Recaps

Lu Zhen slaughtered the warriors at the Eastern Islanders’ factory compound and freed thousands of imprisoned countrymen before fleeing from the approaching Transformation Force Grandmaster Miyamoto Buichiro. Miyamoto sensed that Lu Zhen had only just entered the Control Realm, while an old man in Ocean City detected both Control Realm auras.

• Lu Zhen killed the Bright Force warriors in the corridor and emerged into the plaza, where he used his Control Realm power to massacre hundreds of attackers.
• Lu Zhen pursued the fleeing survivors into the factory buildings, freed the prisoners, and discovered thousands of countrymen held in cages.
• Lu Zhen sensed a Transformation Force Grandmaster approaching and escaped before his Control Realm activation ran out.
• Miyamoto Buichiro arrived at the ruined factory compound, examined the slaughter, and recognized that his unknown opponent had only just entered the Control Realm.
• An old man meditating in the Xiao Family’s rear courtyard sensed the auras of Miyamoto Buichiro and the unfamiliar Control Realm fighter.

Lu Zhen returned to Ocean City with a Purple Scale Hidden Dragon Vine and used his daily settlement to multiply it into eight. After his Great Sun Pure Yang Technique advanced, he began refining the medicine, leaving him with immense power still to digest and a Dark Force breakthrough within reach.

• The Huo Family Ancestor sensed forces in the Outer City but dismissed them as inexperienced, reflecting on his stalled cultivation and the Xiao Family Ancestor’s equal strength.
• Lu Zhen returned home unnoticed, opened the jade box containing the Purple Scale Hidden Dragon Vine, and waited for midnight.
• Lu Zhen’s daily settlement multiplied the vine into eight medicines and advanced his Great Sun Pure Yang Technique to its sixth layer.
• Lu Zhen circulated the improved technique and found that it strengthened his qi and blood and tempered his meridians.
• Lu Zhen swallowed one Purple Scale Hidden Dragon Vine and began refining its potent medicine, while the remaining power stayed dormant in his body.

After Lu Zhen destroyed the Eastern factory, rumors hailed the masked swordsman as the Faceless Asura, while the Five Cities Garrison Command condemned the massacre and ordered a citywide search. The chapter ended with Ocean City’s constables mobilized to hunt for him.

• Teahouse patrons spread rumors that the long-haired, masked swordsman had destroyed the factory and rescued prisoners held for drug experiments.
• Lu Zhen read a joint denunciation from the Eastern Island Guangnan Division, the French Concession Municipal Council, and the Five Cities Garrison Command, which condemned the killings and threatened the swordsman.
• At the Fifth Station, Ma Sanyuan and Lei Zhenshan discussed the massacre and the martial world’s name for the swordsman: the Faceless Asura.
• Xiao Chen received an urgent order from General Station directing Ocean City’s constables to cancel leave, patrol in full gear, and search house by house for the Faceless Asura.

Lu Zhen investigated the streets of Ocean City with Xiao Chen, Ma Sanyuan, and Lei Zhenshan while questioning why the Five Cities Garrison Command had ordered the arrest of Faceless Asura. He noticed that fear of Asura had changed an Easterner’s behavior, then led the group to listen to songs.

• Lu Zhen walked through the crowded street with Xiao Chen, Ma Sanyuan, and Lei Zhenshan and wondered whether Eastern Islanders had influence within the Five Cities Garrison Command.
• Lei Zhenshan suspected powerful factions had ordered the arrest because Faceless Asura had destroyed an Eastern Island factory, while Ma Sanyuan and Lei Zhenshan praised the garrison commander and the Ten Thousand People Umbrella.
• Ma Sanyuan said the street felt safer and foreign residents seemed more subdued, but Lei Zhenshan warned that Asura could not hold back the Westerners indefinitely.
• Lu Zhen watched an Easterner pay the old woman’s breakfast stall for his meal, and the little girl cautiously collected the coins after he left.
• Lu Zhen said barbarians feared might rather than virtue, then led the group to listen to songs.

