Recaps

Yang Zhengshan discovered that his dream had given him a regenerating supply of Spirit Spring Water that could heal his injuries and improve his body, giving him hope of cultivating Martial Dao again. After demonstrating the Yang Family spear technique, his shoulder pain forced him to stop, and he resolved to find a new wife.

• Yang Zhengshan assessed the family’s modest savings and farmland, then dismissed the idea of making modern inventions because he lacked the knowledge and they would be ineffective against Martial Artists.
• Yang Zhengshan recalled the original owner’s severed path in Martial Dao and realized Spirit Spring Water could heal injuries and improve his physique.
• Yang Zhengshan drew water from his finger into a bowl, drank it, and felt his shoulder and body improve, though his injuries remained.
• Yang Zhengshan became more comfortable with his eldest grandson, picked him up, and agreed to demonstrate spear practice after watching Yang Yunxue train.
• Yang Zhengshan practiced the Yang Family spear technique before his family, but left-shoulder pain nearly made him stumble, so he stopped.
• Yang Zhengshan declined Wang’s offer to call a physician and decided that he would eventually marry again and find the family a stepmother.

Yang Zhengshan ordered the household to begin eating three meals a day and took Yang Mingcheng to Anning County to buy food and visit Yang Minghao. After spending most of their silver on supplies, he left his third son food and money and resolved to improve the family’s living conditions.

• Yang Zhengshan ordered Wang to prepare lunch and announced that the family would eat three meals a day, then shared the meal with Yang Mingcheng and Yang Mingzhi.
• Yang Zhengshan and Yang Mingcheng rode an ox cart to Anning County to buy grain, cooking supplies, pork, pork bones, and meat buns, spending nearly all the ten taels of silver.
• Yang Zhengshan visited the blacksmith shop where Yang Minghao apprenticed and gave Lu Zhou pork in thanks for looking after his son.
• Yang Zhengshan gave Yang Minghao five meat buns and one hundred copper coins before leaving with Yang Mingcheng.
• Yang Minghao watched his family depart, while Yang Zhengshan reflected on the family’s hardship and the need to provide them with food and warm clothes.

Yang Zhengshan recovered his strength and decided to hunt in Changqing Mountain to earn money for his family. He took his second son Yang Mingzhi into the forest, where they camped overnight and began tracking beasts the next day.

• Yang Zhengshan shared meat and buns with his family, and the household grew livelier over the following days.
• The Spirit Spring healed most of Yang Zhengshan's old injuries, restoring him to the Force Conversion stage of the Body Tempering Realm.
• Yang Zhengshan told his family he would enter the mountains to hunt, then chose Yang Mingzhi to accompany him.
• Yang Zhengshan and Yang Mingzhi traveled west into the forest, and Yang Zhengshan joked that he would run faster than his son if they met a tiger.
• After spending their first day traveling, Yang Zhengshan and Yang Mingzhi camped beneath a cliff; the next day, Yang Zhengshan began searching for animal tracks.

Yang Zhengshan hunted down two large wild boars and caught two piglets, revealing his recovered Martial Artist strength to Yang Mingzhi. He stayed in the mountains to guard the animals overnight while Yang Mingzhi went to fetch Jiang He and others to help carry them down.

• Yang Mingzhi spotted a family of wild boars, and Yang Zhengshan set out to kill the two large boars while his son tried to catch the piglets.
• Yang Zhengshan struck one boar with a Short Spear, dodged the other’s charge, and killed both using his spear and woodcutter’s knife.
• Yang Mingzhi caught two piglets and realized Yang Zhengshan’s injuries had healed, while Yang Zhengshan confirmed it and asked him to fetch Jiang He and helpers from Jiang Family Village.
• Yang Zhengshan began hauling the animals down the mountain, then made camp after dark and kept a fire burning to guard them from beasts.

Yang Zhengshan’s in-laws helped carry his two huge wild boars out of the mountains, and his family and neighbors celebrated his recovery as a Martial Artist. He sold the boars to the county magistrate’s steward and returned to the market to buy food and winter supplies.

