Chapter Summaries

Xu Bai accepted the Emperor’s secret mission to travel toward the Capital City, using the journey to expose hidden enemies in exchange for the remaining Nameless Saber Scripture. After departing Yunlai Prefecture and drawing attention from the imperial princes and other factions, he reached a Shadow Courier Station near his first marked destination, where an unknown figure appeared before him.

• Eunuch Wei delivered the Emperor’s decree, granting Yun Zihai a Cloud Ascending Brush and Xu Bai a month of access to fourth-rank books in the Imperial Treasury.
• Eunuch Wei privately explained that Xu Bai’s route to the Capital City would lure hidden enemies into the open, and offered him twenty-one books containing the remaining portions of the Nameless Saber Scripture.
• Xu Bai accepted the mission, arranged for Liu Er to manage the Shadow Courier Station, and left for the Capital City three days later with the wooden box and a paper figurine.
• As Xu Bai traveled, the Ninth Princess discussed his arrival with Qing Xue, while Zhou Qing urged the Sixth Prince to befriend him and the Seventh Prince vowed to retaliate against him.
• Xu Bai rode toward the first marked location, grinding progress bars along the way, then stopped at a Shadow Courier Station to rest and saw an unfamiliar figure approach.

Xu Bai uncovered Pigeon Tower’s attempt to kill him in Purple Wood Prefecture, then discovered another assailant had killed its tower master before he could learn who had hired them. After mastering a new movement technique, he spotted poison in food prepared for him and returned to his room, where a mechanism triggered as he opened the door.

• Xu Bai lured twelve Pigeon Tower assassins into the wilderness, defeated them, and forced Twelve to reveal the organization’s location, ranks, and Fifth Rank tower master.
• Xu Bai found Pigeon Tower’s hideout, but a woman using a harvesting art killed the tower master before he could identify her master; Xu Bai killed her and searched the corpse-filled rooms.
• Xu Bai completed a Nameless Saber Scripture, fused its movement technique with Four-Directional Step Technique, and gained Movement-Armor Break Second Revolution.
• Xu Bai detected poison in a food stall’s dishes, left without eating them, and returned to his inn after finding no further attacks.
• Xu Bai opened his room door, triggering the sound of a mechanism turning.

Xu Bai accepted the Ingenious Craft Pavilion’s offer of help, then eliminated the five families plotting against him in Purple Wood Prefecture. He confronted the monster monk at Graceful Light Temple and survived the Thousand Sound Gu through his Undying Body, but an unexpected sound came from behind him as he questioned the monk about the Miao Family.

• Ji Xiaoshan told Xu Bai that five families were targeting him and revealed that a mysterious temple on Pine Crane Mountain might be connected to another force; Xu Bai agreed to work with the Ingenious Craft Pavilion.
• Xu Bai infiltrated the Nan Family residence and killed the Nan Family Head and the gathered family members after hearing them plan to ambush him.
• Xu Bai traveled to Pine Crane Mountain and discovered that the monk at Graceful Light Temple was luring women with promises of good fortune before draining their essence.
• Xu Bai attacked the monk as he tried to feed on a young woman, and the monk revealed his monstrous body, corpse-born insects, and a technique called Thousand Sound Gu.
• The monk used the Thousand Sound Gu to exploit Xu Bai’s injured ears, but Xu Bai recovered with his Undying Body, severed the monk’s hand and legs, and asked whether the Miao Family was behind him.
• As Xu Bai questioned the wounded monk, he sensed a sound coming from behind him.

Xu Bai uncovered the Miao Family’s role in the plot against him, then exposed Ji Xiaojian and Ji Xiaoshan’s interference and demanded secret manuals from the Ingenious Craft Pavilion. After the Masked Man reported that Xu Bai had connected with the pavilion, a mysterious fisherman decided to confront him openly.

• A black-clad archer tried to kill Xu Bai and the old monk, but Xu Bai stopped the attack and learned that a powerful honored guest had ordered the Miao Family to keep him from leaving Purple Wood Prefecture alive.
• Xu Bai used a paper crane to track the old monk’s traces to the slaughtered Miao Family residence, then decided to leave the prefecture to lure out the mastermind.
• Ji Xiaojian blocked Xu Bai’s road and fought him, but Ji Xiaoshan arrived and revealed that Ji Xiaojian had wiped out the Miao Family and was trying to draw out evildoers.
• Xu Bai slapped Ji Xiaojian for ruining his plan, spared him for Wu Hua’s sake, and demanded the Ingenious Craft Pavilion’s secret manuals as compensation.
• A Masked Man watched Ji Xiaoshan and Ji Xiaojian leave and reported their connection with Xu Bai to his master, a fisherman who decided to act openly.