Lu Zhen returned home, where Lu Wan reached early Lianli, then devoted himself to refining Purple Scale Hidden Dragon Vines and cultivating. After his physique advanced to Diamond Indestructible, his strength surged, leaving him close to Dark Force-level power.

• Lu Zhen returned to his residence and found Ding Xuan training Lu Wan and Shen Yun; Lu Wan had reached early Lianli.
• Lu Zhen paid Ding Xuan a bonus, declined her flirtatious offer, and went to the back courtyard to cultivate.
• Over several days, Lu Zhen refined two Purple Scale Hidden Dragon Vines while continuing his street patrols in the mornings.
• At midnight, Lu Zhen used accumulated experience to advance his physique to Diamond Indestructible Lv.7.
• Lu Zhen tested his new strength and estimated that his basic strength, combined with Force Extreme Seventh Layer, could reach 280,000 catties.

After Saishin Motohide arrived to investigate Zairen’s death, Eastern Island forces and their local collaborators terrorized Ocean City’s residents while searching for the killer. The Xiao Family’s garrison stopped an incursion into East City, but students began gathering to protest the occupation and abuses.

• Saishin Motohide arrived in Ocean City and ordered an investigation into Zairen’s death, threatening the city if the culprit was not found.
• Eastern Island gendarmes extorted and arrested residents in the French Concession, while Garrison Department constables helped soldiers seize people in South City.
• A scarred Garrison Commander and his men used heavy cannons to force Eastern Island soldiers to retreat from the Xiao Family’s East City territory.
• Students gathered outside Ocean City University, denounced the invaders and their collaborators, and formed a growing protest procession.

Lu Zhen began his dangerous breakthrough from Bright Force to Dark Force while protests and underground resistance spread through Ocean City. The chapter ended with Gu Yanzhi learning that his former master, Yan Tieqiao, had abruptly sold his martial arts hall and dismissed its apprentices, leaving him with a sense of foreboding.

• Lu Zhen prepared to cross the three trials of flesh, blood and qi, and spirit, relying on his enhanced physique and abundant medicinal power.
• At the Municipal Council plaza, demonstrators clashed with Chinese patrolmen while an inspector refused to let his squad open fire, warning that the Westerners were using them as shields.
• Chen Shan organized resistance members to protect the demonstrators, prepare to shoot any officers who ordered live fire, and identify traitors for future assassinations.
• Chen Shan gave Gu Yanzhi an intelligence report that Yan Tieqiao had sold the Iron Arm Martial Arts Hall, dismissed its apprentices, and paid them generous severance.
• Gu Yanzhi read the report and felt an overwhelming sense of foreboding.

Lu Zhen broke through to become a Dark Force Grandmaster, gaining a Mental Force Field and greatly increased strength. After his breakthrough, Ding Xuan brought him a letter and warned that Yan Tieqiao had disbanded the Iron Arm Martial Arts Hall and sold its grounds as if preparing for his death.

• Lu Zhen crossed the physical, blood-and-qi, and spirit barriers, becoming a Dark Force Grandmaster.
• Lu Zhen tested his new Mental Force Field and Dark Force, then estimated his base strength had risen to around one hundred and eighty thousand jin.
• Lu Zhen reflected on his rise from an impoverished Rickshaw Puller and resolved to keep growing stronger steadily.
• Shen Yun brought Ding Xuan to Lu Zhen, and Ding Xuan told him that Yan Tieqiao had dismissed the apprentices and sold the martial arts hall's grounds.
• Ding Xuan gave Lu Zhen the letter Yan Tieqiao had entrusted to her; its envelope read, “Lu Zhen, open.”

After reading Yan Tieqiao’s farewell letter, Lu Zhen left Shen Yun and Ding Xuan behind and returned to his Faceless identity. As Eastern Island gendarmes opened fire on protesters, Yan Tieqiao took up his spear and walked toward the gunfire.

