Recaps

Lu Zhen killed Fujiwara Zhai, claimed powerful treasures from the Underground Palace, and escaped as it collapsed. His Daily Settlement Panel multiplied the Space Rings and Purple Thunder Jade Talismans ninefold, leaving him to consider how its trading rules could help him gather resources.

• Lu Zhen took bloodstained letters and strange items from Fujiwara Zhai's corpse, then used telekinesis to retrieve a jade talisman and ancient ring from the altar.
• Lu Zhen discovered the ring contained a ten-meter space and stored the jade talisman, then a gray aura shot from the ancient corpse into his brow without causing any apparent harm.
• As the Underground Palace began collapsing, Lu Zhen gathered his treasures and escaped through the Giant Gate before the palace sank into magma and rubble.
• Lu Zhen's Daily Settlement Panel awarded him nine Space Rings, nine Purple Thunder Jade Talismans, and eighteen fourth-tier spiritual items, along with experience rewards.
• Lu Zhen recalled that trades initiated by others could trigger the Panel's multiplier, but deliberately arranging trades would not, and he decided to let nature take its course.

Lu Zhen discovered that Yang Chongwu had secretly sold hundreds of thousands of displaced people to the Eastern Islanders and decided to go after him despite the vast difference in their strength. After improving his movement technique, he told Chu Yunshu he could still escape if he could not kill Yang Chongwu.

• Lu Zhen stored his valuables in his Space Ring and learned from Chronicles of the Nine Provinces Sects that the Three-Year Pact concerned a struggle between Traditional Martial Arts and Western-backed factions.
• Lu Zhen read letters revealing that Yang Chongwu had secretly sold millions of displaced people to the Eastern Islanders in exchange for rare medicines and materials.
• Lu Zhen connected the letters to the missing people and the bodies at Yanghe Hospital, then resolved to confront Yang Chongwu despite being far weaker.
• Lu Zhen used General Experience to perfect Floating Light Gliding Shadow Method, increasing his speed by twenty percent.
• Lu Zhen considered the danger to his sisters and Sister Shen if Yang Chongwu retaliated, then went to Chu Yunshu after she emerged from seclusion.
• Lu Zhen told Chu Yunshu he was going after Yang Chongwu, and she warned him that the supreme grandmaster's seventeen phases of power would make the fight suicidal.

Lu Zhen arranged for the Xiao Family to shelter his relatives before confronting Yang Chongwu. He left his family and Chu Yunshu in the Xiao Family’s care, with Chu Yunshu accepting his declaration that she was family too.

• Chu Yunshu warned Lu Zhen that Yang Chongwu’s allies might target his family, so Lu Zhen decided to ask the Xiao Family for protection.
• Lu Zhen asked Xiao Zhengyan to shelter his family, and Xiao Zhengyan agreed on condition that Lu Zhen accept a future marriage tie with his family.
• Lu Zhen agreed, and Xiao Zhengyan promised to move Lu Zhen’s relatives into the Inner Courtyard the next morning.
• Lu Zhen woke Sister Shen, Lu Fang, and Lu Wan and told them they would move to the Xiao Family Mansion.
• Chu Yunshu offered to accompany Lu Zhen, but he refused and asked her to protect his family instead.
• Chu Yunshu asked what she meant to Lu Zhen, and he told her she was family before leaving her to guard everyone.

Xiao Yuqing struggled with her feelings about Lu Zhen and the Faceless Asura as the truth emerged that Zhong Yin had been trafficking hundreds of thousands of people with Director Yang Chongwu’s backing. Lu Zhen found the Black Prison and prepared to confront Yang Chongwu so he could free its captives.

• Xiao Yuqing heard that Chu Yunshu had moved in with Lu Zhen’s family and wondered whether agreeing to marry Lu Zhen betrayed her feelings for the Faceless Asura.
• Zhong Yin oversaw the transport of prisoners from the Black Prison and planned to use the resources to advance his cultivation and leave Guangnan.
• Shen Chongshan and two other Grandmasters learned that Zhong Yin had imprisoned hundreds of thousands of people and sold them to the Eastern Islanders, but Shen warned that Yang Chongwu was behind the crimes.
• Lu Zhen used Gu Yanzhi’s clues to locate the Black Prison and discovered the captives held there as materials for a Biochemical Factory.
• Lu Zhen decided that rescuing the prisoners would force him to fight Yang Chongwu and prepared nine Purple Thunder Jade Talismans.

