Chapter Summaries

Song Qingshu assigned forces to contain Tu Hai’s army and insisted that his smaller force could destroy the general’s thirty thousand troops. After Huang Rong and Xiao Feng each hinted they had found a way to win, Song Qingshu proposed comparing their plans.

• Chu Hongliu questioned how Song Qingshu could defeat Tu Hai’s thirty thousand troops, and Song claimed he needed only the forces of Madam Yuan, Old Hero Situ, Commander Shui, and Chief Cheng.
• Song Qingshu assigned Chu Hongliu to block Tu Hai’s retreat at Eagle Gully and made him sign a military pledge to destroy the routed soldiers.
• Song Qingshu ordered Jiao Wan’er, Rong Cai, Nie Tianfeng, and Zheng Qiyun to harass the Qing army’s other columns, while Meng Baifei and Sha Tongtian stayed at the main camp.
• Song Qingshu asked Yang Miaozhen, Chen Jinnan, and Mu Jiansheng to help with another task, and Yang Miaozhen said she hoped he would not disappoint her.
• Huang Rong and Xiao Feng each said they had thought of a way to overcome their disadvantage in numbers, and Song Qingshu suggested they write their plans in their palms and compare them.

Song Qingshu, Huang Rong, and Xiao Feng agreed that a night attack and fire could throw Tu Hai’s Qing army into chaos, but Chen Jinnan warned that Tu Hai’s discipline and scouts made the plan unlikely to work. Song Qingshu said he could kill Tu Hai and revealed that the Qing army would camp at Fox Slope the next day, where he planned to ambush them.

• Huang Rong, Xiao Feng, and Song Qingshu proposed using a night attack and fire to make the Qing troops explode the camp.
• Chen Jinnan warned that Tu Hai’s strict discipline and scouts would make the attack difficult, and that the soldiers would not panic while Tu Hai commanded them.
• Song Qingshu said he had a way to kill Tu Hai, but kept his method secret from the others.
• Chen Jinnan and Xiao Feng questioned how the Golden Snake Camp could evade the Qing scouts and approach the enemy camp undetected.
• Song Qingshu identified Fox Slope as Tu Hai’s planned campsite for the next day and declared it would become the Qing soldiers’ burial place.

Song Qingshu organized an ambush and an infiltration plan to throw Tu Hai's Qing army into chaos, while positioning allied forces along its escape route. After the others departed, Xiao Feng and Huang Rong questioned whether the plan could destroy the Qing army, and Song Qingshu hinted that he had another way to make it possible.

• Song Qingshu placed Yang Miaozhen in command of the elite forces of Situ Bolei, Shui Jian, and the Red Tunic Army, and sent them to ambush the Qing army at Fox Slope.
• Song Qingshu assigned Prince Mu's Mansion, the Heaven and Earth Society, Emei, and other allies to ambush positions along the mountain route.
• Song Qingshu selected martial arts experts, including Huang Rong, Ah Jiu, Xiao Feng, and Yelü Nanxian, to infiltrate the Qing camp and create chaos.
• Zhou Zhiruo urged Song Qingshu to protect himself, and he warned her to avoid direct combat while making her forces appear larger than they were.
• After the allied forces departed, Xiao Feng and Huang Rong pointed out that the plan seemed unable to stop Tu Hai's routed army, and Song Qingshu said they could summon heavenly soldiers and divine generals.

Song Qingshu revealed his plan to flood the White Water River and destroy Tu Hai’s thirty-thousand-strong Qing army, boosting the group’s morale. As the others considered his abilities and the threat ahead, Huang Rong began weighing him as a possible husband for Guo Fu.

