Chapter Summaries

Xiao Wu was captured and taken to an auction house, where Director Wang tried to break her resistance and prepare her for sale. After Xiao Wu refused to cooperate, Director Wang had her locked alone in a dark room, leaving her frightened and longing for her brother.

• Xiao Wu was deceived, captured, and imprisoned with other girls who had been starved before sale.
• Director Wang learned that Xiao Wu had the Soft Bone Charm Rabbit Martial Soul and Innate Full Soul Power, then came to inspect her.
• Xiao Wu insulted Director Wang and refused food, so Director Wang ordered that she be isolated in a dark room.
• Xiao Wu began to struggle with fear and loneliness on her first day in the room while Director Wang planned to keep her imprisoned for at least three days.

The Black Armor Army seized control of the Heaven Dou Royal Auction House and arrested Director Wang along with its staff and guests. Li Pu freed Xiao Wu, who chose to follow him to take revenge on the people who had mistreated her.

• The Black Armor Army surrounded the auction house, captured Director Wang, and gathered the staff, attendants, and nobles in the auction hall.
• The soldiers beat nobles who resisted until everyone submitted.
• Li Pu opened Xiao Wu’s confinement and told her she could go home.
• Xiao Wu clung to Li Pu and asked him to be her big brother, but he brushed her off and gave her only a little food after she nearly collapsed.
• Xiao Wu questioned whether Li Pu was good or bad, then decided to follow him as he went to deal with the people who had hurt her.

Li Pu took control of the Heaven Dou Auction House and announced that the ban on slavery would be strictly enforced. After Director Wang challenged him, Li Pu had him killed and declared that everyone involved in the slave trade would be punished.

• Li Pu confronted the nobles and auction house staff, saying the auction house would follow new rules and that disobedience would cost them their lives.
• When the nobles assumed Li Pu had come to rescue Xiao Wu, he said she was incidental and that he intended to address the slave trade.
• Li Pu rejected warnings that the slave trade was too profitable to challenge and declared that anyone who broke the ban would lose their head.
• Director Wang argued that Li Pu was too young to make such a decision, so a Black Armor Guard killed him on Li Pu's order.
• Li Pu announced that the slavery ban would be strictly enforced and that people involved in slave hunting, training slaves, or trading them would not be spared.

Li Pu explained to Xiao Wu how the auction house’s female staff had been enslaved and why helping them would take time, while promising to get them out. Xiao Wu reconsidered her Shrek friends’ treatment of women and decided to distance herself from Dai Mubai and Ma Hongjun, though she wondered whether Xiao San had noticed she was missing.

• Li Pu warned the nobles that the new laws would end their exploitation of slaves, and they left after agreeing to comply.
• Li Pu told Xiao Wu that the auction house’s female staff had been bought as children, conditioned through abuse, and treated as commodities.
• Li Pu explained that helping the women would require patiently rebuilding their trust and giving them support, while many imprisoned girls feared being sold again by their families.
• Xiao Wu reflected that Dai Mubai and Ma Hongjun treated women as resources and said she would avoid them and tell Xiao San to stay away.
• Xiao Wu wondered whether Xiao San had come looking for her, and Li Pu suggested he might still be with the others performing the Three-in-One Martial Soul Fusion Skill.

Tang San and the Shrek monsters realized Xiao Wu had disappeared and rushed to Heaven Dou City, suspecting Li Pu had taken her. Meanwhile, Li Pu warned Xiao Wu about the dangers of trusting people, leaving her shaken by the possibility that even her friends might betray her.

• Tang San learned Xiao Wu had left the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect and worried that her identity as a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast could put her in danger.
• Ning Rongrong secretly welcomed Xiao Wu's absence, while the Shrek monsters suspected Li Pu had gone after her.
• Tang San and the others set off for Heaven Dou City to find Xiao Wu and confront Li Pu.
• Xiao Wu stayed by Li Pu's side as they walked through the city, and he dismissed her complaints about his lack of attention.
• Li Pu cautioned Xiao Wu that strangers and even friends could conceal harmful intentions, leaving her frightened and questioning whom she could trust.

Xiao Wu reunited with her friends after Li Pu protected her from being sold, but Dai Mubai, Ma Hongjun, and Tang San attacked Li Pu and were publicly whipped by his Blue Silver Emperor. Li Pu left after teaching them a lesson, while a beautiful woman rushed to Dai Mubai’s side.

