Recaps

Lu Zhen struggled to support his sister while working as a lame-legged rickshaw puller and paying off his gang debt. After taking his sister home safely, he discovered a Daily Settlement Panel that rewarded his work with money and experience.

• Lu Zhen pulled a rich madam through the crowded streets, endured her insults, and recalled how Zhao Jincheng had crippled his leg twelve years earlier.
• Lu Zhen returned to Pig Cage Alley, where Triangular Eyes demanded interest on his loan and threatened to sell Lu Wan to a brothel.
• Lu Zhen paid the gang what he could, then learned Lu Fang had accidentally led the thugs to their home while bringing cornmeal.
• Lu Fang gave Lu Zhen two silver dollars for food and coal, and he escorted her safely to the Zhou Family gate.
• After returning his rickshaw, Lu Zhen saw a Daily Settlement Panel appear and discovered it had added two silver dollars and experience for his day's work.

Lu Zhen used his settlement Panel to strengthen his crippled meridians while supporting his sister and helping Shen Yun. After four days of work, he broke through the blockage, regained the use of his leg, and reached the early Lianli Realm, leaving him determined to seek a martial arts master.

• Lu Zhen bought buns and pig head meat for Lu Wan, then spent his Universal Experience on his damaged meridians and felt his right leg improve.
• Over four days, Lu Zhen devoted his settlement experience to his physique as his leg gradually recovered.
• Lu Zhen gave food to Shen Yun and carried water to her home, but heard her husband beat her and left without intervening.
• Lu Zhen used his settlement experience to break through his blocked meridians, became Strong and Healthy Lv.2, and stood and walked unaided.
• Lu Zhen demonstrated early Lianli strength and resolved to visit martial arts schools in search of a master.

Lu Zhen picked up his former schoolmate Xiao Yuqing at Shiliupu Pier and discovered she had become a Hidden Force Martial Grandmaster. After he delivered her to her family’s mansion, Xiao Yuqing watched him leave, seemingly wondering about the coachman she had not recognized.

• Lu Zhen used his recovered strength to beat the other coachmen to the front of the pier and offer Xiao Yuqing a ride.
• Xiao Yuqing hired Lu Zhen to take her to the Cathay Hotel, but he recognized her as his former classmate from Jingcheng Middle School.
• At the French Concession checkpoint, Xiao Yuqing showed her Martial Alliance of the World plaque, and the patrolmen let them pass through the martial artists’ lane.
• Lu Zhen realized the plaque identified Xiao Yuqing as a Hidden Force Martial Grandmaster and compared her standing with his own early Force Refining Realm.
• At Xiao Yuqing’s mansion, Xiao Ran scorned Lu Zhen and gave him two silver dollars for the fare.
• After Lu Zhen left, Xiao Yuqing gazed thoughtfully after him before going inside with Xiao Ran.

After choosing Iron Arm Martial Arts Hall, Lu Zhen lost the money he needed for apprenticeship when the Black Snake Gang demanded early interest. After seeing the gang leave, he waited until night, masked himself, and went out to reclaim what was his.

• Lu Zhen chose Iron Arm Martial Arts Hall and planned to become an apprentice once he had enough money.
• Lu Zhen returned to Pig Cage Alley and learned the Black Snake Gang had beaten Wu Laoliu to death and driven his granddaughter to suicide over a debt.
• Triangular Eyes demanded next week's interest from Lu Zhen, who handed over four silver dollars and was given two days to pay the remaining dollar.
• Lu Zhen comforted Lu Wan, then used five points of general experience to raise Daily Settlement to 5/50.
• After midnight, Lu Zhen covered his face and strode out, determined to take back his money.

Lu Zhen killed Triangular Eyes and the other Black Snake Gang men, then killed He the Third after hearing him beat Shen Yun. He returned home as the Constabulary dismissed the deaths as a burglary, but he questioned why he had killed He the Third, who had no money.