• Song Qingshu explained that he had arranged for Zhu Meichuo and Xia Qingqing to dam the White Water River upstream, intending to drown Tu Hai’s army.
• Huang Rong recognized the plan, and Song Qingshu confirmed that the White Water River would become the Tartar army’s burial ground.
• Xiao Feng judged that Song Qingshu’s strategy had a strong chance of success, while Yelü Qi admired his abilities and Yelü Nanxian quietly watched him.
• Huang Rong reconsidered Guo Fu’s marriage prospects after realizing the Lü Family did not sincerely want her daughter, but worried that Song Qingshu was already married.
• Song Qingshu dismissed the group to rest before the coming battle, and Huang Rong resolved to find a way to bring him and Guo Fu together.

Song Qingshu demonstrated to Zhu Meichuo how he had overcome A Qing, then became intimate with her. Huang Rong secretly eavesdropped, hoping to learn the secret, and heard Zhu Meichuo ask whether Song Qingshu had been involved with her.

• After the all-night meeting, Song Qingshu told the group to rest and return in six hours, while Zhu Meichuo warned him that revealing the plan was risky.
• Song Qingshu reassured Zhu Meichuo that the leaders could be trusted because they shared an interest in defeating the Qing Dynasty.
• Song Qingshu used Joyful Fragrance on Zhu Meichuo as a demonstration of how he had defeated A Qing, and the two became intimate.
• Huang Rong went to Song Qingshu's quarters to sound him out about her daughter, but overheard him and Zhu Meichuo inside.
• Huang Rong crept to the doorway to learn how Song Qingshu had defeated A Qing, but heard only intimate conversation.
• Zhu Meichuo asked Song Qingshu whether he had been involved with Huang Rong and suggested he could invite her in, leaving Huang Rong stunned outside.

Huang Rong entered Song Qingshu’s room after claiming she had a question about assassinating Tu Hai, then became trapped in his attempt to test his Disguise Art. The chapter left her facing someone who looked and sounded like Guo Jing, while Song Qingshu and Ah Jiu were gone.

• Huang Rong overheard Song Qingshu and Ah Jiu, but Song Qingshu stopped her from fleeing and drew her into the room.
• Huang Rong asked Song Qingshu how he planned to assassinate Tu Hai and grew eager when he described his Disguise Art.
• Song Qingshu said he needed to test whether his disguise could fool someone intimate with the person he impersonated, and Huang Rong realized what he intended.
• Song Qingshu transformed into Guo Jing and embraced Huang Rong, but she questioned whether he was really her Jing Gege.
• The disguised Guo Jing claimed Song Qingshu had left with Ninth Princess, and Huang Rong saw that Ah Jiu had vanished from the bed.

Song Qingshu disguised himself as Guo Jing and used the Ninth Princess’s disappearance and Soul Transfer to test whether Huang Rong would recognize him. Huang Rong saw through the disguise but played along, and the chapter ended with her asking how Song’s martial arts compared to Guo Jing’s.

• Song Qingshu appeared to Huang Rong as Guo Jing, and she realized he was using Disguise Art after he avoided her attempt to touch his face.
• Huang Rong deduced that Song had moved the Ninth Princess and used Soul Transfer to keep her from noticing, then decided to pretend she had not seen through him.
• Huang Rong questioned the disguised Song about Guo Jing’s departure from Xiangyang and caught him giving an implausible answer, but kept the ruse going.
• Huang Rong asked what Guo Jing thought of Song Qingshu, and the disguised Song praised himself as a peerless martial arts genius.
• Song pulled Huang Rong onto his lap, and when she asked how Guo Jing’s martial arts compared with Song’s, he answered that it depended on what she wanted.

Song Qingshu tested Huang Rong’s ability to recognize a counterfeit lover, using his disguise as Guo Jing to provoke and unsettle her. He then proposed an experiment to see whether intimacy would reveal an impostor, leaving Huang Rong facing his request for her cooperation.

• Song Qingshu caressed Huang Rong while disguised as Guo Jing, and she tried to tolerate his advances without jeopardizing their planned raid.
• Song Qingshu revealed himself and asked whether she had noticed flaws in his disguise; Huang Rong said his appearance was convincing but his mannerisms were not.
• Song Qingshu speculated that he could exploit his disguise to impersonate Guo Jing without speaking, and Huang Rong warned him to behave with dignity.
• Huang Rong tried to leave, but Song Qingshu stopped her and told her about a princess who had mistaken a stranger for her lover.
• Song Qingshu asked Huang Rong to help test whether a woman could identify an impostor during intimacy, and she blushed and protested that she could not know.