• Lu Zhen read Yan Tieqiao’s letter, told Shen Yun and Ding Xuan to secure the courtyard, and left.
• Lu Zhen put on the Faceless mask in a dark alley, becoming the Asura Swordsman again.
• Yan Tieqiao watched as Eastern Island gendarmes arrived at the protest and shot a student.
• A gaunt young man tried to charge the gendarmes, but Yan Tieqiao knocked him unconscious with his spear.
• Yan Tieqiao strode toward the gunfire, telling the young people that his old bones would handle the fight.

Yan Tieqiao fought through the massacre in the square and charged the Six-Armed Living Buddha, a Grade B War Machine, to protect the fleeing civilians. He pierced its core engine, triggering an explosion that hurled his bloodied body into the air as Gu Yanzhi rushed toward him.

• Yan Tieqiao killed Eastern Island soldiers and samurai with his Refined Steel Spear, clearing space in the square.
• The Eastern Island commander sent the Six-Armed Living Buddha into battle against Yan Tieqiao.
• Iron-Blooded National Salvation Society sentries evacuated students and civilians while Gu Yanzhi tried to return to his master.
• Gu Yanzhi ignored Elder Zhou's warning and charged toward the square as Yan Tieqiao fought the machine.
• Yan Tieqiao was wounded by the machine but pierced its core engine with his spear, causing a massive explosion that flung him into the air.

After Yan Tieqiao died fighting at Municipal Council Square, Gu Yanzhi was rescued from the Eastern Island warriors by Faceless Asura. The massacre went unanswered, and Yan Tieqiao’s funeral at Iron Arm Martial Arts Hall was left nearly deserted.

• Gu Yanzhi carried the mortally wounded Yan Tieqiao through the alleys as the Toothbrush Mustache Samurai sent four Bright Force warriors after them.
• Yan Tieqiao died in a dead-end alley, and the four pursuers cornered and wounded Gu Yanzhi.
• Faceless Asura killed the four warriors with throwing knives, left medicine for Gu Yanzhi, and vanished.
• Newspapers and the Military Affairs Bureau condemned the massacre, but the Eastern Island military offered a dismissive apology and faced no retaliation.
• Mourners stayed away from Yan Tieqiao’s funeral at Iron Arm Martial Arts Hall, fearing the Eastern Islanders’ reprisals.

At Yan Tieqiao’s funeral, Matsui Iwane arrived with Eastern Island Gendarmes to arrest his disciples and Lu Zhen, but Lu Zhen revealed that he had become a Dark Force Grandmaster and forced them to withdraw. News of the confrontation spread through Ocean City’s factions, leaving Lu Zhen’s new strength known far beyond the martial arts hall.

• At Yan Tieqiao’s funeral, Ding Xuan condemned the absent disciples, while Gu Yanzhi blamed himself and Lu Zhen reminded him that Yan Tieqiao had acted out of anger.
• Matsui Iwane entered Iron Arm Martial Arts Hall with dozens of gendarmes and declared that Yan Tieqiao’s disciples and Lu Zhen would be taken in for questioning.
• Gu Yanzhi offered to go with the gendarmes, but Lu Zhen stopped him and activated his Dark Force Mental Force Field.
• Matsui Iwane recognized Lu Zhen as a Dark Force Grandmaster, apologized, and ordered his gendarmes to withdraw.
• News of Lu Zhen’s confrontation with the Eastern Island Gendarmes spread to factions across the Outer City and Inner City.

Huo Tianting and the Zhou Family learned that Lu Zhen had reached Dark Force, but they reacted differently to the threat he posed. At the Iron Arm Martial Arts Hall, Xiao Changlin came to escort Lu Zhen, who departed as a Grandmaster.