• Lu Zhen snuck into Triangular Eyes’ home, broke his neck, and crushed his head with a bluestone to ensure he was dead.
• Lu Zhen gathered seven silver dollars from the gang and returned to the alley, where he heard He the Third beating Shen Yun.
• Lu Zhen burst into He the Third’s home, killed him, and scattered belongings to make the death look like a robbery and murder to silence a witness.
• Lu Zhen hid his black clothes and went to bed as the Constabulary hastily ruled He the Third’s death a burglary.
• Lu Zhen wondered whether he had killed He the Third because he was bloodthirsty, since He the Third had no money.

Lu Zhen joined Iron Arm Martial Arts Hall and learned that he had two months to master either the Coiling Dragon Stake or Iron Wire Fist, or advance to the Mid Force Refining Realm, to become an Initiate Disciple. His first attempts were stiff and awkward, and Yan Tieqiao judged his aptitude mediocre to below average.

• Lu Zhen paid Yan Tieqiao sixteen silver dollars to join Iron Arm Martial Arts Hall, and Yan Tieqiao assigned Xiong Yue to teach him.
• Xiong Yue explained the Coiling Dragon Stake and Iron Wire Fist, along with the two-month trial required to become an Initiate Disciple.
• Xiong Yue demonstrated both arts and explained that Mastery meant unifying the force enough to make a crisp sound with each punch.
• Lu Zhen watched other apprentices ignore Song the Stutterer, then tried both arts but struggled with his stiff muscles and clumsy movements.
• Yan Tieqiao watched Lu Zhen practice and privately judged that his age and cart-pulling background left him with poor prospects.

Lu Zhen trained at the martial arts school, shared an idea that helped Gu Yanzhi design a repeating firearm, and found that his new stance improved his rickshaw work. His daily settlement panel rewarded his effort, leaving him with more money and experience.

• Lu Zhen endured stance training and ate a hearty meal at the martial arts school.
• Lu Zhen suggested a rotating cylinder mechanism to Gu Yanzhi, who sketched a revolver design and thanked him.
• Lu Zhen pulled a rickshaw through the afternoon and earned more than a silver dollar after expenses.
• Lu Zhen brought food home to his little sister and received daily settlement rewards for training and work.

Lu Zhen used his Panel to invest experience and continued training at Iron Arm Martial Arts Hall while earning money. After protecting Shen Yun from He Gui and enduring a week of hard work, he saw his Daily Settlement reach Level 2 and his martial skills approach their first breakthrough.

• Lu Zhen put all 10 points of General Experience into Daily Settlement, raising it to 15/50, then went to sleep.
• Lu Zhen stopped He Gui from seizing Shen Yun's home, and He Gui backed down when he recognized Lu Zhen's Iron Arm Martial Arts Hall uniform.
• Neighbors noticed Lu Zhen's healed leg, while others spread malicious gossip about him and Shen Yun.
• Gu Yanzhi praised Lu Zhen's help revising a revolver sketch, then trained alongside him as Xiong Yue corrected their martial arts.
• Lu Zhen trained and pulled carts for seven or eight days, raising Daily Settlement to Level 2, his money to 17 silver dollars, and his Coiling Dragon Stake and Iron Wire Fist skills to 40/50 each.

Lu Zhen earned money by helping Gu Yanzhi improve his revolver design, then saw how the refugee influx made Ocean City dangerous. After returning home to find refugees threatening Lu Wan, he drove them off and realized that strength and status shaped how others treated him; he ended the chapter worrying about the safety of Lu Wan and Shen Yun.

• Lu Zhen drank Blood Qi Soup and gave Gu Yanzhi a ratchet-and-detent mechanism for his revolver, earning ten silver dollars and a promise to share future profits.
• Lu Zhen heard that tens of thousands of refugees had entered Ocean City and saw starving people clash with the Constabulary in the streets.
• Lu Zhen returned to Pig Cage Alley and found Uncle Ma and Xiao Wu guarding his doorway against refugees who had been watching Lu Wan.
• Lu Zhen scared the refugees away with his Iron Arm uniform, thanked his neighbors with steamed buns, and comforted the frightened Lu Wan.
• Lu Zhen reflected on how people treated him differently now that he was a martial arts student and worried that neither his door nor his reputation could protect Lu Wan and Shen Yun from future danger.

