Chapter Summaries

Li Mo coached Zhong Ling on how to flirt with Zhong Zhenyue, but her attempt at acting sweet quickly collapsed into ordering her little brother to eat. As the restaurant grew lively, Ying Bing wondered whether she and Li Mo were already dating, then fed him a skewer and called him her bratty little brother.

• Li Mo advised Zhong Ling to flirt with Zhong Zhenyue and suggested a storybook for reference.
• Li Mo grilled skewers at Jiawei Restaurant, where Zhong Zhenyue felt envious of the families gathered around him.
• Zhong Ling changed into Southern Border clothing, frightening Zhong Zhenyue, who mistook her for a demoness from his past.
• Zhong Ling tried to act sweet, then grabbed Zhong Zhenyue and made him eat when she lost patience.
• Li Mo told Zhong Zhenyue that his real sister might not be his real sister, leaving him confused.
• Ying Bing reflected on whether she and Li Mo were dating, then offered him grilled mushrooms and called him her bratty little brother.

Li Mo shared a lively meal with Ying Bing, Zhong Ling, and Zhong Zhenyue, then learned about military formations and the strength required to command them. As the soldiers invited him to help train them the next day, Ying Bing watched him enjoy the company and remembered a local nursery rhyme.

• Ying Bing and Zhong Ling fed Li Mo and Zhong Zhenyue, and Zhong Ling used the meal to thank Li Mo for his advice.
• Li Mo persuaded Ying Bing to eat by calling her “big sister,” and soldiers gathered around their table to talk with him.
• Zhong Zhenyue told the soldiers that Li Mo would help train them the next day and repeated Commander Qu’s praise of him as a future divine general.
• Zhong Zhenyue explained how military formations worked and said he could contain a little over four Squares with Zhong Ling’s help.
• Ying Bing watched Li Mo socialize with the soldiers and hoped he would finally sleep well, while a nearby mother sang her child to sleep with a local nursery rhyme.

Li Mo demonstrated his Qiongqi transformation against Zhong Ling’s military formation at Greenwood Camp, teaching the soldiers about the beast’s bloodline power as he defeated them. Zhong Zhenyue then proposed testing how much formation power Li Mo could withstand.

• Li Mo rode to Greenwood Camp with Ying Bing and the other riders to demonstrate his transformation for Greenwood City’s officers.
• Zhong Ling formed a battle formation with more than a hundred soldiers, while Li Mo transformed into a Qiongqi.
• Ying Bing predicted that Li Mo would win, and the generals debated whether the formation could overcome him.
• Li Mo used the Qiongqi’s roar to weaken the soldiers and break Zhong Ling’s formation, reminding them to guard their minds when fighting the Qiongqi Clan.
• After Li Mo received notice of an investment reward, Zhong Zhenyue challenged him to test how much military formation power he could withstand.

Huang Donglai found a dying scout in the mountains and chose to carry his urgent letter to Greenwood City instead of running away. In Greenwood City, Ying Bing began teaching Zhong Ling about military formations through a game of Go, but won almost immediately.

• Huang Donglai recalled how his mother had saved him from a sacrifice by urging him to run, and how he had survived ever since.
• A mortally wounded scout named Lu Yi asked Huang Donglai to deliver a sealed letter to Greenwood City about the Calamity Beasts and Shang Dynasty Remnants moving south.
• Huang Donglai buried Lu Yi, took his waist plaque, and decided he would not run away this time.
• After Zhong Ling's formation failed against Li Mo in his Qiongqi form, Ying Bing explained that its forces were not complementing one another.
• Ying Bing challenged Zhong Ling to a game of Go, then declared victory after getting five stones in a row.

Li Mo trained against Greenwood Camp’s formations as Zhuyan, teaching the soldiers about Calamity Beasts while earning investment rewards. After Zhong Zhenyue exhausted himself, Qu Sheng proposed testing how many troops Li Mo could accommodate, then revealed that Ying Bing had answered Zhong Ling’s question about commanding troops with “the more, the merrier.”

• Ying Bing learned battle formations by watching Zhong Ling and used that knowledge to trap her Big Dragon at Go.
• Qu Sheng took command of Zhong Zhenyue’s formation, and Li Mo welcomed the tougher exercise as a chance to improve and earn rewards.
• Li Mo demonstrated the Calamity Beasts’ abilities to Greenwood Camp’s soldiers, while the generals marveled at his stamina and strength.
• Qu Sheng stopped the exercise when Zhong Zhenyue reached his limits, and Li Mo gave him a Six-Pattern Pill to recover.
• Qu Sheng invited Li Mo to test how many troops’ power he could accommodate and revealed that Ying Bing had told Zhong Ling, “the more, the merrier.”