• Yang Mingzhi told Jiang Cheng that Yang Zhengshan had killed two huge wild boars and asked the Jiang Family to help carry them down from the mountain.
• Jiang Cheng led hunters into the mountains, where they found Yang Zhengshan and hauled the boars back to Jiang Family Village, leaving the two piglets as payment.
• Yang Zhengshan returned home with Yang Mingcheng and was welcomed by his family and neighbors, who learned that his injuries had healed.
• Yang Zhengshan and Yang Mingcheng took the boars to the county town, where the county magistrate’s steward bought them for thirty taels and invited Yang Zhengshan to bring him more large prey.
• Yang Zhengshan used some of the proceeds to buy pork, bones, cloth, cotton, and fragrant meat buns for his family.

Yang Zhengshan settled into family life after recovering from his injuries and repaired his strained relationship with Yang Zhengxiang, the Yang Clan chief. With Yang Zhengxiang’s support, he joined the clan’s leadership and became an elder, though being called Great-Grandpa made him feel old.

• Yang Zhengshan shared buns with his grandchildren and daughter, then began preparing the household for winter.
• Yang Zhengxiang visited Yang Zhengshan to check whether his injuries had healed, and Yang Zhengshan confirmed his strength had mostly returned.
• Yang Zhengshan thanked Yang Zhengxiang for protecting his family and admitted he no longer held a grudge against him.
• Yang Zhengshan offered to help with clan affairs and recognized the Yang Clan’s importance in village life.
• Over the next ten days, Yang Zhengxiang guided Yang Zhengshan into the clan’s leadership, and Yang Zhengshan became a clan elder.
• Yang Zhengshan disliked being addressed as Great-Grandpa because it made him feel old.

Yang Zhengshan stored the family’s abundant harvest, prepared for winter, and found a valuable thirty-year-old Old Mountain Ginseng. His daughter Yang Yunyan returned with news that she was pregnant, and he welcomed her and Jiang He with nourishing food and warm clothes.

• Yang Zhengshan decided to store the family’s grain after a plentiful harvest and use the surplus to pay the autumn tax.
• Yang Zhengshan prepared Short Spears and gathered small game near Changqing Mountain before discovering a thirty-year-old Old Mountain Ginseng he planned to sell.
• Yang Yunyan and Jiang He returned to tell Yang Zhengshan that Yang Yunyan was nearly three months pregnant.
• Yang Zhengshan asked Wang to buy more beef for Yang Yunyan and the family, then accepted the padded clothes Yang Yunyan had made for him.
• Yang Zhengshan asked Yang Yunyan to make clothes for her maternal grandparents and put the Old Mountain Ginseng away in a wooden box.

Yang Zhengshan sold a thirty-five-year-old Old Mountain Ginseng for 180 taels, then decided to focus the Yang Family on martial arts and building its future. The chapter leaves him satisfied with the family’s renewed training and busy household, though he realizes he has little to do himself.

• Yang Zhengshan sold his Old Mountain Ginseng to Song Yuanbo for 180 taels after Song Yuanbo examined him and found his old injuries healed and his cultivation improved.
• After noticing a county notice about bandits, Yang Zhengshan planned to use his money to strengthen the Yang Family rather than withdraw from society.
• Yang Zhengshan told Yang Mingcheng and Yang Mingzhi to stop earning money with the ox cart and resume practicing martial arts.
• Yang Mingcheng, Yang Mingzhi, and Yang Yunxue practiced the Spear Technique while Yang Zhengshan trained with a spear and threw Short Spears in the back mountain.
• Yang Zhengshan returned to find the family repairing the house and making cotton-padded clothes, and realized he was the household’s idlest person.

After bandits destroyed Little Forest Village, Yang Zhengshan took in three orphaned children and decided to train Lin Zhan and Wang Daya as disciples. He left them in his household, with Lin Zhan beginning martial training and Wang Daya staying with Yang Yunxue.

