Chapter Summaries

Yun and Elder Qing watched as Lin Qi’s green Ghostflame Phosphor Fire destroyed the crops and farmland across the Vias Plain, threatening a food crisis and devastating the Golden Rudder Family. The family’s men then hunted Yun and Elder Qing through the port, burst into their suite, and ordered them taken to the family head.

• Yun explained that looting the Golden Rudder Family’s granaries could expose its crisis but would also make ordinary people suffer from soaring grain prices.
• Yun and Elder Qing saw Lin Qi’s green wildfire sweep across the Vias Plain, burning crops and ruining farmland.
• Elder Qing and Yun realized that Lin Qi’s fire would cause a regional grain shortage and force the Golden Rudder Family to pay heavily.
• Hundreds of Golden Rudder Family men entered the port, enlisted its guards and militia, and searched for an old man and a youth.
• Golden Rudder Family guards and patrolling officers kicked in Yun and Elder Qing’s suite door and ordered them taken to the family head.

Elder Qing and Yun were cornered by Golden Rudder Family soldiers hunting them, but Lin Qi returned to the inn with a large band of armed men. The confrontation escalated as Lin Qi’s reinforcements arrived, leaving both sides facing off outside the inn.

• Golden Rudder Family private soldiers stormed Elder Qing and Yun’s suite and demanded that they surrender for arrest.
• Elder Qing disguised himself as a frail blond Westerner and questioned the soldiers’ authority while Yun defended them as merchants.
• Lin Qi arrived with over a hundred rough-looking men and challenged the Golden Rudder Family soldiers blocking the inn entrance.
• Lin Qi burned one soldier’s face with his cigar, knocked another down, and ordered the innkeeper to prepare rooms, food, and drink for his men.
• More guards and militiamen rushed toward the inn as several hundred of Lin Qi’s other subordinates came running to join the standoff.

Lin Qi arrived at the port with hundreds of armed men and carts of abyss mithril ore, then violently intervened when the Golden Rudder Family tried to take Elder Qing and Yun. After his men captured the family’s soldiers, a blazing mass descended toward the port.

• Lin Qi’s armed caravan surrounded the inn, and Alda’s display of magic drove the port forces back.
• Elder Qing and Yun came out with the Golden Rudder Family’s men, while Lin Qi challenged their commander Zam and knocked constable Tore unconscious.
• The port guards and militia surrendered and left, while Zam recognized the abyss mithril ore on Lin Qi’s carts.
• Elder Qing offered to buy the ore, but Zam tried to silence him, so Lin Qi struck Zam and ordered his crossbowmen to kill the Golden Rudder Family soldiers.
• Lin Qi’s men tied up the remaining soldiers after the family sent up signal flares, then a blazing mass descended toward the port.

Lin Qi used the Golden Rudder Family’s bounty to rally his thugs against Merome, a Saint-level fire mage, then exploited his immunity to fire magic to defeat and enslave him. Lin Qi ordered Merome to take the group into Port Vias as secret merchants so they could meet the Mage Corps’ highest leader.

• Merome introduced himself as a Saint mage and burned the thugs’ heavy crossbows, but Lin Qi persuaded them to stand their ground with promises and rewards.
• Lin Qi appointed Hank to lead the five hundred men and gave him a note for one hundred thousand gold coins, prompting Hank to attack Merome.
• Merome became distracted by the thirty wagonloads of abyss mithril ore, and Hank’s blow struck Merome’s sudden fire shield without harming him.
• Merome unleashed a nine-headed fire dragon, but Lin Qi absorbed its flames, extinguished Merome’s magic, and beat him down.
• Lin Qi poisoned Merome, drew out his soul, and forced him to sign a slave contract.
• Lin Qi told Merome to present their group as secret merchants and lead them into Port Vias to meet the Mage Corps’ highest leader.