Song Qingshu subdued Huang Rong when she tried to escape and used a false claim about detoxifying her to undress her. He warned that exposing him would also ruin her reputation and Guo Jing’s, leaving Huang Rong shaken and unable to answer.

• Huang Rong tried to flee through a window, but Song Qingshu disrupted her internal power and caught her.
• Song Qingshu carried Huang Rong to a couch and began removing her clothes, claiming he needed to force poison from her body.
• Huang Rong challenged Song Qingshu’s explanation and tried to delay him by questioning his knowledge of martial arts.
• Song Qingshu told Huang Rong that revealing what happened would destroy her reputation and damage Guo Jing’s standing.
• Huang Rong cried out for Song Qingshu to stop as she realized the consequences he described.

Song Qingshu pressured Huang Rong into accepting his advances by arguing that she would hide any assault from Guo Jing to protect their marriage. The chapter ended with Huang Rong agreeing to satisfy him in exchange for his promise to leave her alone afterward.

• Song Qingshu told Huang Rong that she would keep what happened secret because she feared creating a rift with Guo Jing.
• Huang Rong realized Song Qingshu had accurately guessed her plan to conceal any loss of chastity from her husband.
• Song Qingshu claimed he could ease Huang Rong’s loneliness without challenging her love for Guo Jing, and she was shaken by his argument.
• Huang Rong asked Song Qingshu not to make things difficult for her afterward, and he threatened to bother her again if he was not satisfied.
• Huang Rong agreed to let Song Qingshu enjoy himself fully in exchange for his promise to leave her alone, then began removing her dress.

Huang Rong suffered Qi Deviation while eavesdropping on Song Qingshu and Ajiu, and her Inner Demon conjured a dream in which Song Qingshu violated her. After waking and realizing the dream had not happened, she fled in embarrassment, unsure how much of her ravings Ajiu had heard.

• After Huang Rong and Song Qingshu finished their supposed encounter in her dream, he said they still had to raid the camp together that night.
• Huang Rong woke in Ajiu’s arms and learned she had fainted outside the room while suffering Qi Deviation.
• Huang Rong realized that her apparent encounter with Song Qingshu had been a dream caused by her Inner Demon, and that her clothes remained untouched.
• Huang Rong asked Ajiu whether she had said anything while delirious, then hurried away after sensing Ajiu had heard some of her ravings.
• Ajiu teased Song Qingshu about Huang Rong’s dream, and he carried Ajiu back into the room.
• In her bedroom, Huang Rong blushed and hid beneath the quilt, ashamed of her dream.

Song Qingshu and the martial artists prepared to raid the Qing camp in disguise, while Huang Rong struggled with memories of a vivid dream about him. As the group rode out, A Jiu agreed to watch over Huang Rong and warned Song Qingshu not to touch her.

• Huang Rong woke from her dream, rejected the idea that Song Qingshu had used Soul Transfer on her, and grew troubled by what the dream revealed about her own thoughts.
• Song Qingshu issued Qing soldier uniforms for the group, and the martial artists changed into disguises before preparing to depart.
• Song Qingshu admired A Jiu in her uniform, while Yelü Nanxian rolled her eyes at his boast about handsome guards.
• Song Qingshu noticed Huang Rong's poor condition and asked her to stay beside him during the raid, but she refused.
• Song Qingshu asked A Jiu to watch Huang Rong in the Qing camp, and A Jiu agreed while warning him not to touch Madam Guo.

Song Qingshu and his allies infiltrated the Qing camp to set fires and create a diversion while he targeted Tu Hai. Song Qingshu killed Tu Hai by impersonating his aide Muhada, then announced the general's death as Tu Hai's guards charged him.