Lu Zhen received doubled rewards from his Lv.2 Daily Settlement and tested how his martial arts had improved. Fearing the dangers around Pig Cage Alley, he spent his universal experience on Physique instead of raising the settlement level, leaving just 35 points before the next threshold.

• Lu Zhen saw that his Lv.2 Daily Settlement had doubled his rewards and updated his attributes.
• Lu Zhen tested his Lv.2 Iron Wire Fist, producing one sharp resonance, and found his Coiling Dragon Stake cultivated qi faster.
• Lu Zhen compared his progress with Senior Sister Xiong Yue and concluded that he still needed to train to reach Triple Resonance.
• Lu Zhen decided that survival mattered more than maximizing future rewards and put all his universal experience into Physique.
• Lu Zhen raised Physique to Lv.2 (165/200) and expected to reach the next threshold after two more days of experience.

Lu Zhen’s improved martial skill drew notice at the Iron Arm Martial Arts Hall, where he watched Li Gen get expelled for failing to enter the gate within two months. Meanwhile, Lu Fang’s attempt to discuss a marriage between Lu Zhen and Li Qingyue was rejected by Li Qingyue and Zhou Wenjing.

• Lu Zhen demonstrated a sharp, powerful punch at the training ground, surprising Xiong Yue and Gu Yanzhi.
• Yan Tieqiao judged Li Gen’s Iron Wire Fist and stance insufficient, expelled him, and ordered Xiong Yue to see him out despite Li Gen’s pleas.
• Lu Zhen watched Li Gen leave and resolved to train harder, fearing he would face the same fate without the Panel.
• Lu Fang cautiously raised the idea of Li Qingyue marrying Lu Zhen, but Li Qingyue dismissed him as an uneducated rickshaw puller and praised a foreign gentleman instead.
• Zhou Wenjing agreed with Li Qingyue and told Lu Fang not to bring up the proposed match again.

Lu Zhen watched Gu Yanzhi and Song Shi earn Triple Resonance and enter the Iron Arm Martial Arts Hall’s Inner Sect, then attended Gu Yanzhi’s banquet at Wangjiang Pavilion. There, a dispute over Lu Zhen’s place at the main table was defused, and the guests learned that the Golden Lion Empire’s Beast Blood Serum could create powerful Bloodline Warriors.

• Lu Zhen found that reaching Tendon Stretching and Bone Strengthening Lv.3 had made his Coiling Dragon Stake and Iron Wire Fist practice smoother and faster.
• Gu Yanzhi achieved Triple Resonance after less than a month of training, and Yan Tieqiao accepted him as an Inner Sect disciple.
• When Yan Tieqiao called on Song Shi to demonstrate his skills, Song Shi overcame his weakness and produced Triple Resonance, earning promotion to the Inner Sect.
• At Wangjiang Pavilion, Zhang Lei objected to Lu Zhen sitting at the main table, but Gu Yanzhi defended him and Yan Shanshan calmed Zhang Lei with a toast.
• An Inner Sect senior brother told the banquet guests that the Golden Lion Empire’s Beast Blood Serum could turn survivors into Bloodline Warriors capable of matching Bright Force experts, prompting Zhang Lei to condemn it as an unorthodox shortcut.

After advancing Daily Settlement to Lv.3, Lu Zhen broke through to the Mid Force Refining Realm while pulling his rickshaw. He then killed a Japanese man attacking a refugee woman and her child, and urged them to escape.

• Gu Yanzhi warned martial artists that Western powers could mass-produce fighters and might impose a Martial Arts Prohibition Order.
• Lu Zhen reviewed his progress and spent 150 General Experience to raise Daily Settlement to Lv.3, multiplying his daily rewards by three.
• While working, Lu Zhen felt a breakthrough coming, rushed to an alley, and advanced to the Mid Force Refining Realm with five hundred jin of strength in one arm.
• Lu Zhen heard a woman cry for help and found a Japanese man assaulting her beside her young child.
• Lu Zhen killed the attacker, took a silver dollar from his clothes, and told the woman to take her child and flee in his rickshaw.