• Yang Chengze told Yang Zhengshan that refugees from Little Forest Village had arrived after bandits burned their village and killed over a hundred people.
• Yang Zhengxiang arranged temporary shelter for two refugee households and explained that Lin Zhan, Wang Daya, and her infant brother had lost their families.
• Yang Zhengshan brought the three children home and had Wang feed the infant.
• Yang Zhengshan learned that Lin Zhan was Scholar Lin's son and told him and Wang Daya to become his disciples and begin martial training.
• Yang Zhengshan assigned Lin Zhan to his third son's room and sent Wang Daya to stay with Yang Yunxue.

Yang Zhengshan was teaching the young people of Yang Family Village when smoke revealed that Jiang Family Village was under attack by mountain bandits. He reached his eldest daughter Yang Yunyan’s home and found her safe, but the bandits were approaching as the villagers prepared to defend themselves.

• Yang Zhengxiang brought Yang Chengze, Yang Chengxu, and Yang Qinwu to Yang Zhengshan for martial arts instruction, and Yang Zhengshan began training them alongside Yang Mingcheng and Yang Mingzhi.
• Yang Yunxue spotted smoke rising from Jiang Family Village, and Yang Zhengshan hurried there after telling the others to alert Yang Zhengxiang and await the clan chief’s arrangements.
• Yang Zhengshan climbed the mountain to survey the burning village, recognized the notorious bandit Scarface Liu, and slipped into the village while avoiding him.
• Yang Zhengshan reached Jiang Cheng’s home, found Jiang Cheng’s family and neighbors sheltering there, and reunited with his frightened daughter Yang Yunyan.
• When villagers warned that the bandits were approaching, Yang Zhengshan left Yang Yunyan inside and joined the young men preparing to fight.

Yang Zhengshan defended the Jiang Family courtyard from Scarface Liu and his bandits, killing their leader in a fierce fight. The bandits then charged through the gate, and Jiang He ordered the others to shoot as the battle continued.

• After Jiang Cheng's eldest son fell from the wall, Yang Zhengshan ordered Jiang He to guard the rear and took the front gate himself.
• Yang Zhengshan killed or wounded six bandits with short spears and an iron spear, forcing the others to call for Scarface Liu.
• Scarface Liu entered the courtyard and attacked Yang Zhengshan with his broadsword.
• Yang Zhengshan pierced Scarface Liu's shoulder, endured his counterattack, then swept him down and ran him through the abdomen.
• The bandits charged through the gate to avenge Scarface Liu, and Jiang He ordered the hunters to shoot; one bandit fell to an arrow.

Yang Zhengshan defeated Scarface Liu and drove the mountain bandits out of Jiang Family Village, but the battle left much of the village burned and many villagers dead. He brought the pregnant Yang Yunyan back to Yang Family Village, where she recovered among her family while his killing aura still frightened his grandsons.

• Yang Zhengshan killed or wounded the bandits attacking Jiang Cheng's home, while Jiang He and Jiang Cheng dealt with Scarface Liu and the fallen raiders.
• Yang Zhengshan pursued the fleeing bandits, and Yang Zhengxiang led the young men of Yang Family Village in killing those who escaped into the village.
• Yang Zhengshan and the others helped fight the fire and rescue people, but the blaze consumed more than half of Jiang Family Village and left many villagers dead.
• Jiang Family Village buried its dead and reported the bandits to the authorities, while Yang Zhengshan left with Yang Yunyan for Yang Family Village.
• Yang Zhengshan comforted Yang Yunyan on the way home and told her to make winter clothes for his two disciples.
• Yang Yunyan settled in with the Yang family, but Yang Zhengshan's lingering killing aura made his young grandsons wary of him.

After Yang Zhengshan killed Scarface Liu and more than twenty bandits, County Magistrate Luo Jin learned of his deeds and summoned his brother-in-law Lu Zhaoqi. Yang Zhengshan visited his late wife’s parents in Qinghe Town, where Lu Songhe’s stern attitude softened when he saw the cotton clothes Yang Yunyan had made.