The conical-hatted figure and Ji Xiaojian plotted to kill Xu Bai, while Xu Bai uncovered Ji Xiaojian’s deception and advanced to Fourth Rank by completing the Nameless Saber Scripture. The chapter ended with an unsigned letter about Xu Bai reaching a Bureau of Surveillance officer traveling to Purple Wood Prefecture.

• The conical-hatted figure killed his black-robed subordinate, then joined Ji Xiaojian in planning to kill Xu Bai and seize the Ingenious Craft Pavilion.
• Xu Bai heard that a Bureau of Surveillance Director was coming to investigate the destroyed families, then received the Machinery Secret Technique and a fake Hundred Steps Piercing Willow manual from Ji Xiaoshan.
• Xu Bai secretly told Ji Xiaoshan that the manual was fake and Ji Xiaojian was suspicious, then reasoned that Ji Xiaojian had deliberately staged parts of their earlier encounter.
• Xu Bai completed the Nameless Saber Scripture, comprehended the Armor Breaking Heart Sutra, fused it into the Inverted Purple Firmament Gale Wind Yin Yang Break, and advanced to Fourth Rank.
• Pavilion Master Ji agreed to cooperate with Xu Bai’s plan against Ji Xiaojian and revealed that he needed medicine from the imperial family to survive his injuries.
• A Bureau of Surveillance officer opened an unsigned letter at a Shadow Courier Station and saw Xu Bai’s name.

Xu Bai willingly entered the Prefectural Office prison while Song De investigated a letter linking him to the Miao Family massacre, and he continued grinding his Machinery Secret Technique as his enemies maneuvered against him. After Ji Xiaojian was killed and the local families pressured Song De to punish Xu Bai, Xu Bai persuaded Prefect Zhou to arrest the families’ ringleaders and have them locked in his cell.

• Song De received a letter connecting Xu Bai to the Purple Wood Prefecture extermination case and went to investigate.
• Xu Bai let Ji Xiaojian believe he was studying the fake Hundred Steps Piercing Willow, then agreed to enter prison with Song De while bringing his saber and books.
• Pavilion Master Ji sent Ji Xiaojian to Song De and admitted that Ji Xiaojian had handled the Miao Family matter, while the bamboo-hatted man ordered the remaining families to pressure the Bureau of Surveillance.
• Ji Xiaojian was found poisoned in custody, and Song De told Xu Bai that the major families had joined forces to demand punishment for him.
• Xu Bai asked Prefect Zhou to arrest the families’ ringleaders for falsely accusing him and requested that they be placed in his cell.

Xu Bai turned the families’ pressure campaign into a trap, prompting the man in the bamboo hat to order an attack while growing distrustful of his own followers. As Xu Bai completed Machinery Secret Technique in prison, a surviving conspirator decided to seek his protection, and Xu Bai discovered a new use for the skill.

• Xu Bai questioned the arrested family heads, learned they had acted on anonymous letters, and asked Song De to secretly watch the uninvolved families.
• The man in the bamboo hat ordered the Twelve Sword Formation to kill Xu Bai, then murdered his black-clad subordinate after suspecting him of disloyalty.
• After Xu Bai’s offer to forgive those who confessed spread, another black-clad conspirator escaped the man in the bamboo hat and decided to seek Xu Bai.
• Xu Bai completed Machinery Secret Technique, gained the Tier 5 skill, and wondered how he could use it with his Ghost-Head Saber.

Xu Bai forged the fragmenting Black Saber Hundred Rends, uncovered a plot by Chessboard Mountain and Coiled Sword Mountain, and prepared an ambush for the attackers. When the appointed day arrived, the Twelve Sword Formation burst through the prison wall to confront him.

• Xu Bai used the Machinery Secret Technique to craft Black Saber Hundred Rends, a saber that shattered into poisoned fragments and reformed under his control.
• Sun Sheng defected to Xu Bai and revealed that Wang Shu and the Twelve Sword Formation planned to attack at noon five days later, naming Chessboard Mountain and Coiled Sword Mountain as the conspirators.
• Prefect Zhou explained that the two martial inheritances came from Great Feng Kingdom, and Xu Bai arranged for Prefect Zhou, Lord Song, the Ingenious Craft Pavilion, and the cooperating families to help trap them.
• Xu Bai killed Sun Sheng with Black Saber Hundred Rends to prevent any leak from compromising the ambush.
• Wang Shu persuaded the Twelve Sword Formation to proceed with the attack, planning to use hidden agents to distract Song De while Prefect Zhou was away.
• At noon on the appointed day, the prison wall exploded and the twelve swordsmen appeared outside Xu Bai's cell.