• Xiao Wu refused to return to her friends until Tang San and the others found her, and she told them Li Pu had saved her from being sold.
• Dai Mubai and Ma Hongjun accused Li Pu and attacked him, so he restrained them with Blue Silver Emperor vines and whipped them.
• Tang San fired a Silent Sleeve Arrow at Li Pu, who dodged and then hung Tang San up and whipped him as well.
• Ning Rongrong, Oscar, and Xiao Wu pleaded for Li Pu to release the three, but he continued until they were bloody and barely conscious.
• Li Pu told the three their injuries were a lesson and left, while a beautiful woman rushed to comfort Dai Mubai.

Zhu Zhuyun arrived in place of Zhu Zhuqing and said she had broken with Dai Weisi and wanted to be with Dai Mubai. Dai Mubai welcomed the idea, believing the Star Luo Imperial Family would accept it, while Zhu Zhuyun began to suspect that the others had also been reborn.

• Zhu Zhuyun corrected Dai Mubai when he mistook her for Zhu Zhuqing, then asked who had injured him and the others.
• Xiao Wu and Oscar explained that Li Pu, Xue Qinghe's son and the Heaven Dou Empire's First Prince, had beaten them, and the group went to a Healing-type Spirit Master for treatment.
• Dai Mubai asked why Zhu Zhuyun had come, and she said the Star Luo Empire scandal had caused her to fall out with Dai Weisi.
• Zhu Zhuyun announced that she wanted to break off her engagement with Dai Weisi and be with Dai Mubai, and he considered the match a way to strengthen his chances of victory.
• Ning Rongrong questioned whether the Star Luo Empire would object, while Dai Mubai said his Three-in-One Martial Soul Fusion Skill gave the family reason to turn a blind eye.
• Ma Hongjun praised Zhu Zhuyun over Zhu Zhuqing, prompting Zhu Zhuyun to suspect that he and the others might have been reborn.

Xiao Wu confronted Tang San and the others over their belief that women without power were merely resources, and she grew disillusioned with them. As she tried to leave, Tang San prepared to stop her while Li Pu watched nearby.

• Zhu Zhuyun asked Dai Mubai to accept her, and he eagerly drew her into his arms.
• Xiao Wu condemned Dai Mubai, Ma Hongjun, and Oscar for opposing Li Pu’s plan to shut down brothels and for treating women as resources.
• Xiao Wu asked Tang San and Ning Rongrong what they thought of women, but they defended their views and avoided answering what they would have thought if she had become a slave or courtesan.
• Disappointed by their answers, Xiao Wu left, and Tang San panicked and prepared to stop her.
• Li Pu watched nearby as Xiao Wu challenged the prevailing belief that status, power, and strength determined who counted as a person.

After taking the throne, Xue Qinghe rejected calls to take consorts and announced that he would abolish slavery in the Heaven Dou Empire. He faced fierce opposition but threatened to replace officials who would not carry out the reform, while Ning Fengzhi listened to his proposed transition.

• On his first day as emperor, Xue Qinghe refused to rush into taking consorts and announced plans to abolish slavery as Li Pu had requested.
• Civil and military officials opposed the decree, arguing that freeing slaves would threaten nobles and destabilize the empire.
• Zhao Tele and other officials placed by Qian Renxue defended Xue Qinghe and urged the court to implement his reforms.
• Xue Qinghe warned opponents to carry out the reforms or resign, then asked Ning Fengzhi to support his vision for a new era.
• Xue Qinghe explained a transition from slavery to a landlord system, and some officials resigned while Ning Fengzhi recognized its benefits for landlords and servants.

Xue Qinghe used new laws and military reforms to strengthen imperial authority, abolish slavery, and crush a nobles’ rebellion. He then ordered brothels and gambling dens closed across the empire, leaving Ning Fengzhi suspecting that Spirit Hall had infiltrated Heaven Dou’s government.

• Xue Qinghe warned officials that the new laws would not be applied retroactively, but demanded they reform their conduct.
• Xue Qinghe purged old nobles from the military, appointed his own officers, and strengthened the throne with common-born talent and marginal factions.
• Nobles rebelled against Xue Qinghe’s reforms, but his army quickly crushed them and executed many powerful nobles.
• Xue Qinghe decreed that brothels and gambling dens be shut down and that officials involved in prostitution or drugs be barred from government service.
• Authorities across the empire swiftly enforced the crackdown, prompting Ning Fengzhi to suspect that Spirit Hall had infiltrated Heaven Dou’s government.