Lin Qi led his secret merchant caravan toward Port Vias and used gifts of rare magical treasures to secure Merome’s loyalty and authority. At the city entrance, Lin Qi accused the Golden Rudder Family guards of obstructing his business, and the assembled mages erased them.

• Lin Qi traveled toward Port Vias with Elder Qing and Yun in the carriage, Merome beside him, and Alda and Bilibili following from the rear.
• Lin Qi gave Merome an ancient Flame Demon heart and promised that he could eventually reach the realm of an Enlightener, winning Merome’s willing loyalty.
• The caravan reached Port Vias, where Golden Rudder Family guards demanded to inspect its carriage and cargo.
• Lin Qi showed Merome an ingot of abyssal demon gold and challenged him to prove he had the authority to enter the city freely.
• Hundreds of mages appeared, and Lin Qi said the caravan had come to trade precious magical materials for supplies but was being obstructed.
• The Golden Rudder Family guards vanished after the mages turned against them.

Lin Qi traded abyssal demon gold for the Vias Commercial Federation’s promise to buy food, weapons, armor, and magical items at fifty percent above market price. The Mage Corps welcomed him lavishly, and he moved straight into negotiations while the Golden Rudder and Golden Sail Families faced the threat of being forced to supply the goods.

• Saint Mage Doros and the other mages annihilated the Golden Rudder Family’s private soldiers with their linked mental power.
• Lin Qi handed Doros an ingot of abyssal demon gold and offered magical materials in exchange for supplies at fifty percent above market price.
• Doros accepted Lin Qi’s offer and promised that the Vias Commercial Federation would meet his needs, while the Mage Corps prepared an extravagant welcome.
• The Mage Corps’ grand procession escorted Elder Qing and Yun toward its headquarters as Lin Qi led his men and ore carts through Port Vias.
• Lin Qi taunted Yun Fenghua in the crowd, then settled beside the Mage Corps headquarters and began arranging the trade.
• The Mage Corps leadership ushered Lin Qi, Elder Qing, and Yun into its mage tower to discuss the transaction.

Lin Qi and Yun negotiated with Doros and the Vias Mage Corps, offering a vast hoard of rare abyssal magical materials in exchange for grain, weapons, armor, and practical magical items. The mages eagerly promised cooperation as Lin Qi revealed a mountain of treasures, leaving them stunned by the scale of the potential trade.

• Lin Qi, Elder Qing, and Yun met Doros and the mage corps leaders in the Light of Magic, where the mages examined abyssal magic gold and mithril.
• Doros offered to buy all the magical materials and establish a long-term alliance with Yun's family.
• Lin Qi explained that his young master needed large quantities of grain, military equipment, and useful magical items quickly, and Doros promised no one in Vias would obstruct them.
• Lin Qi revealed ten ingots of abyssal magic gold and twenty fifty-pound ingots of abyssal mithril, astonishing the assembled mages.
• Lin Qi brought out void magic crystals, barrels of soul-condensing grass liquid, and many more materials until the treasures formed a small mountain and left the mages numb with shock.

Lin Qi and Yun traded magical materials with the Vias mage corps and urgently demanded a vast supply of grain. The mages forced the Golden Rudder Family to provide it, and Catherine fainted when she realized Lin Qi had already stolen nearly all its stored grain.

• Lin Qi offered the mage corps magical materials and promised future deliveries in exchange for supplies, while Yun stressed that grain was needed immediately.
• Doros ordered Elder Romen to make the Golden Rudder Family gather grain within a day, and the elders agreed to accompany Lin Qi to its estate.
• Lin Qi, Elder Qing, and Yun arrived at the Golden Rudder Family stronghold, where Catherine recognized them and trembled in fear.
• Lin Qi demanded grain enough to feed five hundred thousand people for three months, and Elder Romen threatened the Golden Rudder Family if it failed to comply.
• Catherine fainted after realizing that Lin Qi had stolen nearly all the family’s stored grain.