• Huo Tianting received news of Lu Zhen's breakthrough and, furious at his own delay, struck his concubine and ordered her out.
• Zhou Shichang urged Zhou Jiahao to join the Huo and Zheng Families in killing Lu Zhen, but Zhou Jiahao dismissed Lu Zhen as a limited threat and refused to act.
• Xiao Changlin arrived at the Iron Arm Martial Arts Hall, sensed Lu Zhen's Grandmaster presence, and addressed him respectfully.
• Lu Zhen nodded at Yan Tieqiao's portrait and left the hall with Xiao Changlin and his driver Xiao Chen following.
• Gu Yanzhi, Ding Xuan, Ma Sanyuan, Lei Zhenshan, and the others watched in disbelief as Monkey praised Lu Zhen.

Lu Zhen arrived at the East City General Bureau as a newly recognized Dark Force Grandmaster, then learned from Xiao Yuqing about Spirit Caves and the dangerous competition for entry permits. He agreed to become a Guest Elder of the Xiao Family and scheduled his grandmaster banquet for the Beginning of Summer.

• Lu Zhen arrived at the General Bureau, where Xiao Yuqing and the senior officials praised his breakthrough to Dark Force Grandmaster.
• Xiao Yuqing explained that Spirit Caves required a Dark Force Grandmaster’s Mental Force Field and that a Spirit Cave near Ocean City was nearing its opening.
• Xiao Yuqing urged Lu Zhen to join the Xiao Family as a Guest Elder to earn points toward a Spirit Cave entry permit, warning him that public permit competitions were dangerous.
• Lu Zhen accepted the Guest Elder position, viewing the Xiao Family as a path to resources rather than a lasting obligation.
• Xiao Yuqing offered to arrange a banquet for Lu Zhen to demonstrate his martial arts, and Lu Zhen chose the Beginning of Summer for the ceremony.

Li Qingyue struggled through a humiliating dishwashing job after leaving home, while a grand procession arrived at Desheng Restaurant for Lu Zhen’s Martial Lecture Banquet. She heard that Lu Zhen had risen from poverty to become a Dark Force Grandmaster and withdrew from Xiao Lan’s invitation to study English, ending the chapter alone and exhausted.

• Li Qingyue worked washing dishes at the Western-style restaurant Clark and endured the floor manager’s scolding.
• A procession of officials and dignitaries arrived at Desheng Restaurant to honor Lu Zhen’s Martial Lecture Banquet.
• The crowd discussed Lu Zhen’s achievement of Dark Force and rumors that he had once been a poor laborer.
• Xiao Lan invited Li Qingyue to an English Corner reading session, but Li Qingyue refused and left for the back alley.

At a feast celebrating his rise to Dark Force, Lu Zhen shared his views on martial arts and rejected Pierre’s offer to join the Golden Iris Brotherhood. Pierre warned that Lu Zhen would understand the value of scarce resources once he had to fight for them.

• Lu Zhen’s guests urged him to lecture on martial arts, and he told them to hold fast to their passion through hardship.
• As the feast continued, Pierre approached Lu Zhen and asked to speak with him privately.
• Pierre explained that Dark Force practitioners needed rare third-tier Spirit Medicine and argued that the Xiao Family could not provide Lu Zhen with much.
• Pierre offered Lu Zhen missions and rewards in exchange for joining the Golden Iris Brotherhood, but Lu Zhen rejected him outright.
• Pierre accepted the refusal calmly, warned Lu Zhen about the scarcity of resources, and left the Brotherhood’s doors open to him.

Takeda Koichi learned that Lu Zhen had become a Dark Force Grandmaster and arranged for the Zheng Family to target him instead of the military acting directly. Xiao Yuqing brought Lu Zhen and Xiao Ran to a secluded Inner City residence as a gift, where Xiao Ran embarrassed herself with an awkward remark about concubines.