• A bailiff told Luo Jin that Yang Zhengshan had killed Scarface Liu and more than twenty bandits during the attack on Jiang Family Village.
• Luo Jin learned that Yang Zhengshan was a former Jingbian Battalion soldier and Lu Zhaoqi’s brother-in-law, then ordered Lu Zhaoqi summoned.
• Yang Zhengshan carried a bundle to Qinghe Town to visit his late wife’s parents, and Lu Wenchun welcomed him into the Lu Family home.
• Yang Zhengshan greeted Lu Songhe as Father and offered him cotton clothes made by Yang Yunyan.
• Lu Songhe’s displeasure eased when he saw the clothes and recognized the late wife’s familiar stitching.

Yang Zhengshan visited his father-in-law, Lu Songhe, and explained that he had killed the bandit Scarface Liu, whose capture carried a three-hundred-tael reward. Lu Songhe offered to ask his eldest son about helping Yang Zhengshan pursue an official post, and Yang left after a lively meal with the Lu family.

• Yang Zhengshan gave Lu Songhe a padded coat made by Yang Yunyan and mourned his late wife, winning Lu Songhe's sympathy.
• Yang Zhengshan told Lu Songhe that he had killed Scarface Liu and asked for advice about the county yamen's reward.
• Lu Songhe said the killing could attract Lord Luo's attention and advised Yang Zhengshan to plan carefully if he wanted an official post.
• Lu Songhe offered to ask his eldest son, Lu Zhaoqi, about possible opportunities for Yang Zhengshan.
• Yang Zhengshan ate and drank with the Lu family, then left with unsteady steps.

Yang Zhengshan welcomed Yang Minghao home and received three hundred taels in reward money from the county yamen. He learned that no ranked county post was available, so he chose to remain in Yang Family Village and wait for a better opportunity.

• Yang Minghao returned from the county town, and Yang Zhengshan told him to stop working at the blacksmith's shop and practice martial arts.
• Yang Zhengshan received three hundred taels from the county yamen, delivered by his brother-in-law Lu Zhaoqi.
• Yang Zhengshan offered to have Yang Mingcheng accompany Lu Wenyuan to Jing'an Prefecture City for the Prefectural Examination, and Lu Zhaoqi accepted.
• Lu Zhaoqi told Yang Zhengshan that no ranked county post was available, though he could help him obtain an unranked yamen job.
• Yang Zhengshan declined the unranked positions and decided to remain in the village, strengthen himself, and train the younger family members.

After receiving three hundred taels in reward silver, Yang Zhengshan considered arranging a marriage for Yang Minghao while deciding he wanted to choose his own future wife. He discovered that the Stone Pool Spirit Spring had grown and was producing more water, then secretly served spring-water tea to his sons as snow began to fall.

• Wang, Li, and Yang Minghao crowded around Yang Zhengshan to see his reward banknote, and he let Yang Minghao hold it briefly.
• Yang Minghao asked if he could marry, and Yang Zhengshan agreed to start arranging a match while insisting on finding him a virtuous wife.
• Yang Zhengshan inspected the Stone Pool Spirit Spring and found that the pool had expanded and its daily water production had nearly doubled.
• Yang Zhengshan drank spring water and brewed tea with more of it as fine snow began falling.
• Yang Zhengshan served the spring-water tea to Yang Mingcheng, Yang Mingzhi, and Yang Minghao, who enjoyed its sweetness without realizing its source.

After heavy snowfall, Yang Zhengshan considered buying farmland in Jiang Family Village to give the Yang Family a stable source of wealth. He decided to inspect the land and recognized that he needed to broaden his sons’ limited outlook as the family grew.