Ying Bing commanded a battle formation that let Li Mo accommodate military force and test his strength. After his strike reached Inner Scene level, they began assembling thirty more directions to forge an Inner Scene field from four thousand soldiers.

• Zhong Ling conceded defeat to Ying Bing in their Go game, and Li Mo learned Ying Bing had been sparring with her over military formations.
• Ying Bing took Qu Sheng's Command Flag and led ten Squares of soldiers while Li Mo entered the formation as its formation eye.
• Li Mo absorbed the formation's military force and struck a Whale-Breath Coral Stone hard enough to mark it purple, showing his attack had reached Inner Scene level.
• Li Mo and Ying Bing agreed to add thirty directions, and Qu Sheng ordered three battalions of soldiers to join the formation.
• Zhong Ling realized Ying Bing planned to use the forty-direction formation to forge an Inner Scene field for Li Mo, and Ying Bing began the next formation command with “Wind.”

Ying Bing used four thousand armored troops to form a Wind Forest Fire Mountain military formation, creating an Inner Scene for Li Mo. With Ying Bing’s zither strengthening the formation, Li Mo gathered its power into a punch that perfected his Seventy-Two Transformations and split the Whale-Breath Coral Stone.

• Ying Bing linked the armored troops with Rosy Phoenix Qi and guided Li Mo as the formation’s wind, fire, and forest momentums took shape.
• Ying Bing added the final troops to complete the mountain momentum, and Li Mo sensed an Inner Scene formed from the military formation.
• Li Mo chose to continue despite the strain, and Ying Bing played the Heavenly King Breaking Formation Melody on her ancient green zither.
• The Wuzhiqi True Spirit merged into Li Mo’s Stone Monkey Divine Pattern, and Li Mo unleashed a punch infused with the formation’s power and Wuzhiqi’s battle will.
• The Whale-Breath Coral Stone turned vivid red, cracked, and split in two as Li Mo perfected his Seventy-Two Transformations.

Li Mo impressed Greenwood Camp by leading a military formation to unleash an External Scene Realm strike, then returned to the city with Ying Bing. After helping Huzi sell sugar balls, Li Mo warmed Ying Bing’s cold hand by tucking it into his pocket with a candy.

• Li Mo’s military formation produced an External Scene Realm strike, earning the soldiers’ cheers and the admiration of Zhong Zhenyue and Zhong Ling.
• Qu Sheng offered Li Mo the Snow-Treading White Dragon Steed, but Li Mo politely declined because he had a better mount in mind.
• Li Mo and Ying Bing left Greenwood Camp in a carriage, where Li Mo rested while Ying Bing wrote down her understanding of military formations.
• Li Mo advised Huzi to sell sugar balls when the cold weather made sugar paintings difficult to make.
• Li Mo made a sugar ball for Ying Bing and tucked it and her cold hand into his pocket.

Li Mo gave Greenwood Camp a large cache of military grain and medicine, easing its urgent supply shortage as it prepared for war. At Jiawei Restaurant, he began planning a medicinal soup and called it “Ice Block soup,” leaving Ying Bing puzzled.

• Ying Bing admitted that her hand felt cold, and Li Mo warmed it inside his pocket as they rode through the snowy street.
• Li Mo learned from a Greenwood Camp lieutenant general that the army faced supply worries, then donated the unused provisions he had bought in Yun Province.
• The System announced that Li Mo’s investment in Greenwood Camp had eased its worries over military grain and awarded him a return to collect.
• Qu Sheng learned that Li Mo’s donated grain equaled a third of what the towns had supplied, along with medicine, and worried about the coming war and Li Mo’s safety.
• At Jiawei Restaurant, Li Mo asked Ying Bing about combining medicinal ingredients in soup, laid out several heavenly treasures, and said he was making “Ice Block soup.”

Li Mo prepared a flower-and-herb bath for Ying Bing, then reviewed a haul of military weapons and other system rewards that he feared could make him look like a rebel. As he tried to focus on cultivating, Ying Bing realized she had no clean undergarments and called to Li Mo from behind the screen.

• Li Mo invited Ying Bing to soak in the bath, and she put a folding screen between them.
• Li Mo resisted being distracted by Ying Bing's silhouette and checked rewards from the system.
• Li Mo found a large cache of military weapons, explosives, defensive gear, and Profound Crystals, and decided it would be safest to leave them in the System Space.
• Li Mo took a Clear Heart Pill and prepared to study the Wukong Seeking the Dao Diagram.
• Ying Bing realized her undergarments no longer fit and that she had forgotten to buy replacements, then told Li Mo she had forgotten her clothes.

Li Mo learned to ride the Somersault Cloud and flew across Greenwood City to buy close-fitting garments for Ying Bing. He bought every Joyous Union Bodice in the shop, then the chapter ended with Ying Bing still waiting for him.