Xue Qinghe abolished brothels and freed enslaved women, offering them factory training and work as part of his reforms. Li Pu continued treating and employing the women while driving Heaven Dou toward industrialization, with Lou Gao identified as crucial to that effort.

• Ning Fengzhi feared Spirit Hall’s influence in the Heaven Dou Empire, while the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect chose to cooperate with Xue Qinghe’s reforms to preserve its independence.
• Soldiers raided brothels and courtesans’ houses, executed their proprietors, and freed the women by returning their contracts and slave papers.
• A young soldier told the freed women that Xue Qinghe would prioritize them for factory training and jobs under the new laws.
• The women tore up their papers and washed away their slave marks, while women across the empire welcomed the abolition of brothels.
• Li Pu treated women who were ill and arranged factory work for them in light industries such as food production, textiles, and papermaking.
• Li Pu recognized Lou Gao as essential to industrializing the empire and recalled that he had invited him from Gengxin City.

Li Pu guided Xue Qinghe’s reforms with new technology, expanded education, and a campaign to confiscate nobles’ estates, using firearms to crush their resistance. After Qian Renxue questioned what else he intended to change, Li Pu proposed taking on land ownership.

• Li Pu shared industrial designs with Lou Gao, whose craftsmen developed new machines for factories and industry.
• Li Pu promoted large-scale agriculture and established Commoner Academies for boys and girls.
• Xue Qinghe began confiscating nobles’ estates to fund reforms, and Li Pu’s armed forces used cannons and firearms to defeat the nobles’ resistance.
• Qian Renxue spoke with Li Pu about the reforms, and he asked whether she dared to take on the land.

Li Pu urged Qian Renxue to make land state-owned and redistribute its use to commoners, arguing that noble control of food and land kept the people impoverished. Qian Renxue recognized the reform would strike at the nobles’ deepest interests, and the chapter ended with her quietly repeating Li Pu’s vision of a world where everyone could become a dragon.

• Li Pu explained how noble control of land and food left commoners vulnerable to hunger, taxes, and disaster.
• Qian Renxue recalled how Heaven Dou Empire nobles had ignored disaster victims, seized their land, and offered them moldy grain and animal fodder.
• Li Pu argued that making land state-owned and invalidating exploitative sales would secure food and weaken noble power.
• Li Pu told Qian Renxue that a worthy emperor should let everyone live with dignity and build an age where everyone could become a dragon.
• Qian Renxue murmured, “Everyone can become a dragon?”

Li Pu persuaded Qian Renxue that people could thrive through many different paths, then helped her plan reforms for the Heaven Dou Empire. When Xue Qinghe announced that all private land would be taken into state ownership, the ministers erupted in protest, but he threatened to crush any rebellion.

• Li Pu told Qian Renxue that everyone could find a way to shine and urged her to take responsibility for governing the empire.
• Qian Renxue agreed to carry out Li Pu's plans while he declined to become emperor.
• A few days later, Xue Qinghe summoned the ministers and announced that private land ownership would be abolished and all land reclaimed by the state.
• The ministers warned that the policy would provoke nobles, unrest, and rebellion, while some newly appointed officials were also stunned.
• Xue Qinghe dismissed their objections and threatened to use his forces and modern weapons against anyone who rebelled.
• The ministers appealed to Sect Master Ning of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect to speak up.

Xue Qinghe pushed through the abolition of private land ownership and plans for a nationwide road network, promising that a new economic system would create prosperity. As resistance grew, nobles turned to the powerful Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Sect and offered it rule over the Heaven Dou Empire.

• Ning Fengzhi supported Xue Qinghe’s reforms, and Xue Qinghe explained how new jobs and higher wages would benefit the nobles as the economy grew.
• Xue Qinghe ordered a nationwide road network and said confiscated noble wealth would pay for construction.
• Xue Qinghe brought nobles and merchants to tour factories and new transportation systems, encouraging state-owned and private industries to develop together.
• Nobles resisted surrendering their extensive lands, especially the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Sect, which controlled a vast territory.
• Nobles gathered at the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Sect and offered to recognize it as their overlord and ruler of the Heaven Dou Empire.