Lu Zhen killed Zhong Yin and his four commanders at Black Stone Barracks, exposed their imprisonment and sale of displaced civilians, and forced the Black Prison open. Yang Chongwu ordered the city sealed and Lu Zhen killed, while the Provincial Capital turned against the masked vigilante.

• Lu Zhen used his flying sword to kill Zhong Yin and the four Dark Force commanders who rushed into the hall.
• Lu Zhen displayed the five heads in the drill yard, accused Zhong Yin of selling displaced civilians to the Eastern Islanders, and demanded that the soldiers open the Black Prison.
• Lu Zhen killed dozens of soldiers who tried to flee, and the remaining troops surrendered and opened the prison gates.
• Hundreds of thousands of displaced civilians poured out of the Black Prison as Lu Zhen told them they were free.
• Yang Chongwu denounced Lu Zhen, ordered the Provincial Capital sealed, and sent Military Affairs Bureau soldiers to hunt him.
• Provincial Capital civilians believed Yang Chongwu’s accusations, while a few martial artists lamented that Lu Zhen had challenged the Military Affairs Bureau.

Faceless Asura exposed the Five Cities Military Affairs Bureau’s alleged sale of hundreds of thousands of refugees, prompting three Provincial Capital Grandmasters to broadcast the accusation across the Five Cities. At the Black Stone Barracks, Lu Zhen faced Yang Chongwu’s overwhelming Dharma Image as refugees fled and those who knew his identity feared for his life.

• Shen Chongshan warned the Long-Gowned Elder and the Burly Grandmaster that Yang Chongwu could kill Faceless Asura, then purge witnesses and force the Grandmasters to help cover up the crime.
• The Long-Gowned Elder used his authority over the Provincial Capital radio station to broadcast the scandal across the Five Cities, with Shen Chongshan and the Burly Grandmaster agreeing to support him.
• At the Xiao Family Mansion, Xiao Zhengyan said Faceless Asura’s accusation was likely true, while Seventh Great-Uncle and Chu Yunshu worried about Lu Zhen and Xiao Yuqing suspected he might be Faceless Asura.
• Hundreds of thousands of refugees fled the Black Stone Barracks as Lu Zhen activated the Eight-Headed Serpent Blood Burn Secret Technique and summoned his eight-meter Dark Red Swordsman Dharma Image.
• Yang Chongwu arrived with a twenty-one-meter Dark Gold Dharma Image, its Power of Seventeen Phases dwarfing Lu Zhen’s Power of Four and a Half Phases.

Lu Zhen fought Yang Chongwu above the Black Stone Barracks while hundreds of thousands of prisoners poured into the Provincial Capital, exposing the Military Affairs Bureau’s crimes and weakening Yang’s Ten Thousand People Umbrella. Lu Zhen exploited the umbrella’s brief recovery pause and launched a Purple Thunder Jade Talisman at Yang’s descending palm, ending the chapter with a tremendous explosion.

• Lu Zhen dodged Yang Chongwu’s dark gold Dharma Image, but Yang summoned the Ten Thousand People Umbrella and its clear light destroyed Lu’s Dharma Image’s left arm before Lu regenerated it.
• Hundreds of thousands of refugees escaped the Black Stone Barracks, and residents recognized missing relatives who revealed they had been arrested and imprisoned by the Military Affairs Bureau.
• As residents began doubting the authorities, the Ten Thousand People Umbrella weakened, and Yang Chongwu attacked Lu while Lu evaded its sweeping clear light.
• Lu Zhen recognized the umbrella’s brief pause after its strongest attack and deliberately let its clear light catch his Dharma Image’s right leg to halt his movement.
• When Yang Chongwu’s palm descended, Lu Zhen threw a Purple Thunder Jade Talisman at it, triggering a massive explosion above the Provincial Capital.

Lu Zhen exposed Yang Chongwu’s use of Alienated Martial Arts and the mass sacrifice of refugees, turning the people and the Five Cities Garrison Command against him. Yang Chongwu admitted his crimes and defended them as necessary for his ambition, while Lu Zhen launched eight Purple Thunder Jade Talismans at him.