• Li Mo used ten years of martial Dao comprehension to gain an initial grasp of the Somersault Cloud, learning to ride clouds and mist at great speed.
• Li Mo flew out of the window and left Ying Bing waiting in the bath while he went to buy her close-fitting garments.
• Ying Bing watched Li Mo fly away and wondered how he had learned another new move.
• Li Mo reached a Southern Border shop and asked the proprietress about buying intimate garments for his wife.
• Li Mo decided to follow local customs and bought every Joyous Union Bodice in the shop.

Li Mo returned to the inn with a pile of Southern Border-style clothes, and Ying Bing teased him after he urged her to wear them. After Li Mo bathed, Ying Bing secretly changed into the expensive intimate garment he had bought, leaving him stunned when he found it among the clothes she asked him to dry.

• Li Mo bought Ying Bing several outfits, including many revealing Southern Border styles, and claimed the shopkeeper had insisted he take them.
• Ying Bing examined the clothes and called them worse than wearing nothing, while Li Mo asked her to wear them.
• Ying Bing emerged from her bath in her usual dress and teased Li Mo by refusing to tell him what she was thinking.
• Li Mo went to bathe, and Ying Bing secretly changed into the Pearl White Lotus Silk intimate wear he had bought.
• Ying Bing asked Li Mo to dry a basket of clothes, and he recognized the intimate garment before the door shut in his face.

Li Mo learned from Huang Donglai’s military report that Greenwood City faced a desperate war and Commander Qu urged them to leave. After finding the dead soldier Lu Yi’s military tag, Li Mo went to collect his death benefits and confronted the meager compensation available.

• Li Mo met Huang Donglai, who warned that war might soon reach Greenwood City.
• Huang Donglai delivered an urgent military report to Commander Qu, whose reading of it led him to tell Li Mo and Huang Donglai to leave the city.
• Commander Qu explained that he had expected the battle and that the new report had made victory seem unlikely.
• Huang Donglai gave Li Mo Lu Yi’s military tag, and Li Mo chose to collect the soldier’s death benefits.
• The quartermaster said Lu Yi’s family was owed twelve taels of silver but produced only thirty or forty copper coins.

Li Mo struggled with the news that war had claimed Fu Yingzi’s father, while Ying Bing comforted him and sang him to sleep. The next morning, Li Mo left on a brief mission and entrusted Huang Donglai with a task before disappearing on his Somersault Cloud.

• Ying Bing found Li Mo sitting in Jiawei Restaurant with an undeliverable family letter and learned that Fu Yingzi’s father had died delivering military intelligence.
• Li Mo questioned whether they should have come to the Southern Border and lamented that he could not protect even one family’s peace; Ying Bing held his hand and told him that living through hardship would help him grow.
• Ying Bing sang a nursery rhyme as Li Mo fell asleep on her lap beneath a break in the clouds.
• The next morning, Li Mo met Huang Donglai at Huzi’s sugar-painting stall and said he planned to leave but would return soon.
• Li Mo secretly asked Huang Donglai to fill something up, then vanished into a cloud on his Somersault Cloud.

Li Mo returned to the Southern Border with a vast supply of provisions for Greenwood City, while Clear Abyss Sect prepared for the coming turmoil and Jiang Chulong insisted on waiting for him at home. The chapter ended with Qu Sheng seeing Li Mo arrive and open a space filled with supplies.

• At Xi Yangyang Hotpot Restaurant, Mei Yun warned the Clear Abyss Sect elders that chaos might rise in the Southern Border, and Jiang Chulong said she would not leave the home Li Mo had given her.
• Zuoqiu Yang reported that one buyer had purchased all the beef and mutton in Prefecture City.
• In Yun Province, Li Mo collected grain, meat, fodder, and fire oil from Hengtong Trading Firm after Sun Gui arranged the supplies.
• At Greenwood City, Qu Sheng waited beside the empty granary as Huang Donglai confirmed Li Mo had promised to fill it.
• Li Mo returned and opened a space revealing mountains of supplies, leaving Qu Sheng astonished that he had come back.

Li Mo delivered a vast supply of provisions and forbidden weapons to Greenwood Camp, raising the soldiers’ morale as Qu Sheng and the generals prepared for the coming siege. The commanders learned that Han Zhen, a former Seventh Realm Profound Master, led the disciplined Calamity Beasts, and Li Mo resolved to win while considering how to strengthen himself further.