Angered by Xue Qinghe’s reforms, the nobles urged Yu Yuanzhen to overthrow the Xue Family and become emperor. Yu Yuanzhen publicly refused but accepted their staged proclamation, leaving him seated in the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan’s hall as the nobles hailed him as emperor.

• The nobles complained that Xue Qinghe’s reforms threatened their interests and persuaded Yu Yuanzhen to consider taking the throne.
• Yu Yuanzhen claimed he would not betray the Heaven Dou Empire, while the nobles dismissed the threats posed by Xue Qinghe’s powerful allies.
• Yu Yuanzhen’s son, Yu Leiming, explained that his father needed the nobles to prove their support and provide a respectable excuse for the takeover.
• The nobles prepared a dragon robe and gold-painted throne, then carried Yu Yuanzhen into the clan’s great hall.
• Yu Yuanzhen protested as the nobles dressed him in the robe and proclaimed him emperor, but he smiled and thanked Xue Qinghe for alienating them.

Yu Yuanzhen sought Ning Fengzhi’s support for the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan’s plan to depose the Xue Family and take control of the Heaven Dou Empire. Ning Fengzhi weighed the offer against the danger of disrupting the fragile balance of power and said he could not support Yu Yuanzhen.

• Yu Yuanzhen relied on the nobles’ backing as he prepared to challenge the Xue Family’s rule of the Heaven Dou Empire.
• Yu Yuanzhen visited the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect and asked Ning Fengzhi to abandon the Xue Family.
• Yu Yuanzhen offered to preserve the sect’s standing and even let Ning Fengzhi become emperor if the sect supported the coup.
• Ning Fengzhi dismissed the servants and told Yu Yuanzhen that he could not support him.

Ning Fengzhi warned Yu Yuanzhen that Spirit Hall had infiltrated the Heaven Dou Empire and urged him not to attack, but Yu refused to believe him and left to pursue his plan. Tang San decided not to save the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan, leaving Ning Fengzhi and Chen Xin unable to prevent its likely destruction.

• Ning Fengzhi told Yu Yuanzhen that Spirit Hall had infiltrated the Heaven Dou Empire, but Yu accused him of inventing the story and rejected his warning.
• Yu Yuanzhen left, insisting that the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan would act without Ning Fengzhi's support.
• Ning Fengzhi told Chen Xin what had happened, and they worried that the clan would be unable to survive a confrontation with Qian Renxue's forces.
• Tang San said the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan could face its fate and argued that its attack might weaken Qian Renxue's plans.
• Ning Fengzhi and Chen Xin could not find a way to stop the clan from acting, since Yu Yuanzhen would not believe their warning.

Qian Renxue learned that Yu Yuanzhen and allied nobles had rebelled, and she planned to use the uprising to display the empire’s weapons and crush her opponents. Yu Yuanzhen’s forces surrounded the palace and prepared to storm it, but the gates opened amid raging fires, leaving the rebels convinced their people had secured the way inside.

• Ning Fengzhi and Chen Xin discussed whether the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect could help the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan, but decided they could not risk intervening.
• Qian Renxue learned that the great nobles and Marshal Ge Long had joined the rebellion, and she and Li Pu planned to use the conflict to demonstrate their weapons and eliminate the disobedient factions.
• Yu Yuanzhen gathered nearly a thousand Battle Soul Masters and troops around Heaven Dou Imperial Palace, while learning that Dugu Bo and Frost Douluo were away.
• Yu Luoguan warned Yu Yuanzhen that the palace was suspiciously quiet, but Yu Yuanzhen dismissed his concerns and insisted the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan would prevail.
• The palace erupted in flames and its gates slowly opened, prompting a noble to urge Yu Yuanzhen to enter and overthrow Xue Qinghe.

Xue Qinghe faced Yu Yuanzhen and the rebellious nobles in the palace plaza, where his forces unleashed explosive buns and firearms against them. The rebels were routed, and Xue Qinghe asked the shaken nobles what they thought.

• Yu Yuanzhen led the nobles and their troops into the palace to overthrow Xue Qinghe.
• Xue Qinghe confronted the rebels in the plaza, while Ge Long demanded that he abdicate and Luo Yang denounced the traitors.
• Yu Yuanzhen ordered an attack, and Luo Yang’s soldiers threw explosive buns that killed and wounded the advancing rebels.
• Xue Qinghe ordered his soldiers to fire their new weapons, cutting down the rebels and routing their forces across the palace.
• Xue Qinghe calmly asked the terrified nobles what they thought.