• Yang Chongwu used the Ten Thousand People Umbrella to absorb the souls beneath it, heal his wounds, and restore his black Dharma Image.
• Lu Zhen accused Yang Chongwu of sacrificing refugees and practicing Alienated Martial Arts, and Yang Chongwu claimed the souls belonged to Eastern Island invaders.
• Shen Chongshan, Tie Zhan, and Lin He publicly accused Yang Chongwu of selling out refugees and devouring their flesh and souls, prompting the people and the garrison soldiers to turn against him.
• Yang Chongwu admitted that he had sacrificed a million people to advance toward becoming a Martial Saint and called their deaths an honor.
• Lu Zhen summoned eight Purple Thunder Jade Talismans and sent them at Yang Chongwu, who enclosed himself inside the enlarged Ten Thousand People Umbrella.
• The eight streaks of purple lightning struck the umbrella, and a blinding sea of thunder swallowed the sky.

Lu Zhen defeated Yang Chongwu after a million vengeful souls destroyed the Ten Thousand People Umbrella and Lu Zhen revealed his identity by consuming his final power-enhancing gu worm. The chapter ended with Yang Chongwu dead, the souls at peace, and people across Guangnan bowing to Lu Zhen.

• Yang Chongwu survived the heavenly lightning and declared that Heaven supported him, but the people and a million vengeful souls roared for his death.
• The vengeful souls sacrificed themselves to destroy the Ten Thousand People Umbrella, weakening Yang Chongwu and his Dharma Image.
• Lu Zhen swallowed his last-resort gu worm, revealed himself as the Faceless Asura, and grew his Dharma Image to twelve meters.
• Lu Zhen used the Nine Nether Flying Sword to strike for Gu Yanzhi, Yan Tieqiao, and Yan Shanshan before killing Yang Chongwu with his final blow.
• The million wronged souls faded away, and Lu Zhen bowed to them as the grandmasters and people across Guangnan bowed to him.

After killing Yang Chongwu and Fujiwara Zhai, Lu Zhen fled into hiding, badly injured from using the Meteor Blood Gu and aware that the Eastern Islanders would now hunt him as a major threat. In Ocean City, the Xiao Family resolved to protect his family as news of his battle spread across the world.

• Lu Zhen collected Yang Chongwu's belongings, fled the city, and decided he could not return to Ocean City while the Eastern Islanders pursued him.
• At an abandoned temple, Lu Zhen gave Little Pebble a blood letter and gold bar to deliver to his family at the Xiao Family mansion.
• The Xiao Family celebrated Lu Zhen's victory until Xiao Zhengyan warned that the Eastern Islanders would send a terrifying force after him.
• Xiao Zhengyan ordered Chu Yunshu and Xiao Yuqing to protect Lu Zhen's family, while Lu Zhen stayed hidden.
• News of Lu Zhen's battle spread across the Nine Provinces, the East, and the Western powers.

After Lu Zhen exposed the Five Cities Garrison Command’s betrayal, mass protests forced the National Government to send Yan Zhenhai to Guangnan to repel the Eastern Islanders and punish the traitors. In Eastern Island, leaders feared Lu Zhen might become another Hongwu Martial God and ordered a vastly increased bounty on his life.

• Protesters across Huaxia blockaded the National Government and demanded severe punishment for the traitors and Yang Chongwu’s remnants.
• The National Government appointed Yan Zhenhai to take command in Guangnan, repel the invaders, and execute aristocratic clans that had colluded with foreign enemies.
• Fujiwara Hanzo and Yamamoto Kazuo discussed whether Lu Zhen had concealed his strength or awakened suddenly, like the Hongwu Martial God.
• Fujiwara Hanzo and Yamamoto Kazuo decided Lu Zhen had to be killed even if the chance of his becoming another Hongwu Martial God was small.
• Yamamoto Kazuo ordered a higher bounty offering a Tier 5 War Machine, a Tier 5 Spirit Medicine, and a chance to become the Martial Saint’s disciple to whoever killed Lu Zhen.