• Qu Sheng asked where Li Mo had obtained the military supplies, and Li Mo unloaded provisions and powerful weapons while warning everyone to handle the explosives carefully.
• Qu Sheng ordered the camp to reward the three armies with Li Mo’s supplies, and the soldiers cheered and thanked him.
• Qu Sheng and the generals discussed defending Greenwood City and identified the Calamity Beasts, Great Shang Remnants, Demon Summoning Cult experts, Han Zhen, and Helian Wu as threats.
• Li Mo told the generals that Han Zhen had once been a Seventh Realm Profound Master, then encouraged them by saying he and Ying Bing had defeated him before.
• Li Mo considered combining his army-formation power, the world’s power, and his other abilities, and resolved to win because the Jade Phoenix God had fused with Ice Block.

As the Southern Border army approached Greenwood City, Li Mo proposed an Empty Fort Strategy barbecue edition to buy time while the defenders deployed their weapons. The enemy arrived to find the city gates open and the soldiers seemingly feasting, while Han Zhen and Helian Wu remained confident they could take the city.

• Qu Sheng ordered Greenwood Camp to man the walls and deploy its weapons after learning that twelve thousand Southern Border troops and their Calamity Beasts would arrive within half an hour.
• Wu Lang volunteered to lead soldiers out to delay the enemy, but Li Mo stopped him and proposed making Greenwood City look undefended to exploit Han Zhen’s suspicion.
• Li Mo suggested opening the gates and having the soldiers barbecue and sing on the walls while the defenders secretly set up their military machinery; he called it the Empty Fort Strategy—barbecue edition.
• Three hundred li from Greenwood City, Han Zhen told Helian Wu he expected to break the city within seven days and planned to unleash his warriors before using the Great Dao of Palm Mystery.
• When Han Zhen’s army reached Greenwood City, Han Zhen smelled a fragrant scent coming from the city.

Li Mo used a barbecue feast and provocative performance to make Han Zhen suspect Greenwood City was an ambush and delay his attack. Han Zhen ordered scouts to investigate the city, and Li Mo realized their scouting was more thorough than expected.

• Li Mo encouraged the soldiers to eat barbecue on Greenwood City's walls, while Wu Lang and Qu Sheng hoped the strange display would buy them time.
• Li Mo claimed he was an actor and invoked his Golden Statue Award for Best Actor as he prepared to play his part.
• Han Zhen and his allies grew suspicious of the open gates and the defenders' calm, fragrant feast, and held back from attacking.
• Li Mo taunted Han Zhen from the battlements, then turned his back on the enemy army, strengthening Han Zhen's suspicion that the city concealed an ambush.
• Han Zhen ordered scouts to investigate, and a crow-feathered man sent swarms of ravens toward Greenwood City as other Calamity Beasts used their abilities to scout.
• Li Mo noticed the enemy's scouting was more intense than he had expected.

Li Mo kept up the barbecue bluff while Ying Bing joined him on the wall and destroyed the enemy’s flying scouts. Han Zhen used blood-witchcraft to investigate Greenwood City, saw through the stratagem, and ordered the army to attack.

• Li Mo held his position as the enemy’s flying scouts approached Greenwood City, while the defenders tried to shoot them down.
• Ying Bing flew up and froze dozens of Flying Calamity Beasts, including a seventh-rank peak scout, then landed beside Li Mo.
• Ying Bing shared a skewer with Li Mo and reminded him that they had promised to face every consequence and danger together.
• Han Zhen recognized Ying Bing’s Phoenix gifts and used blood-witchcraft to investigate the city.
• Ying Bing warned Li Mo that Han Zhen’s secret art would end the barbecue bluff, and she promised to give Li Mo something after the battle.
• Han Zhen concluded that Li Mo was bluffing and ordered the troops to attack Greenwood City.

Li Mo and Greenwood City's defenders used poisoned barbecue smoke and defensive formations to blunt the Southern Border Tribes' assault, but the siege escalated into a brutal battle with heavy losses. At dusk, Li Mo realized Han Zhen's forces would attack even harder the next day, and Ying Bing comforted him as he struggled with exhaustion and nausea.

• Li Mo and Huang Donglai poisoned the barbecue smoke with Muscle-Softening Powder, throwing the enemy troops into confusion while Qu Sheng rallied Greenwood City's defenders.
• The attackers advanced with siege engines and Flying Calamity Beasts, but the defenders used the Sky Prohibition array and Ying Bing's sword to repel the aerial assault.
• Li Mo stopped a bronze battering ram with Indestructible Golden Light and toppled it, boosting the defenders' morale as Han Zhen and Helian Wu prepared to target him.
• The Southern Border Tribes brought Witch Spirit Colossi into the battle, and Qu Sheng, Ying Bing, and Li Mo led Greenwood City's forces against the attackers as the fighting reached the walls.
• At dusk, the defenders counted their dead, wounded, and damaged weapons; Li Mo foresaw a fiercer attack the next day, and Ying Bing gently comforted him.