu Bai from pursuing Yun Xiang and explained that he worked for the Bureau of Surveillance, which investigated demons and martial artists who had turned evil.
• Iron Calculation Immortal revealed that he had marked Yun Xiang and used a copper compass to track her, hoping to uncover the Extreme Life Sect's accomplices.
• Iron Calculation Immortal led Xu Bai to a remote Sheng County clearing, where Yun Xiang stood with more than a dozen black-robed figures and three mutilated beggars.
• Iron Calculation Immortal urged Xu Bai to wait in hiding, but Xu Bai swung his Ghost-Head Saber at him, and Iron Calculation Immortal dodged with skillful footwork.
• Xu Bai said Iron Calculation Immortal had too many flaws, prompting him to ask when Xu Bai had discovered his disguise.

Xu Bai exposed Iron Calculation Immortal's betrayal and fled from Yun Xiang's workshop, where she continued assembling a grotesque creature from corpses. He stopped to ambush his pursuer and killed Iron Calculation Immortal before he could use his formation.

• Xu Bai accused Iron Calculation Immortal of helping Yun Xiang escape, then escaped when the three Black Robed Men rose to their feet.
• Yun Xiang promised Iron Calculation Immortal the stolen item if he killed Xu Bai, and he pursued Xu Bai after discovering he had fled.
• Yun Xiang ordered the three Black Robed Men to protect her as they cut apart a beggar's corpse and gave her its organs to sew into her creation.
• Iron Calculation Immortal trapped Xu Bai within a hexagram formation and explained that he could control Xu Bai's life and death from a distance.
• Xu Bai unleashed Maple Leaves Like Rain, pierced Iron Calculation Immortal with Iron Beads, and decapitated him with the Ghost-Head Saber.

After killing Iron Calculation Immortal, Xu Bai confronted Yun Xiang and her three Black Robed Men, defeating them with his mastered Maple Leaves Like Rain technique. Yun Xiang surrendered and produced an item she hoped would save her life.

• Xu Bai searched Iron Calculation Immortal's corpse, found a book with a golden progress bar, and headed back to settle the score with Yun Xiang.
• Xu Bai discovered Yun Xiang stitching together a corpse and heard her explain that she planned to use him as a test subject.
• Three Black Robed Men attacked Xu Bai, but he dodged Yun Xiang's throwing knife and killed the three men with Iron Beads using Maple Leaves Like Rain.
• Yun Xiang recognized Xu Bai's mastery of Maple Leaves Like Rain, asked whether he had been expelled from the Yun Family, and surrendered when he refused to answer.
• Xu Bai questioned Yun Xiang's sudden surrender, and she reached into her bosom and pulled out something she hoped would bargain for her life.