Xu Bai let Song De, Prefect Zhou, and their allies capture the Twelve Sword Formation while he pursued Wang Shu and killed him with a strike from Hundred Rends. He found a progress bar on Wang Shu’s chessboard and returned to the Prefectural Office, where he found the place in disarray.

• Song De, Prefect Zhou, Pavilion Master Ji, and the families surrounded and defeated the Twelve Sword Formation, while Xu Bai left to pursue the mastermind.
• Xu Bai chased Wang Shu through the streets and revealed that his paper cranes had tracked him.
• Wang Shu summoned a chessboard and used Slaughtering the Great Dragon, but Xu Bai shattered his attack with Hundred Rends and killed him.
• Xu Bai found a golden progress bar on Wang Shu’s chessboard, took the board, and searched Wang Shu’s corpse for valuables.
• Xu Bai returned to the Prefectural Office and found it in complete disarray.

Xu Bai cleared the Purple Wood Prefecture affair, learned that the Ingenious Craft Pavilion had no more Machinery Secret Technique books but that the Ou Family in Pottery Earth Prefecture specialized in human weapons, and continued grinding skills and a mysterious chessboard. An anonymous killer confessed to killing the Twelve Sword Formation, while the Chu Emperor ordered Eunuch Wei to watch Coiled Sword Mountain and Chessboard Mountain; Xu Bai stayed behind to keep grinding the chessboard.

• Xu Bai found the Twelve Sword Formation dead from an expert's concealed iron beads, learned that the attacker had targeted them rather than him, and accepted the local families' apologies after his name was cleared.
• Xu Bai asked Pavilion Master Ji about ingenious craft techniques, learned that the Pavilion had no more books and that the Ou Family in Pottery Earth Prefecture practiced human weapons, and agreed to mention Pavilion Master Ji's request to the Emperor.
• Xu Bai finished the Nameless Saber Scripture and advanced Severing Break Three Styles into the fifth-rank Severing Break Four Styles, then began grinding Wang Shu's chessboard.
• Xu Bai found an unsigned letter hidden beneath his breakfast tray in which the killer admitted to killing the Twelve Sword Formation and urged him to continue to the capital, so Xu Bai decided to stay two more days.
• Eunuch Wei reported the Purple Wood Prefecture crisis to the Chu Emperor, who ordered him to monitor Coiled Sword Mountain and Chessboard Mountain without exposing his attention to Xu Bai.
• Xu Bai continued grinding the chessboard for a long while and finally gained a new result.

Xu Bai fused Chess Skill with his saber art into Chess Saber Four Styles and left Purple Wood Prefecture for the capital. After rescuing Shen He from assassins, Xu Bai uncovered that Shen He’s story and offer to serve him were likely part of a deliberate scheme, and Shen He’s body began swelling as he tried to flee.

• Xu Bai completed the Nameless Chessboard, gained Chess Skill, and fused it with Severing Break Four Styles to create max-level Chess Saber Four Styles.
• Xu Bai left Purple Wood Prefecture after Prefect Zhou supplied him with clothes and a horse, then learned that a scarred man using Iron Beads had been killing assassins along his route.
• Xu Bai rode through the night toward the fighting and used Chess Saber Four Styles to kill the Masked Men who were attacking the scarred young man.
• The young man introduced himself as Shen He, the last descendant of Flying Crane Pavilion, and claimed he was avenging its destruction by martial world factions, including Coiled Sword Mountain.
• Shen He gave Xu Bai a list of suspected culprits and asked to travel with him, but Xu Bai questioned the story and pointed out that the emperor would not have let Shen He escape the Imperial Palace without purpose.
• Shen He’s attempt to flee failed when sudden agony struck him; he realized he had been used as a chess piece, and his body swelled to three times its size.

After surviving Shen He's explosion, Xu Bai reached Pottery Earth Prefecture and uncovered a strange nighttime singer. He learned that Ye Zi could help him investigate the Ou Family, and set out with her to pay them a visit.

• Xu Bai escaped Shen He's self-destruction, while a plain-looking man recorded Xu Bai's abilities and reported the failed infiltration to his Master.
• Xu Bai arrived in Pottery Earth Prefecture and heard merchants describe a woman singing beside people as they slept.
• Xu Bai caught Ye Zi after she sang to the merchants, then learned she was a Strange Sound Master from the Ye Family who had fled being sent to him.
• Ye Zi told Xu Bai that the Ou Family had information about him in their cellar and offered to help clear obstacles in Pottery Earth Prefecture.
• Xu Bai accepted Ye Zi's help, and the next morning he told her to veil herself before they went to visit the Ou Family.