Lu Zhen brought a starving refugee woman and her child to a relief station after killing an Eastern Foreigner, then returned home wary of further danger. The next morning, he headed to the Iron Arm Martial Arts Hall, excited to cross the threshold into the Mid Force Refining Realm.

• Lu Zhen took the refugee woman and her child to the City God Temple's porridge station and told them they could also seek food and shelter at St. Mary's Church.
• Xiao Ran saw Lu Zhen leave the woman and child and accused him of abandoning his family, while Xiao Yuqing watched him go.
• Lu Zhen worried about his little sister Wan'er but decided not to send her to live with eldest sister and Zhou Wenjing.
• At the entrance to Pig Cage Alley, a group of thugs recognized Lu Zhen's Iron Arm uniform and moved aside without confronting him.
• The next morning, Lu Zhen set out for the Iron Arm Martial Arts Hall, eager to reach the Mid Force Refining Realm.

Lu Zhen demonstrated Triple Resonance at the Training Ground and was confirmed to have reached the Mid Force Refining Realm, earning recognition as an Inner Sect disciple. After changing into his new uniform, he learned from Gu Yanzhi and Zhao Peng that Inner Sect disciples often took jobs to pay for martial training and medicinal supplements.

• Lu Zhen greeted Gu Yanzhi and practiced boxing, producing Triple Resonance with a single punch.
• Yan Tieqiao examined Lu Zhen and confirmed that he had broken through to the Mid Force Refining Realm.
• Gu Yanzhi praised Lu Zhen, while Zhang Lei and other Inner Sect disciples dismissed his achievement and the Outer Sect apprentices watched enviously.
• Xiong Yue scolded the apprentices for staring and ordered them back to practice.
• Lu Zhen bathed and changed into the Inner Sect uniform, then met Gu Yanzhi, Zhao Peng, and Song Shi outside.
• Zhao Peng and Gu Yanzhi explained to Lu Zhen that Inner Sect disciples often took work to afford medicinal supplements and continue their training.

Lu Zhen received competing job offers from Zhao Peng and Gu Yanzhi, then turned away other merchants while considering his options. Meanwhile, He Gui led men to seize Shen Yun’s home, believing Lu Zhen was only an Outer Sect apprentice, and Shen Yun struggled to hold them out alone.

• Zhao Peng offered Lu Zhen work with the Four Seas Escort Agency, while Gu Yanzhi offered a position with Tongjiang Shipping and a Red Scale Fish to aid his training.
• Lu Zhen thanked both men and said he would consider their offers before giving them an answer.
• Merchants crowded around Lu Zhen with job offers as he left the martial arts school, but he declined them to focus on consolidating his realm.
• He Gui returned to Shen Yun’s home with relatives and farmhands, claiming Lu Zhen was not a proper Iron Arm Martial Arts Hall disciple and ordering them to break in.
• He Gui told his men they could strip the house but planned to take Shen Yun as his second wife to settle a debt.
• Shen Yun braced herself against the door with scissors in hand while the neighbors watched and refused to help.

Lu Zhen arrived as He Gui and his men tried to seize Shen Yun’s home, then used his martial arts to kill one thug and cripple two others. When the police arrived, Lu Zhen presented his actions as self-defense, and the neighbors backed his account.

• Lu Zhen confronted He Gui and his men as they attacked the Shen family’s door.
• Lu Zhen killed one attacker with a punch and broke the limbs of two others, terrifying He Gui and the remaining men.
• A patrol squad arrived, but its officers hesitated when they recognized Lu Zhen as an Inner Sect disciple of the Iron Arm Martial Arts Hall.
• Lu Zhen told the patrol captain that he had intervened to stop armed thugs from invading a home and assaulting its occupants.
• Auntie Fatty, Uncle Ma, and the other neighbors supported Lu Zhen’s account and denounced He Gui.

Lu Zhen used his status and money to make the Constabulary treat his killing of He Gui's gang as self-defense, then invited Shen Yun to move in with him and Wan'er for safety. After Shen Yun settled in, Lu Zhen received his daily settlement rewards and reviewed his progress.