• Song Qingshu and the experts met Yang Miaozhen near the Qing camp and divided up their fire-setting tasks.
• Tu Hai heard disturbances in the camp and ordered his guards to contain the fires and keep the soldiers in their tents.
• When elite cavalry charged the camp, Tu Hai hurried to mount his horse and take command.
• Song Qingshu replaced Muhada, deceived the guards, and stabbed Tu Hai as he mounted the horse.
• Song Qingshu displayed Tu Hai's severed head and called on the soldiers to surrender, but Tu Hai's guards charged to avenge him.

Song Qingshu killed Tu Hai and Xu Hao, breaking the Qing camp’s defenses and allowing Yang Miaozhen’s troops to storm inside. He found Xiao Feng and the others wounded, then rushed to help Yelü Nanxian as she faced overwhelming Qing forces.

• Song Qingshu defeated Tu Hai’s guards, displayed Tu Hai’s severed head, and called on the Qing soldiers to surrender.
• Song Qingshu killed Xu Hao after reflecting a volley of arrows, causing the Qing camp’s defensive line to collapse as Yang Miaozhen led her troops through the gate.
• Yang Miaozhen took Tu Hai’s head as a battle prop and continued leading the assault through the camp.
• Song Qingshu found Xiao Feng, Yelü Qi, Zhang Songxi, and Yin Liting wounded while they fought Qing troops, and Xiao Feng urged him to rescue Huang and the Ninth Princess.
• Song Qingshu hurried toward Yelü Nanxian after recognizing her Sun Moon Divine Sword, while she feared she would die surrounded by Qing soldiers.

Song Qingshu rescued Yelü Nanxian, Ajiu, and Huang Rong from Qing soldiers during their escape from the burning camp. He drove back another attack with his Lion's Roar Skill, leaving the women safe beside him.

• Qing troops surrounded the fleeing women, and Yelü Nanxian became separated from Huang Rong and Ajiu as she fought off soldiers.
• Song Qingshu rescued Yelü Nanxian with a whirlwind of controlled sabers and carried her out through the encirclement.
• Yelü Nanxian told Song Qingshu where Huang Rong and Ajiu had fled, and he carried her toward them.
• Song Qingshu arrived as Huang Rong and Ajiu were surrounded and used flying sabers to kill the soldiers closing in.
• Ajiu embraced Song Qingshu, and he drew Yelü Nanxian to the group with Dragon Capturing Skill.
• Song Qingshu shielded the three women from another Qing charge and knocked the soldiers down with his Lion's Roar Skill.

Song Qingshu’s ambush destroyed the Qing army’s Eastern Route Army by driving the fleeing soldiers into a flooded riverbed. The next day, disguised as Muhada, he tried to persuade Feiyanggu to send reinforcements to Tu Hai, but Feiyanggu recognized him as a spy and ordered his execution.

• Chu Hongliu’s troops were overwhelmed by the routed Qing army, and Chu Hongliu fled with several trusted followers.
• The Heaven and Earth Society and other forces left the Qing soldiers narrow escape routes, steering them toward a nearly dry riverbed.
• Song Qingshu’s flood swept away the Qing soldiers, annihilating all thirty thousand of the army.
• Huang Rong asked Song Qingshu why he had expected the routed soldiers to flee across the river instead of making a stand, and he explained that they hoped to be lucky.
• Disguised as Muhada, Song Qingshu asked Feiyanggu to rescue Tu Hai’s encircled Eastern Route Army, but Feiyanggu called him a spy and ordered the guards to behead him.

Song Qingshu impersonated Muhada and persuaded Feiyanggu to march the Western Route Army to Fox Slope to rescue Tu Hai. Feiyanggu arrived in time and ordered his exhausted troops to rest before battle, then summoned Song Qingshu for questioning.