Xu Bai forced the Ou Family Head to lend him A Fu, then took the butler into the wilderness and had Ye Zi use her Strange Sound Master ability to question him in his sleep. A Fu began answering Xu Bai’s question about who was trying to deal with him.

• Xu Bai openly entered the Ou Family residence, pressured the apparently ill Ou Family Head, and demanded that A Fu serve as his guide.
• The Ou Family Head agreed to send A Fu to Xu Bai, then secretly ordered him to observe Xu Bai and report what he intended to do.
• Xu Bai explained to Ye Zi that he wanted A Fu because the butler’s position might give him knowledge of the Ou Family’s secrets.
• A Fu arrived at the inn, and Xu Bai led him and Ye Zi out to the wilderness, where he knocked A Fu unconscious after several attempts.
• Ye Zi used her Strange Sound Master ability to make A Fu talk in his sleep, and Xu Bai asked who was trying to deal with him.

Xu Bai and Ye Zi uncovered a soul-seeded plot against him, then survived an ambush by more than a hundred family fighters and found the Human Weapon Secret Technique. As the unseen master delayed further action and considered approaching Xu Bai personally, he completed the technique’s progress bar.

• Ye Zi used the Eerie Sound to make A Fu reveal that more than a dozen families sought Xu Bai’s death, but a soul seed killed A Fu when he tried to name his master.
• The Ou Family head and the other families gathered outside Pottery Earth Prefecture to ambush Xu Bai, while Xu Bai and Ye Zi traveled toward the city.
• Ye Zi supported Xu Bai in battle, and he killed many attackers before the survivors transformed themselves and exploded; Xu Bai shielded Ye Zi and survived with injuries that quickly healed.
• Xu Bai and Ye Zi searched the families’ homes, found the Human Weapon Secret Technique and valuable contraption materials, then returned to the inn.
• The hidden master received a report on Xu Bai’s abilities, ordered her agent to wait, and privately considered getting close to him.
• After several quiet days, Xu Bai completed the progress bar on the Human Weapon Secret Technique while Ye Zi attended to him.

Xu Bai fused the Human Weapon Secret Technique, Machinery Secret Technique, and Paper Art Essence into the Ingenious Craft Puppet Technique, then built a powerful Fourth-Rank puppet. After clashing with Prefect Tong over an attempted arrest, Xu Bai left the Prefectural Office, while Butler Chen urged the furious prefect to fabricate evidence against him.

• Xu Bai fused three techniques into the Ingenious Craft Puppet Technique and used materials from the Ou Family to build a saber-wielding Fourth-Rank puppet.
• Prefect Tong learned that Xu Bai had visited the Ou Family before several people disappeared and sent Yamen Runners to summon him.
• When the Yamen Runners tried to shackle Xu Bai, Ye Zi wounded them and the puppet threatened them, after which Xu Bai agreed to go to the Prefectural Office.
• Xu Bai challenged Prefect Tong over his subordinates' conduct, answered questions about the Ou Family, and left after warning that he could report any obstruction to his journey to the Capital City.
• Prefect Tong raged over Xu Bai's defiance, and Butler Chen suggested fabricating evidence to arrest him.

Prefect Tong and Butler Chen framed Xu Bai with a false witness and had him jailed, but Xu Bai suspected someone was manipulating Tong and waited to see what would happen. That night, Butler Chen tried to kill Tong with an explosive Wooden Box and frame Xu Bai, but the device failed, and Xu Bai emerged from the darkness to stop him.

• Butler Chen persuaded Prefect Tong to arrest Xu Bai using a fabricated witness, then reported to his gauze-clad master, who ordered him to use a Wooden Box and personally carry out the plan.
• While waiting in the inn, Xu Bai completed the Nameless Saber Scripture and gained Movement Breaking Three Turns, then went with Ye Zi and the Fourth-Rank Puppet to the Prefectural Office after a bailiff summoned him.
• Prefect Tong presented a false witness and ordered Xu Bai detained, but Xu Bai allowed himself to be jailed so he could discover whether someone was directing Tong.
• That night, Butler Chen tried to lure Prefect Tong close and trigger the Wooden Box, but it failed to explode.
• Xu Bai severed Butler Chen's hands before he could smash the box, then slapped Prefect Tong and warned him to stop talking.