• Yang Zhengshan watched his family clear snow while Jiang He arrived, eager to see Yang Yunyan.
• Yang Zhengshan learned that Jiang Family Village had over two hundred mu of ownerless farmland for sale after the bandit attack.
• Jiang He quoted prices of five taels per mu for paddy fields and four for dry fields, and Yang Zhengshan considered buying one hundred mu and hiring Tenant Farmers.
• Yang Zhengshan realized his sons and Jiang He had limited horizons, but decided they were young enough to teach and change.
• Yang Zhengshan said he would inspect the land that afternoon and sent Jiang He to see Yang Yunyan.

Yang Zhengshan bought a hundred mu of farmland and began teaching the Yang Family practical skills through the Yang Family Classroom. After a month of lessons and business observations, he guided the family toward understanding which ventures might suit them, while warning that local businesses required powerful backing.

• Jiang He visited Yang Yunyan, stayed for lunch, and accompanied Yang Zhengshan to Jiang Family Village.
• Yang Zhengshan bought forty mu of paddy field and sixty mu of dry field for four hundred and forty taels, becoming Yang Family Village's largest landlord.
• Yang Zhengshan started the Yang Family Classroom, teaching the family martial arts, mathematics, literacy, and practical subjects, and taking some of them to observe businesses in the county town.
• On the ride home, Yang Mingcheng suggested that a cloth shop would be the best business, based on his observations of local shops.
• Yang Zhengshan explained that cloth shops depended on outside suppliers and that grain stores, though more stable, were backed by powerful landlords and families.

Yang Zhengshan listened as his sons and Lin Zhan reported what they had learned in Anning County, then taught Lin Zhan to weigh the drawbacks of promoting medicinal herb farming. On the journey home, an unfamiliar force of armored cavalry thundered past, leaving Yang Zhengshan wondering why troops from the south had come north.

• Yang Mingzhi described the Lu Family’s businesses, clan school, and connections, impressing Yang Zhengshan with how much he had learned.
• Yang Minghao admitted he had mostly watched a pretty young woman at a cloth shop, while Lin Zhan suggested villagers grow medicinal herbs.
• Yang Zhengshan explained the practical risks of replacing grain with medicinal herbs and advised Lin Zhan to assess both benefits and drawbacks.
• More than three hundred iron-armored cavalrymen raced past the ox cart, and Yang Zhengshan recognized that they were not local Border Army troops.
• Yang Zhengshan told the group to put the ox cart back on the road and continue home as they speculated about the cavalry’s arrival.

Yang Zhengshan celebrated his first Chinese New Year with the Yang family, joining the village’s ancestral rites and welcoming relatives for New Year greetings. He gave Wang Daya and her baby brother names, leaving the holiday marked by their gratitude and his growing place in the family.

• Yang Zhengshan delivered New Year gifts around Yang Family Village and visited his father-in-law, Lu Songhe, where he drank with Lu Zhaoqi and Lu Zhaoran.
• Yang Zhengshan joined Yang Zhengxiang and the villagers in inviting their ancestors home for New Year, walking at the front of the procession.
• Yang Zhengshan shared a plentiful New Year’s Eve dinner with his family, watching the children and feeling his loneliness fade amid the lively gathering.
• Yang Zhengshan gave red envelopes to his family on New Year’s Day and placed a silver lock on his granddaughter, Yang Qingwan.
• Yang Zhengshan named Wang Daya Wang Yunqiao and named her baby brother Wang Mingzhe after she asked him to name them both.

Yang Zhengshan released Force Energy for the first time and learned that his eldest son, Yang Mingcheng, had become a Martial Artist, bringing celebration to the Yang Family Village. The chapter ended with Anning County officials receiving orders to prepare for a possible Hu Tribe invasion.

• Yang Zhengshan welcomed village children for New Year greetings and gave each one a red envelope and malt candy.
• Yang Zhengshan trained in the back mountain, released Force Energy, and found that his physique and control were not yet strong enough to use it reliably.
• Yang Zhengshan returned home and learned that Yang Mingcheng had become a Martial Artist, prompting celebration throughout the Yang Family Village.
• Yang Zhengxiang rejoiced that Yang Mingcheng's achievement meant the Yang Clan's Martial Dao inheritance would continue.
• Luo Jin, Li Qing, and Duan Changhe discussed a prefectural order to prepare Anning County for a Hu Tribe invasion.