Clausen and Yun Fenghua faced the Golden Rudder Family’s imminent ruin after Lin Qi’s actions and the governing council’s ultimatum. Fearing Yun Canglong would learn of their past attack, they spent the family’s fortune to hire the Assassin Guild, while Lin Qi, Elder Qing, and Yun dined in Port Vias.

• The city guard and Mage Corps seized the Golden Rudder Family’s remaining grain, while fires and looting left its farms and warehouses stripped bare.
• The governing council ordered the Golden Rudder Family to procure food for ten million people for three years within three days, at eighty percent of market price.
• Clausen realized Lin Qi was driving the family toward ruin and feared Yun Canglong would punish them for ambushing Yun and Elder Qing.
• Clausen ordered Yun Fenghua to gather the family’s liquid capital and mortgage its properties to hire the Assassin Guild to kill Yun Qing and his nephew.
• Yun Fenghua delivered an enormous payment to the Assassin Guild as Lin Qi, Elder Qing, and Yun enjoyed a meal at Port Vias’s most famous restaurant.

Lin Qi enjoyed a meal at the White Cave Restaurant with Elder Qing, Yun, and Merome, but recognized that the food and staff concealed an assassination attempt. He survived four deadly poisons, exposed the attackers, and faced a roomful of disguised Heaven-rank swordsmen.

• Lin Qi warned Merome that he remained Lin Qi’s soul-bound slave and ordered him not to investigate their origins.
• The group received their appetizers, and Lin Qi insisted that Merome pay for the meal.
• Lin Qi sensed something wrong, and Yun and Elder Qing avoided eating their dishes while Lin Qi devoured all four appetizers.
• Lin Qi identified the restaurant’s staff as Heaven-rank swordsmen wearing magical items and struck one woman, killing her.
• Lin Qi revealed that the food had contained four deadly poisons, and the restaurant’s other guests rose in disguise as the woman called him a monster for surviving them.

Yun Canglong investigated the destruction of Golden Rudder Island and Vias Plain, then realized Yun Fenghua and Clausen were targeting an old man and a youth who might threaten his bloodline. He rushed toward Port Vias, vowing to kill Clausen for plotting against his only descendant.

• Yun Canglong read a report that Yun Fenghua and Clausen had failed to stop five attackers, and that Yun Lan and thousands of soldiers had been killed or defeated.
• Yun Canglong learned that Golden Rudder Family’s elders had vanished and that the attackers’ identities and motives remained unknown.
• A wind-element mage reported that Yun Fenghua and Clausen had spent the family’s funds and hired Assassins’ Guild elders to kill an old man and two young men whose appearances had changed.
• Yun Canglong connected the attack on Golden Rudder Island, the fire on Vias Plain, and the pressure placed on the Golden Rudder Family, and suspected the youth threatened his only bloodline.
• Yun Canglong flew toward Port Vias, declaring that Clausen would die for plotting against his only bloodline.

Lin Qi and Merome fought assassins who had trapped them inside White Cave Restaurant. Bilibili arrived with black flames to aid Lin Qi, who ordered him to help kill the remaining attackers.

• Merome formed a magical marking beneath his feet and protected Yun and Elder Qing while Lin Qi confronted the assassins.
• Three disguised female assassins attacked Lin Qi, but he blocked their strikes and shattered their wrists with a circular slash.
• A hidden assassin tore through much of Merome's defensive barrier as seven sword-wielding killers and their stealthy companions attacked Lin Qi.
• Lin Qi knocked aside the attackers, killed three men with his battle-axe, and endured a magical dagger that barely marked his skin.
• Bilibili burst into the restaurant and burned more than a dozen assassins with black fire, then stabbed a female assassin as Lin Qi told him to help finish the attackers.

Bilibili killed three attackers and then defeated three Saint-realm assassins after Lin Qi promised him ten female demons. The restaurant’s surviving witnesses saw the timid little demon’s mastery of darkness as the three elders fell.