• An intelligence officer told Takeda Koichi that Lu Zhen had reached the Dark Force Grandmaster realm and suggested a powerful figure might be backing him.
• Takeda Koichi ordered the officer to deliver a secret letter to Zheng Tianhe, hoping the Zheng Family would act against Lu Zhen.
• Xiao Yuqing showed Lu Zhen a spacious residence in the Inner City and gave it to him as a congratulatory gift.
• Lu Zhen approved of the residence and considered bringing Lu Wan and Shen Yun there to keep them safe.
• Xiao Ran remarked that the many rooms were enough for several concubines, then blushed and tried to explain herself.

After moving into the Xiao Family residence, Lu Zhen strengthened his spirit-refining technique and discovered it let him speak with animals. With his resources depleted, he planned to visit the Xiao Family to learn how to earn points and obtain new supplies.

• Xiao Yuqing considered binding Lu Zhen to the Xiao Family through Xiao Ran, while Xiao Changyuan dismissed the possibility of Yuqing falling for him and postponed marriage decisions until after the Spirit Cave contest.
• Lu Zhen moved into the Wutong Street residence with Lu Wan and Shen Yun, and Ding Xuan also settled in without causing tension in the household.
• After ten days of cultivation, Lu Zhen used general experience to raise the Nameless Spirit-Refining Art to level six and gained a fourteenfold increase in his throwing knife's killing power.
• Lu Zhen discovered he could communicate with a wary black cat, but it fled before he could persuade it to talk.
• With his medicinal ingredients exhausted and his weapons inadequate, Lu Zhen decided to visit the Xiao Family to learn how to earn Guest Elder points and seek new resources.

Lu Zhen visited the Xiao Family's Martial Arts Courtyard as its new Guest Elder and was drawn into a high-stakes spar. He accepted Shen Xiaofeng's challenge to wager all one hundred of his starting Merit Points, leaving the fight yet to begin.

• Lu Zhen traveled with Xiao Chen to the Xiao Family's main residence, where a steward explained that new Guest Elders traditionally visited the Martial Arts Courtyard for a friendly spar.
• Lu Zhen met Chu Yunshu and learned that senior Guest Elders planned to win his starting Merit Points through wagers.
• Shen Xiaofeng, jealous of Lu Zhen's conversation with Chu Yunshu, challenged him to a spar and demanded a hundred-point wager.
• Lu Zhen accepted the wager, while Shen Xiaofeng believed his experience fighting exotic beasts and the Training Ground's gravity field would give him the advantage.

Lu Zhen overwhelmed Shen Xiaofeng in one punch and accepted a second challenge from Han Tieyi at the Training Ground. He defeated Han Tieyi as well, leaving the other Guest Elders stunned by his strength and skill.

• Lu Zhen struck Shen Xiaofeng off the platform with one punch and won their wager of a hundred merit points.
• Han Tieyi and Pei Xuan realized they had underestimated Lu Zhen, while Chu Yunshu openly admired his physique.
• Han Tieyi challenged Lu Zhen to a bout for a hundred merit points, and Lu Zhen accepted.
• Lu Zhen read Han Tieyi's attacks and used a palm strike to knock him off the platform.

After defeating Han Tieyi, Lu Zhen accepted Ding Xiu’s challenge for a 300-Merit-Point wager, despite the elders’ belief that Ding Xiu’s Heart Cultivation gave him the advantage. Their fight began with Ding Xiu’s psychic pressure and relentless assault, but Lu Zhen’s Diamond Indestructible body endured the blows as the battle continued.

• Lu Zhen defeated Han Tieyi and collected the wager, leaving the other veteran Guest Elders unwilling to challenge him.
• Ding Xiu arrived and challenged Lu Zhen, demanding a wager of all 300 Merit Points; Lu Zhen accepted.
• Xiao Yuqing and Xiao Ran joined the crowd, while Xiao Changyuan and the family elders watched the match.
• Seventh Great-Uncle predicted Lu Zhen would win, and Xiao Changyuan wagered a fourth-tier Spirit Medicine against him.
• Ding Xiu attacked Lu Zhen with Heart Cultivation pressure and a barrage of strikes, but Lu Zhen’s Diamond Indestructible body withstood the assault.