Xu Bai allowed a group claiming to rescue him to take him to Xiao Nuan, while Prefect Tong secretly tracked them. Xiao Nuan planned to drug and enslave Xu Bai, but she also intended to escape her own organization by replacing Ye Zi and beginning a new life.

• Xu Bai disabled the Wooden Box, killed Butler Chen with its explosion, and persuaded Prefect Tong to fake his death and lure out the mastermind.
• Prefect Tong announced that he had been assassinated, and a veiled woman ordered her subordinate to rescue Xu Bai so she could recruit him by planting a seed in his mind.
• Masked men took Xu Bai from prison to a concealed house, where Xiao Nuan promised to clear his name after three to five days; Prefect Tong secretly followed their movements.
• Xiao Nuan revealed that she planned to use her medicine to enslave Xu Bai and disguise herself as Ye Zi to escape her former life.
• Xiao Nuan's seeds killed the masked men, and she declared that she would replace Ye Zi and make Xu Bai her slave.

Xu Bai uncovered and killed Xiao Nuan, who had used a Fox Clan technique to drug him and was allied with the Shadow Gate. After recovering at the inn and spending the night with Ye Zi, he prepared to leave Pottery Earth Prefecture and continue toward Wind Chime Prefecture while completing his Nameless Saber Scripture.

• Prefect Tong found the corpses of Xiao Nuan's black-clothed subordinates and hid nearby as Xu Bai had instructed.
• Xiao Nuan led Xu Bai and Ye Zi into a forest, revealed herself as a Demon Warlock allied with the Shadow Gate, and tried to use a Fox Clan seed to control Xu Bai.
• Xu Bai resisted Xiao Nuan's medicine, exposed her plan to impersonate Ye Zi, and killed her with Black Saber Hundred Rends; Prefect Tong handled the aftermath.
• Xu Bai returned to the inn with Ye Zi, and she helped him endure the medicine's effects; they spent the night together.
• Xu Bai found no further clues at the Prefectural Office and decided to leave Pottery Earth Prefecture after staying a couple more days to work on his Nameless Saber Scripture.
• Xu Bai told Ye Zi that their next destination was Wind Chime Prefecture, where the Ye Family lived, as his scripture's progress reached completion.

Xu Bai gained Saber Intent after fusing saber techniques, then traveled with Ye Zi toward Wind Chime Prefecture, where Kong Xu began seeking his help in a struggle over the Kong Family succession. Xu Bai arrived in Wind Chime Prefecture after a quiet journey, while Kong Xu’s plan to ally with him remained unresolved.

• Xu Bai fused Chess Saber Four Styles with Armor Piercing Twenty-Four Styles and gained Saber Intent, allowing each fragment of Black Saber Hundred Rends to execute Chess Saber Five Styles at twice its power.
• Xu Bai and Ye Zi left Pottery Earth Prefecture for Wind Chime Prefecture, and Ye Zi asked him to obtain a soul-related book from her family.
• At a Zhangyun County Shadow Courier Station, Kong Xu learned Xu Bai was nearby and invited him to travel together, then gave him a swift horse when Xu Bai declined.
• After Xu Bai departed, Kong Xu told Old Sun that he wanted to secure the Kong Family for himself, revealed he had poisoned Old Sun, and promised to marry Old Sun’s daughter as his principal wife.
• Xu Bai and Ye Zi continued toward Wind Chime Prefecture, discussing Kong Xu’s motives, and Xu Bai arrived after making progress on another Nameless Saber Scripture.

Xu Bai arrived in Wind Chime Prefecture with Ye Zi and stayed at the Ye Family while seeking the later portions of her cultivation method. After touring the prefecture, he investigated a gruesome series of murders and learned that Ye Zi recognized something similar about the killings.

• Xu Bai and Ye Zi reached the Ye Family, where the family members learned his identity and the Ye Family Head welcomed him as an honored guest.
• Xu Bai asked the Ye Family Head for the later portions of the Strange Sound Master's books so Ye Zi could continue cultivating, and she requested two days to consider his offer.
• Xu Bai and Ye Zi spent the night together, and Ye Zi reached the fifth rank; the next day, Xu Bai rejected Ye Yu's attempt to accompany him on a tour of Wind Chime Prefecture.
• Xu Bai, Ye Zi, and the Fourth-Rank Puppet came across a crowd at Spring Rain Pavilion and found that a third victim had been killed with all their internal organs removed.
• Xu Bai considered whether the murders were connected to the planned assassination against him, and Ye Zi said she had thought of something similar to the killings.