The Eastern Islanders’ bounty for Lu Zhen’s whereabouts tempted struggling martial artists across the Nine Provinces to secretly seek information, while northern alienated martial artist Zhao Jincheng plotted to steal resources from his tormentors. Zhao Jincheng left the Heavenly Pool Outer Courtyard intending to kill Wang Meng and his companions, still determined to gain power and eventually defeat Lu Zhen.

• The Eastern Islanders announced a bounty offering a Tier 5 War Machine, a Tier 5 Spirit Medicine, and a place as a Martial Saint’s personal disciple for Lu Zhen’s exact whereabouts.
• Martial artists in Shangjing and other cities condemned the bounty in public but secretly sent informants to search for Lu Zhen’s location.
• Three Transformation Force Grandmasters in Shushan decided to seek information about Lu Zhen and sell it to the Eastern Islanders for resources.
• At the Changbai Mountain Heavenly Pool Treasure Land, Outer Sect disciples mocked Lu Zhen and praised alienated martial arts over traditional martial arts.
• Zhao Jincheng, now living as Zhao Han, endured Wang Meng’s order to take over his mining work and learned that Wang Meng and two companions were going to Baishan City.
• Zhao Jincheng planned to ambush the three Outer Sect disciples outside the sect and take their Blood Pills and serum to strengthen himself against Lu Zhen.

Lu Zhen recovered from the worst effects of the Meteor Blood Gu and planned to reach Three Sects City while hiding his identity and avoiding danger. He entered Pingling City to find a merchant caravan, where a group of sect martial artists discussed hunting him and one mocked him without recognizing him.

• Lu Zhen suppressed the lingering medicinal power but remained unable to exert force or cultivate for several months, and he inventoried his spoils while considering new martial skills and cultivation methods.
• Lu Zhen decided that Three Sects City was the best place to hide and obtain higher-level techniques, then resolved to join a merchant caravan traveling inland.
• A few days later, Lu Zhen entered Pingling City disguised as a frail scholar and encountered a group of inland sect martial artists discussing the bounty on him.
• The group’s leader ordered the others to prioritize their sect mission, while a purple-clad female martial artist glanced at Lu Zhen.
• A jealous young man mocked Lu Zhen as the sect group passed through the city gate, but no one identified him.

Lu Zhen entered Pingling City and learned that reaching the inland heartland required joining a major chamber of commerce’s guarded caravan. He headed to the Longwind Chamber of Commerce’s recruitment ground, where he found a crowd of formidable martial artists.

• Lu Zhen watched a young dandy impersonate the Faceless Asura in a tavern, then reflected that such impostors could help conceal his identity.
• Lu Zhen asked the waiter about caravans traveling inland and learned that the Longwind Chamber of Commerce was recruiting guards for a major shipment.
• Lu Zhen left the tavern and went to the East City Training Ground to seek a place on the caravan.
• Lu Zhen saw more than a hundred Bright Force martial artists and over a dozen Dark Force Grandmasters gathered at the recruitment ground.

Lu Zhen joined the Longwind Chamber of Commerce’s guard selection for a caravan heading to Three Sects City, intending to conceal his strength and travel without drawing attention. After the crowd mocked him, Zhao Feng grew jealous when Su Zhi appeared to show concern for him.

• Lu Zhen learned that the caravan’s dangerous western route required at least mid-stage Bright Force cultivation, while Dark Force Grandmasters received far greater pay.
• A bald Dark Force Grandmaster demonstrated his strength, secured a generous contract, and joined the group beneath the awning.
• Several early-stage Bright Force martial artists failed to lift the required stones, and one fled after farting and tearing his trousers.
• Lu Zhen stepped forward to test his strength, prompting a burly female guard to tease him and offer to protect him in exchange for warming her bed.
• Su Zhi rebuked the crowd’s vulgar jokes, and Zhao Feng became jealous as he watched her react to Lu Zhen.

Lu Zhen concealed his true abilities while qualifying for a well-paid guard position with the Longwind Chamber of Commerce, drawing interest from Su Zhi and frustration from Zhao Feng. As the convoy prepared to leave for Three Sects City, Lei Zhen explained why its outer cities had grown into vast settlements of martial artists and their families.