• Song Qingshu claimed that the Red Tunic Army and Khitan forces had ambushed Tu Hai’s Eastern Route Army and pleaded for Feiyanggu’s aid.
• Song Qingshu persuaded Feiyanggu that the rescue could earn him military merit and a marquisate.
• Feiyanggu ordered the Western Route Army to travel light and march day and night toward Fox Slope.
• Feiyanggu’s troops reached Fox Slope after a day and night of marching, and he ordered them to rest for two hours.
• Feiyanggu called Song Qingshu over, saying he had something serious to ask him.

Song Qingshu deceived Feiyanggu into attacking the Eastern Route Army, then had Tu Hai’s men kill Feiyanggu and turn on the Western Route Army, leaving its soldiers to slaughter one another in confusion. As Song Qingshu and the women surveyed the victory, Sabsu’s Northern Route Army unexpectedly appeared on a distant hill.

• Feiyanggu questioned Muhada, whom Song Qingshu had impersonated, then led the Western Route Army to attack the coalition at Fox Slope.
• Feiyanggu realized Tu Hai’s troops were charging without stopping, and Song Qingshu killed him before the Eastern Route Army attacked the Western Route Army.
• The Western Route Army fell into chaos, and its soldiers killed one another because both forces wore Qing uniforms and their commander was dead.
• Song Qingshu watched the battle from a distant rise as A Jiu, Zhou Zhiruo, Xia Qingqing, Yelü Nanxian, and Huang Rong reflected on what his victories might mean for their causes.
• Song Qingshu spotted Sabsu’s Northern Route Army cresting a distant hill, despite the plan that it should have been hundreds of miles away.

With the Golden Snake Camp trapped between the Western Route Army and Sabsu’s Northern Route Army, Song Qingshu rejected retreat and searched for another way to survive. After Xia Qingqing revealed that Meng Baifei had led the Northern Route Army to the battlefield, Song Qingshu spotted an idea in the valley’s terrain.

• Sabsu recognized that the Golden Snake Camp had disguised itself in Qing uniforms and ordered the Northern Route Army to wait while the Western Route Army and Golden Snake Camp fought.
• Sabsu explained that his cavalry could attack after the battle, when the Golden Snake Camp would be exhausted, and the officers agreed with his plan.
• Cheng Qingzhu, Situ Bolei, Shui Jian, and other Golden Snake Camp leaders urged Song Qingshu to withdraw, but he said retreat would expose them to the cavalry.
• Situ Bolei warned Song Qingshu that the Northern Route Army’s firearms, cavalry, and position on the slope made a direct fight perilous.
• Huang Rong advised Song Qingshu to retreat, while Xia Qingqing disclosed that Meng Baifei had deliberately brought the Northern Route Army to the battlefield.
• Song Qingshu surveyed the valley and suddenly formed a bold plan.

With Sabsu’s eight thousand cavalry preparing to charge, Song Qingshu promised to stay behind and cover the Golden Snake Camp’s retreat, then ordered his allies to burn supplies, finish off the Western Route Army, and prepare their forces. Several women chose to remain with him as the exhausted defenders faced the coming assault.

• Song Qingshu addressed the Golden Snake Camp, vowed to handle Sabsu’s cavalry, and promised not to leave before covering the soldiers’ retreat.
• Song Qingshu sent Chen Jinnan and Mu Jiansheng to burn the Eastern Route Army’s tents and supplies, while he ordered Situ Bolei, Shui Jian, and Cheng Qingzhu to help King Xiao and Fourth Mistress defeat the remaining Western Route Army.
• Song Qingshu directed Xia Qingqing to form up at the foot of the mountain and urged Zhou Zhiruo to withdraw; Zhou handed the Emei leadership ring to Abbess Jingxuan but stayed with him.
• Ajiu, Zhou Zhiruo, and Huang Rong chose to remain, while Yelü Nanxian went to join her royal brother and King Xiao.
• With the Western Route Army nearly defeated and the Golden Snake Camp reduced to less than a third of its strength, Sabsu ordered his cavalry to prepare to charge.