• Li Biao arrested the surviving thugs, accepted twenty silver dollars from Lu Zhen, and promised to dispose of the bodies and keep the matter quiet.
• Lu Zhen worried about Shen Yun's vulnerability and invited her to move into his home to keep Wan'er company and protect them both.
• Shen Yun gathered her few belongings and moved in with Lu Zhen and Wan'er.
• Lu Wan welcomed Shen Yun and suggested she should become Lu Zhen's wife, embarrassing Shen Yun and prompting Lu Zhen to send the two women to bed.
• Lu Zhen opened his daily settlement panel and received rewards that raised his money to 46 Silver Dollars and his General Experience to 70 points.

Lu Zhen and Song Shi visited the Zhao Family’s Four Seas Escort Agency, where Song Shi was recruited after losing a sparring match. Lu Zhen declined Zhao Peng’s offer and returned to Iron Arm Martial Arts Hall, intending to accept Gu Yanzhi’s generous terms and test whether escort work would improve his Daily Settlement rewards.

• Lu Zhen and Song Shi visited the Four Seas Escort Agency with Zhao Peng, where Lu Zhen observed the escort guards’ vicious sparring and lack of camaraderie.
• Song Shi challenged Zhao Si, was defeated in one move, and praised Zhao Si’s footwork despite the guards’ mockery.
• Zhao Peng offered Song Shi a monthly wage and a share of the escort runners’ bonus, and Song Shi eagerly accepted.
• Zhao Peng offered Lu Zhen seventy-five silver dollars a month, but Lu Zhen declined to decide immediately because he distrusted the agency’s atmosphere and Zhao Peng.
• Lu Zhen left the agency, returned to Iron Arm Martial Arts Hall, and agreed with Gu Yanzhi to receive a hundred silver dollars plus Red Scale Fish and medicinal meals.
• Lu Zhen looked forward to testing whether escort work would bring better Daily Settlement rewards than pulling rickshaws.

Gu Yanzhi confronted his father, Gu Wanshan, about his dedication to martial arts and declared that he practiced for China’s rise. After Gu Yanzhi left, Gu Wanshan secretly praised him and told his younger son to follow his example.

• Gu Wanshan scolded Gu Yanzhi for neglecting the family business to train in martial arts.
• Gu Yanzhi explained that history and China’s humiliation under foreign powers had inspired him to practice martial arts.
• Gu Yanzhi declared that he practiced martial arts for China’s rise, then walked out of the Training Ground.
• Gu Wanshan snapped at the Third Concubine when she criticized Gu Yanzhi, then praised his absent son and urged his younger son to be like him.

In the Iron Arm Martial Arts Hall’s Inner Courtyard, Lu Zhen faced the disdain of senior disciples while Gu Yanzhi welcomed him into his circle. Yan Tieqiao demonstrated Iron Wire Fist’s seventh resonance, called Limit Break, and explained that its killing power could approach Bright Force even when used by a Late Force Refining Realm martial artist.

• Senior disciples dismissed Lu Zhen as too old to advance, and Yan Shanshan offered him polite advice about practicing Iron Wire Fist.
• Gu Yanzhi pulled Lu Zhen into his social circle, drawing barely concealed disdain from its members and scorn from Zhang Lei’s group.
• Yan Tieqiao arrived and announced that he would demonstrate the martial arts hall’s foundation to the new disciples.
• Yan Tieqiao struck with seven resonances, then explained the stages of Iron Wire Fist mastery and named the seventh resonance Limit Break.
• Yan Tieqiao warned that martial artists below Bright Force relied on dead strength but said a Limit Break strike could still reach seventy or eighty percent of Bright Force’s killing power.

Yan Tieqiao urged the Inner Sect disciples to pursue Limit Break martial skills as a way to survive against stronger fighters, while Gu Yanzhi gave Lu Zhen dried Red Scale Fish to strengthen his blood and qi. After the fish greatly boosted Lu Zhen’s training and Physique experience, he decided to spend his saved General Experience on his Physique.