• Lu Zhen lifted a fifty-thousand-jin bluestone without visible effort, stunning the training-ground onlookers and impressing Lei Zhen.
• Lu Zhen introduced himself as Gu Chen and accepted the steward's offer of two hundred taels of lower-grade Gang Silver to guard the caravan.
• A man with Su Zhi's group dismissed Lu Zhen's prospects, while Zhao Feng resented his presence and Su Zhi watched him with interest.
• Outside Pingling City's eastern gate, Lu Zhen inspected the convoy's scaled mounts and western machinery as Lei Zhen described their equipment.
• Lei Zhen explained that failed martial artists and their families had settled outside the Kunlun Three Sects, creating large outer cities where western goods sold well.

Lu Zhen joined the Longwind Chamber of Commerce caravan westward and was assigned to protect Shen Hao while quietly recovering from his injuries. As the convoy traveled through a safe stretch near Pingling City, Lei Zhen warned Shen Hao that dangers awaited once they entered the Hundred Thousand Mountains.

• The steward assigned Lu Zhen to stay with Shen Hao instead of taking night-watch or scouting shifts, and Shen Hao reluctantly accepted after Shen Yuehua glared at him.
• The Longwind Chamber of Commerce convoy departed Pingling City with Lu Zhen riding beside Shen Hao.
• Lu Zhen used a fourth-grade Spirit Medicine to suppress his injuries and considered how to advance beyond the Control Realm Second Layer.
• Shen Hao complained to Lei Zhen that the guards were sleeping, and Lei Zhen explained that the road within a hundred li of Pingling City was safe.
• Lei Zhen warned Shen Hao that the caravan would face real danger once it entered the Hundred Thousand Mountains.

Lu Zhen traveled with the merchant caravan toward Three Sects City, where Su Zhi advised him about the sects and Zhao Feng grew jealous of their conversation. After his daily settlement, an eerie presence approached the camp from Black Pine Forest, and Lei Zhen suspected dangerous opponents had arrived.

• Su Zhi approached Lu Zhen at the campfire and explained that his strength made him a strong candidate for the Heaven-Supporting Sect.
• Lu Zhen introduced himself to Su Zhi as Gu Chen, while Zhao Feng watched them and vowed revenge out of jealousy.
• Lu Zhen reviewed his daily settlement gains and decided to save his general experience until he could upgrade Daily Settlement.
• An eerie wind and approaching footsteps triggered an alarm, sending the caravan camp into chaos as Shen Hao eagerly drew his sword.
• Lei Zhen questioned why anything would attack so near Pingling City and warned that powerful enemies might be approaching.

Iron-Spined Blood Wolves ambushed the caravan, and Lu Zhen saved Shen Hao from two elite wolves by knocking them away with a broken cart shaft. Lei Zhen killed the stunned beasts, while Zhao Feng’s deliberate retreat had opened the defense line.

• Iron-Spined Blood Wolves attacked the camp, killing a martial wanderer and forcing the guards to tighten their formation.
• Lei Zhen, Su Zhi, Zhao Feng, and the burly sect leader fought off the wolves with their Dark Force abilities.
• Shen Hao charged from behind the wagons, panicked when a blood wolf lunged at him, and Lu Zhen pulled him to safety.
• Zhao Feng deliberately retreated from two half-step third-tier wolves, leaving them a path toward Lu Zhen and Shen Hao.
• Lu Zhen used a snapped cart shaft to knock both elite wolves into the mud, and Lei Zhen finished them with his blade aura.

After Lu Zhen helped repel the mutated Iron-Spined Blood Wolves, he discovered that their flight from the Hundred Thousand Mountains had a mysterious cause. He found a newly hatched, treasure-seeking creature in a devastated clearing and stopped it from eating a valuable spirit herb just before his Daily Settlement.

• Lei Zhen killed the wolf king, and he and the sect leader suspected that something had changed in the Hundred Thousand Mountains.
• Shen Yuehua thanked Lu Zhen for saving Shen Hao and offered to double his payment, while Shen Hao asked Lu Zhen to take him as a disciple.
• Su Zhi confronted Zhao Feng for deliberately letting the wolf demons through, condemned his resentment and crooked heart, and left him seething with jealousy.
• Lu Zhen entered the silent depths of Black Pine Forest and found a devastated clearing where a strange beast egg hatched into a small gray, penguin-like creature.
• The creature led Lu Zhen to a high-grade second-tier spirit herb, but he lifted it away before it could eat the herb, waiting for his Daily Settlement.