• Bilibili killed the three swordsmen who attacked Alda, using poisoned daggers and shadow techniques.
• Wolf Fang, a Saint-realm assassin, attacked Bilibili, who escaped the assault and returned to Lin Qi.
• Lin Qi kicked Bilibili toward Wolf Fang and promised him ten high-ranking female demons if he won.
• Bilibili bound Wolf Fang with the restaurant’s shadows, then fought him and two other Saint-realm assassins with poisoned daggers.
• Bilibili returned to Lin Qi and asked for ten female Moon Demons before Alda hit him with a brick.
• The three Saint-realm assassins fell, defeated by Bilibili.

Bilibili killed three Saint-realm assassins at the White Cave Restaurant, but Yun Canglong arrived and slaughtered everyone else inside. Yun Canglong reunited with Elder Qing and Sound, promised to help Sound reclaim her inheritance, and recognized Lin Qi’s Three Seas Seven Wheels Scripture.

• Bilibili killed the three Assassins' Guild elders, and Lin Qi demanded compensation and the restaurant deed from the remaining assassins.
• Yun Canglong entered the restaurant, and his presence shifted everyone’s emotions as he declared that he would destroy the Assassins' Guild and the Assassins' Association.
• Yun Canglong burned several assassins alive and killed the remaining assassins, restaurant workers, servants, and every other living thing in the restaurant except Lin Qi’s group.
• Yun Canglong greeted Elder Qing, then promised Sound that he would kill Yun Fenghua and Clausen and help her retrieve her mother’s inheritance within three days.
• Yun Canglong looked at Lin Qi and remarked on his cultivation of the Three Seas Seven Wheels Scripture.

Yun Canglong reunited with Yun, gave Lin Qi the Yun Clan’s secret cultivation methods, and revealed that the Yun Clan had once been rescued from destruction by powerful allies. He left the nature of the clans’ deeper connection unclear and ended by demanding that Clausen and Yun Fenghua be brought to him.

• Yun Canglong questioned Yun about the past fifteen years and thanked Elder Qing for his help.
• Yun Canglong recognized Lin Qi’s cultivation and taught him the Three Meridians Four Aspects Scripture and the Three-Seven Spirit Ascension Scripture, collectively part of the Formless Divine Secret Scripture.
• Lin Qi and Yun asked whether the Yun Clan and the Black Tiger Family had a past connection, and Yun Canglong admitted there was one.
• Yun Canglong said the Yun Clan had once faced annihilation before powerful reinforcements saved three hundred members of its core bloodline, but he knew only part of the deeper history.
• Yun Canglong proposed that Lin Qi become his son-in-law and joked that he would have daughters for Lin Qi to choose from.
• Yun Canglong angrily demanded to know why Clausen and Yun Fenghua had not been brought to him.

Lin Qi learned that the Profound Tiger Divine Transformation Scripture extended beyond the White Tiger Battle Qi and planned to seek its later techniques from Blackbeard. Yun Canglong discovered that Elder Sen had released Clausen and Yun Fenghua and decided to return to the Yun Clan’s main territory to confront him.

• Lin Qi and Elder Qing considered the Black Tiger Family’s past dealings with Yun Canglong and the advanced techniques that followed the Profound Tiger Force.
• Lin Qi teased Yun about his family standing, and Yun kicked him before taking out his anger on Bilibili while Alda flirted with the maidservants.
• Dragon Guard commander Jiazi reported that Elder Sen had used the Elder’s Token to release Clausen and Yun Fenghua and claimed they had only meant to restrain Yun.
• Yun Canglong mocked Elder Sen’s explanation, ordered the slaughter of his mistresses and illegitimate sons, and prepared to return to the Yun Clan’s main territory to confront him.