• Yan Tieqiao told the disciples that a Limit Break martial skill and Late Force Refining Realm could earn them a martial arts school license, though they would still lose to a true Bright Force fighter.
• Zhang Lei demonstrated Five Resonance with Iron Wire Fist, while most of the other Inner Sect disciples managed only Triple or Four Resonance.
• Gu Yanzhi gave Lu Zhen dried Red Scale Fish as an advance on his wages to help him stabilize his realm.
• Shen Yun greeted Lu Zhen like a wife welcoming her husband home, then blushed and hurried into the kitchen when she realized how familiar she sounded.
• Lu Zhen cooked the Red Scale Fish with medicinal herbs, drank most of the potent soup, and trained until he absorbed its surging blood and qi.
• Lu Zhen’s settlement awarded him 180 Physique experience, bringing his Physique to 725/800, and he chose to use his 115 General Experience to raise it.

Lu Zhen advanced to Copper Skin Iron Bone, endured a purging of impurities, and felt the heat of the Red Scale Treasure Fish after Shen Yun accidentally saw him bathing. At dinner, Zhou Ming told Lu Fang and her family that Lu Zhen had become a powerful Iron Arm Martial Arts Hall disciple and had brought Shen Yun home to live with him.

• Lu Zhen spent 75 General Experience to reach Copper Skin Iron Bone Lv.4, and his body expelled black sludge as it transformed.
• Shen Yun brought Lu Zhen clean clothes, glimpsed him in the bath, and fled in embarrassment; Lu Zhen struggled to suppress his desire and blamed the Red Scale Treasure Fish.
• At the Zhou family dinner, Zhou Ming announced that Lu Zhen had become an Inner Sect disciple and reached the Mid Force Refining Realm.
• Zhou Ming said Lu Zhen had killed one of He Gui's thugs, crippled the rest, and earned the Constabulary captain's respect.
• Zhou Ming added that Lu Zhen had brought the widow Shen to live with him, leaving Lu Fang and her family stunned.

Lu Fang welcomed her brother Lu Zhen’s newfound status while worrying about the Lu family’s descendants, as Lu Zhen’s Copper Skin Iron Bone training greatly strengthened him and brought his martial skills close to breakthroughs. He prepared to join Gu Yanzhi on a three-day shipping trip, while Yan Tieqiao placed his hopes for the Iron Arm Martial Arts Hall’s future on Zhang Lei.

• Lu Fang’s mother-in-law warmly welcomed Lu Zhen’s success, and Lu Fang privately considered how Widow Shen might fit into the family’s plans for heirs.
• Lu Zhen discovered that Copper Skin Iron Bone had reached initial completion, allowing him to lift a heavy stone roller and withstand a club strike without injury.
• Lu Zhen trained intensely for three days, bringing his Coiling Dragon Stake and Iron Wire Fist close to Level 4 and nearing the late Force Refining Realm.
• Gu Yanzhi told Lu Zhen that the Chamber of Commerce’s shipment to Jiang City would depart from Shiliupu Pier the next morning, and Lu Zhen got Yan Tieqiao’s permission to go.
• Yan Tieqiao watched Zhang Lei demonstrate five-echo Iron Wire Fist and regarded him as the martial arts hall’s sole likely successor.

Lu Zhen joined the Tongjiang Chamber of Commerce’s escort and saw foreign soldiers and collaborators abusing civilians at Shiliupu Pier. He recognized the threat posed by Western Battle Gear and Hetero-Martialists, leaving determined not to underestimate any fighting method.

• Lu Zhen told Shen Yun he would be away for four days and paid Uncle Ma to watch over the women at home.
• Lu Zhen joined Zhao Si and the chamber’s guards, meeting Hou San and Chen Er and earning the group’s trust.
• The escort traveled to Shiliupu Pier, where Lu Zhen saw Eastern Island soldiers, a captain wearing Western Battle Gear, and collaborators assaulting a girl and her grandfather.
• Zhao Si explained the power of Battle Gear and Hetero-Martialists, while Hou San praised National Martial Arts as the superior path.
• Lu Zhen questioned the guards’ confidence in their tradition and resolved not to grow complacent about foreign fighting methods.