As war threatened the Northeast Border, Luo Jin organized Anning County’s defenses while Yang Zhengshan considered how the Yang Family could survive and whether the crisis offered a chance to gain an official post. Yang Zhengshan resolved to prepare both to resist a small Hu Tribe force and to retreat into Changqing Mountain if a larger army broke through.

• Duan Changhe reported that drought and heavy snow had struck the East Sea Hu Tribe, and Luo Jin ordered patrols, militia watches, and protection for the county granary.
• Luo Jin declined to issue a Call to Arms Order before the Hu Tribe entered Da Rong territory, but arranged for the county to prepare to recruit Martial Artists quickly if needed.
• Lu Wenchun told Yang Zhengshan that Lu Zhaoqi viewed the coming war as an opportunity for him to secure an official post.
• Yang Zhengshan told Yang Zhengxiang that the county was preparing for war and explained that the Yang Family should be ready to resist a small force or flee to Changqing Mountain from a large army.

Yang Zhengshan organized Yang Family Village to prepare for the border war, selecting young men for military training and assigning his sons different roles. He began training the recruits by stressing that they must defend their families and village from the Hu Tribe.

• Yang Zhengxiang agreed to handle the village defenses and find a temporary place to live, while Yang Zhengshan selected a little over a hundred young men for training.
• Yang Zhengshan told Yang Mingcheng to train but remain responsible for protecting the household, appointed Yang Mingzhi a Team Leader, and assigned Yang Minghao as his personal guard.
• Yang Zhengshan divided the recruits into three teams led by Yang Mingzhi, Yang Minghui, and Yang Mingwu.
• Yang Zhengshan silenced the disorderly recruits and made them repeat their responses until they answered together.
• Yang Zhengshan urged the recruits to protect their families and homeland, warning them that the Hu Tribe could bring worse atrocities than the attacks on Jiang Family Village and Little Forest Village.

Yang Zhengshan instilled a conviction to protect their families in the young men of Yang Family Village and began drilling them as the villagers prepared defenses. At Chongshan Pass, Zhang Shouwang discovered the Hu Tribe had used its fifty-thousand-strong army to distract the defenders while small enemy units infiltrated the western frontier to plunder, and he ordered elite cavalry to pursue them.

• Yang Zhengshan rallied the young men to defend their families and began training them in formations.
• Yang Zhengxiang organized villagers to make caltrops, dig traps, reinforce courtyard walls, and search Changqing Mountain for places to hide.
• Zhang Shouwang and his officers watched the Hu army outside Chongshan Pass and wondered why its attacks were limited and cautious.
• Beacon smoke appeared across the western frontier, and Ji Feiyu recognized the signals as evidence of many small enemy groups crossing the border.
• Zhang Shouwang realized the Hu army was tying down Chongshan Pass's defenders while scattered units plundered the frontier, so he ordered the Zhenbiao Left Battalion and Right Battalion to ride out and encircle them.

Yang Zhengshan prepared Yang Family Village for a possible attack by organizing an evacuation drill and keeping watch while the young men continued their training. At dinner, he ordered Yang Yunxue to teach Wang and Li martial arts, leaving the two women dismayed.

• Yang Zhengshan suggested that Yang Zhengxiang organize an evacuation drill and prepare neighboring villages to flee into the mountains if enemies appeared.
• Yang Zhengxiang began arranging the drill and praised Yang Zhengshan, who declined the idea of becoming clan chief.
• Yang Zhengshan continued training the young men, gave them diluted Spirit Spring Water, and established watch posts around the village.
• Yang Zhengshan told Yang Yunxue to teach Wang and Li martial arts, and Yunxue agreed while her sisters-in-law worried about the hard training.