Lu Zhen upgraded his Daily Settlement to Lv.9 and chose to increase the quality of settlement items tenfold instead of their quantity. After the Longwind Chamber of Commerce convoy reached Fallen Goose City, the hatchling he named Guga spoke in his mind.

• Lu Zhen received settlement rewards, fed the hatchling two spirit herbs, and upgraded his Daily Settlement to Lv.9.
• The Panel offered Lu Zhen a choice between tenfold item quantity and tenfold item quality, and he chose quality.
• Lu Zhen named the sleeping hatchling Guga and returned to camp.
• The Longwind Chamber of Commerce convoy reached Fallen Goose City, the last city before Soul-Breaking Ridge.
• After Lei Zhen left for the city, Guga peeked out of Lu Zhen's robe and spoke in his mind.

Lu Zhen named the hungry creature Guga and followed it into a newly opened Treasure Land, where it led him to rare Spirit Medicines. He gathered three peak third-tier herbs and waited for the Panel’s Daily Settlement to reveal what its tenfold quality increase would do.

• Lu Zhen named the little creature Guga and offered it a second-tier Spirit Herb in exchange for helping him find more herbs.
• Guga’s yawn terrified a third-tier Man-Faced Black Panther into fleeing, and Lu Zhen continued deeper into the Hundred Thousand Mountains.
• Guga led Lu Zhen to a newly opened Treasure Land, and he entered despite its dangers.
• Inside the Treasure Land, Guga guided Lu Zhen to three peak third-tier Spirit Medicines, which he carefully uprooted.
• Lu Zhen waited for midnight and the Daily Settlement to see whether the Panel would transform the herbs through its tenfold quality increase.

Lu Zhen transformed three third-tier spirit medicines into valuable fourth-tier Glazed Golden Vein Grass and used one to heal his meridians. He advanced his Nameless Spirit-Refining Art to the eighth layer, then heard signs of a battle deep within the Treasure Land’s gray mist.

• The Daily Settlement Panel multiplied Lu Zhen’s rewards and transformed three top-grade third-tier spirit medicines into mid-grade fourth-tier Glazed Golden Vein Grass.
• Lu Zhen ate one stalk to nourish his damaged meridians, while Guga happily ate two second-tier spirit herbs.
• Lu Zhen spent experience to advance the Nameless Spirit-Refining Art to the eighth layer and tested its increased sword and mental attack power.
• Lu Zhen tested the gray mist and judged he could endure its corrosion for at most ten minutes.
• Lu Zhen heard the sound of vital energy and blood colliding deep in the mist and realized a battle was taking place there.

Lu Zhen witnessed a hundred-meter flood python defeat an armored Dharma Image, then watched Guga frighten the python away. He entered the gray mist to rescue the fallen expert and found a badly injured woman in shattered purple-gold armor.

• Lu Zhen sensed a flood python battle a hundred-meter armored Dharma Image, which the python shattered with lightning breath.
• The wounded human expert fled toward Lu Zhen, but the flood python caught up before she collapsed into the black soil.
• Guga released a mysterious aura that terrified the flood python and drove it back into the mist.
• Guga indicated that it needed Glazed Golden Vein Grass, and Lu Zhen fed it the fourth-rank Spirit Medicine.
• Lu Zhen entered the corrosive gray mist and found the unconscious woman lying in a crater, her purple-gold armor broken.

Lu Zhen rescued an injured Dharma Heaven Realm woman, left before she woke, and returned to camp, where he heard Shen Hao praise Faceless Asura. As the caravan entered Blood Mountain Bandits territory, Lu Zhen recalled seeing Zhao Feng secretly send a mechanical carrier pigeon and waited to see what would happen.

• Lu Zhen carried the wounded woman out of the gray mist, treated her injuries, and left; she opened her eyes as he departed.
• Lei Zhen mocked Shen Hao for his awkward visit to Spring Breeze Pavilion, and the group later argued about whether Faceless Asura was a true hero.
• The caravan set out again and reached A Sliver of Sky, where the travelers learned that Blood Mountain Bandits controlled the pass beyond.
• Lu Zhen remembered seeing Zhao Feng secretly release a mechanical carrier pigeon from the camp and decided to wait rather than expose him.