Lin Qi traveled with Yun Canglong to the Yun Clan’s hidden underwater territory and learned about the power and internal conflicts of its Saint realm elders. The chapter ended as Yun Canglong arrived at the Clan’s base and its people greeted him as Chief.

• Lin Qi and Yun Canglong left Port Vias after the Golden Rudder Family was crushed and its assets were transferred to Lin Qi.
• Yun Canglong explained that Elder Sen had rescued Clausen, then admitted he had ordered the deaths of Elder Sen’s mistress and illegitimate son.
• Yun Canglong demonstrated his Saint realm power by compressing water dragons and destroying a coral reef.
• Lin Qi and his companions traveled from a private island through a teleportation array to the Yun Clan’s underwater territory.
• Several hundred armed men knelt to greet Yun Canglong as Chief, while figures rushed toward them from nearby buildings.

Yun Canglong welcomed Yun back to the Yun Clan and gave Lin Qi a powerful position, while revealing that the Black Tiger Family had deeper ties to ancient clans than Lin Qi knew. At the clan’s great hall, Yun Canglong demanded Elder Sen’s presence, but a middle-aged man challenged his authority and the assembly turned tense.

• Yun Canglong ordered the Dragon Guard to treat Yun’s commands as his own and appointed Lin Qi to take over Yun Lan’s duties and command the private guards among the branch families.
• Lin Qi accepted the appointment, recognizing that the Yun Clan’s influence could help him move his Fifth Abyss subordinates into human society.
• Yun Canglong privately told Elder Qing that the Black Tiger Family concealed a formidable foundation and handled logistical affairs for ancient clans.
• Yun Canglong led the group to the clan’s great hall, where a thousand Heaven-rank warriors guarded the entrance and clan officials gathered to greet him.
• Yun Canglong demanded that Elder Sen be summoned, but a middle-aged man said the Chief had to issue a formal request, plunging the hall into tension.

Yun Canglong declared that Yun Dian would reclaim the Lang Family inheritance, but Yun Tianming and other collateral clan members challenged the decision and Yun Dian’s identity. Lin Qi’s side answered their opposition with violence, and Lin Qi ended by demanding the inheritance and fifteen years of compounded profits.

• Yun Canglong announced that Yun Dian would manage the Lang Family’s islands, city-state, towns, estates, shops, and five shipyards.
• Yun Tianming argued that the branches that had managed the properties for fifteen years should not have to surrender them, then questioned whether the returned youth was truly Yun Dian.
• Yun Canglong ordered Jiazi to slap Yun Tianming, and the ensuing fight between the Dragon Guard and Yun Tianming’s supporters filled the hall with chaos.
• Lin Qi ordered Bilibili to attack Yun Tianming, and Bilibili secretly slashed away Yun Tianming’s jaw.
• Yun Canglong called for the Lang Family properties to be returned, but an elder objected and demanded an investigation into Yun Dian’s identity and the attack on Yun Tianming.
• Lin Qi declared Yun Dian his little brother and demanded the inheritance, fifteen years of profits with monthly compound interest, and threatened to kill anyone who refused.

Lin Qi erupted in the Yun Clan council hall, cursing the collateral members for seizing Yun's inheritance and challenging Yun Canglong to defend his son. He offered to take Yun away or help purge the clan, then an unseen speaker rebuked him.

• Yun Tianle and the collateral members reacted furiously when Lin Qi insulted them, but Lin Qi silenced their protests with more curses.
• Lin Qi accused the Yun Clan members of exploiting Yun's vulnerable position and challenged them to seize Yun Canglong's power openly.
• Lin Qi shattered a protected floor tile with a stomp, then insulted Yun Canglong for failing to protect his only son.
• Lin Qi reminded Yun Canglong of Elder Qing's loyalty and sacrifice, and demanded that Yun Canglong either deny Yun was his son or acknowledge him and act.
• Lin Qi offered to take Yun away or use more than a thousand Saint-realm great powers to massacre the collateral branch, before a distant voice called him a little thief.