Lu Zhen defeated Ding Xiu by sensing and borrowing the surrounding momentum, revealing that he had touched the threshold of Control Realm. As the courtyard reacted to his victory, Xiao Yuqing leapt onto the platform, apparently intending to draw attention away from him.

• Lu Zhen endured Ding Xiu's attacks, then slipped into his guard and struck a nerve point that scattered Ding Xiu's qi and blood.
• Lu Zhen used the Heavy Origin Rock and the surrounding momentum to overpower Ding Xiu and knock him off the platform.
• The elders and Xiao Changyuan recognized that Lu Zhen had incorporated a trace of the world's power into his movements.
• Seventh Great-Uncle admitted he had wagered his treasure without knowing whether Lu Zhen would win, since he had nothing to lose.
• Xiao Yuqing worried that Lu Zhen's victory would invite hostility from the courtyard's veteran Guest Elders, so she leapt onto the platform.

After winning several bouts, Lu Zhen accepted Xiao Yuqing’s chance to concede rather than reveal his hidden strength, while the Xiao Family celebrated her breakthrough to the late Dark Force stage. He exchanged Merit Points for a movement technique and was considering weapons when Chu Yunshu arrived at the library.

• Xiao Yuqing revealed that she had recently reached the late Dark Force stage and challenged Lu Zhen, who accepted her hint and conceded.
• Ding Xiu blamed the ring’s rules for his loss, then left the Martial Arts Courtyard with his saber.
• Xiao Changyuan and the elders celebrated Xiao Yuqing’s breakthrough and considered marriage alliances, while Xiao Changyuan also thought about binding Lu Zhen to the family through another daughter.
• Lu Zhen visited the Xiao Family Library and exchanged three hundred Merit Points for the Floating Light Gliding Shadow Method.
• Lu Zhen found that weapons capable of withstanding his power were too expensive, and Chu Yunshu arrived to exchange for a third-tier Spirit Medicine.

Lu Zhen acquired materials for a custom transforming sword and mastered the third layer of the Floating Light Gliding Shadow Method by spending experience points. He left the chapter weighing whether to improve his physique before striking Eastern Island’s forces.

• Chu Yunshu loaned Lu Zhen sixty merit points so he could buy star-falling profound evil iron, and Seventh Great-Uncle agreed to forge him a sword that could split into nine blades.
• Lu Zhen studied the Floating Light Gliding Shadow Method and quickly mastered its first layer, then spent ten days advancing through its second layer while struggling with the third.
• Lu Zhen used the Daily Settlement Panel’s experience to master the third layer, gaining enough speed to escape a Transformation Force Grandmaster who could not keep him pinned down.
• Lu Zhen considered targeting Eastern Island for resources, then wondered whether to spend his remaining general experience to raise his physique first.

Lu Zhen spent General Experience to advance his physique to See God Indestructible, gaining precognitive danger sense and greatly increased strength. He collected his custom weapon from Seventh Great-Uncle and left with a concealed assassination trump card as he prepared to settle accounts with the Eastern Islanders.

• Lu Zhen used nearly thirty thousand General Experience to reach See God Indestructible LV.8 and gained fine inner perception and warnings of danger.
• Lu Zhen tested his new physique and calculated that his amplified strength could let him contend with a Transformation Force Grandmaster.
• Lu Zhen decided to confront the Eastern Islanders and planned to collect his custom-made flying sword from Seventh Great-Uncle.
• Seventh Great-Uncle gave Lu Zhen a black greatsword that separated into nine small swords, and Lu Zhen named it Nine Nether.
• Seventh Great-Uncle stressed that nobody else knew what the finished sword looked like, and Lu Zhen accepted it as a concealed weapon for the Faceless Asura.