Recaps

After Suotuo City came under Star Luo control, its residents and merchants fled or hid as rumors of the occupation spread across the Balak Kingdom. In Nuoding City, Ge Long learned the news and warned that his old rival Zhu Song might already be responding.

• After seeing the Star Luo flag over Suotuo City, a mule owner hurried to an inn, prompting others to seek shelter as the city emptied.
• Merchants outside Suotuo City fled, spreading increasingly alarming reports that the city had fallen to Star Luo.
• A scout reported Suotuo City's occupation to Ge Long in Nuoding City, and Ge Long smashed the council table in fury.
• Xue Beng argued that the Star Luo force was likely small and urged Ge Long to march on the city, but Ge Long said it was already too late.
• Ge Long warned that Zhu Song, his old opponent, would act in response and might already know Suotuo City had changed hands.

Zhu Song received Dai Mobai’s signal that Suotuo City had fallen and ordered the Star Luo army to break camp and attack Nuoding City. At a Heaven Dou border outpost, Xiaofei and Brother Liu felt the watchtower shake as the approaching army advanced.

• Zhu Song recognized the White Tiger Flag over Suotuo City as Dai Mobai’s signal to move north.
• Zhu Song ordered the hundred-thousand-man Star Luo army to break camp and attack Nuoding City.
• The Star Luo troops surged across the border toward Nuoding City as horns and war drums sounded.
• At a Heaven Dou border outpost, Xiaofei noticed ripples in a cup of water and then felt the watchtower shake.
• Xiaofei spilled water over Brother Liu, who remained rigidly focused on the border.

Xue Beng learned that Star Luo had invaded and that Nuoding City needed to retake Suotuo City to secure its army’s supplies. Ge Long began assigning Xue Beng a role in the campaign, but hesitated over how many troops to entrust to him.

• Xiao Fei spotted the Star Luo army advancing across the border and rang the outpost alarm bell.
• The outpost guards fled toward Nuoding City, but Star Luo’s cavalry caught and slaughtered them before advancing onward.
• Ge Long received word of the invasion and ordered Nuoding City’s gates sealed and its defenses prepared.
• Ge Long explained that the hundred-thousand-strong army depended on supplies from Suotuo City and would collapse if the city was not retaken.
• Ge Long began to offer Xue Beng twenty thousand troops, then reconsidered and held out his entire right hand instead.

Xue Beng accepted command of fifty thousand troops from Ge Long and marched to retake Suotuo City, while Ge Long stayed in Nuoding City to face Zhu Song’s hundred-thousand-strong Star Luo army. As Zhu Song’s forces camped outside the city, Ge Long prepared for a battle he knew would be difficult.

• Ge Long gave Xue Beng fifty thousand city guards and ordered him to retake Suotuo City quickly.
• Xue Beng eagerly promised to restore the Heaven Dou Empire’s Swan Flag within seven days and imagined using the victory to strengthen his claim against Xue Qinghe.
• Xue Beng led the fifty-thousand-strong army out of Nuoding City and marched toward Suotuo City.
• Ge Long remained with the other fifty thousand troops, knowing they would have to hold Nuoding City against Zhu Song’s hundred thousand while Suotuo City’s provisions were essential.
• Zhu Song’s Star Luo army arrived and established a camp ten miles from Nuoding City beneath the White Tiger Flag and Zhu Song’s Spirit Cat Flag.
• Ge Long watched Zhu Song’s command flag and reflected on their past battles as he prepared for the coming confrontation.

As Suotuo City slowly returned to normal, Dai Mobai warned Li Yue that the recruited city guards were only waiting for their backers to arrive. He spotted those reinforcements approaching, and a vast wall of dust began advancing toward the city.

• An army in black tiger-marked armor marched along a perilous ancient trail in the Border Mountains.
• Over three days, Suotuo City's residents gradually reopened shops and resumed daily activities under the city's restrictions.
• Dai Mobai told Li Yue that the city guards' good behavior would end when their backers arrived.
• Dai Mobai pointed toward the horizon, and the bowl of osmanthus soup began to tremble as distant dust rose.
• Li Yue saw a huge wall of yellow dust advancing toward Suotuo City.

Dai Mobai prepared to meet Xue Beng’s fifty-thousand-strong army outside Suotuo City rather than merely defend the walls. He revealed his Soul Power and leaped into battle, followed by Yang Wudi, Li Yue, and the Breaking Clan elites.

• Xue Beng’s army approached Suotuo City with the prince guarded at its center, and Yang Wudi estimated its strength at fifty thousand troops.
• Dai Mobai rejected Yang Wudi’s plan to hold the city and said they would charge to demonstrate their strength to the surrendered soldiers.
• Dai Mobai announced that he wanted to personally meet Xue Beng, whom he believed had been hiding his abilities.
• Dai Mobai revealed his silver-white appearance, golden wings, and five Soul Rings before leaping from the city wall.
• Yang Wudi, Li Yue, and the Breaking Clan elites followed Dai Mobai down from the wall.

Dai Mobai led a wedge of Breaking Clan elites out of Suotuo City to attack Xue Beng’s fifty-thousand-man army and target its imperial banner. Xue Beng recognized Dai Mobai, ordered his troops to capture him alive, and sent the army charging toward the vastly smaller force.

• Dai Mobai led more than eighty fighters from Suotuo City in a wedge formation aimed at the imperial banner.
• Xue Beng saw the charging force and recognized Dai Mobai as the Star Luo Crown Prince.
• Xue Beng dismissed Dai Mobai’s attack as a foolish gamble and imagined the prestige he would gain by capturing him.
• Xue Beng ordered his fifty thousand city guards to capture Dai Mobai alive and charge.
• The white-armored army surged toward Dai Mobai’s small black wedge across the plains.

Dai Mobai led the Breaking Clan elites in a charge against Heaven Dou's vastly larger army, using his Soul Skills to weaken the enemy and strengthen his allies. His Holy Light White Tiger strike blasted a huge gap through the army, leaving a deep crater and no visible remains.

• Dai Mobai charged toward Heaven Dou's army with his golden wings of light spread.
• Dai Mobai used his fourth Soul Skill, Holy Light Majesty: Evil Spirits Disperse, weakening nearby Heaven Dou soldiers and boosting the Breaking Clan elites.
• Dai Mobai called for the charge and unleashed his fifth Soul Skill, Holy Tiger Roaring Heaven Strike.
• Dai Mobai formed a giant Holy Light White Tiger that roared and stunned Heaven Dou's soldiers before diving into their formation.
• Dai Mobai's strike blasted open a fan-shaped gap in the army and left a deep crater in the road.

Dai Mobai and the Breaking Clan carved through Xue Beng’s fifty-thousand-strong Heaven Dou army, turning his attempted encirclement into chaos. As Dai Mobai closed to within two hundred meters, Xue Beng’s confidence gave way to fear.

• Dai Mobai’s Holy Light White Tiger vaporized hundreds of Heaven Dou soldiers, making the advancing ranks hesitate.
• Dai Mobai unleashed Holy Light Verdict: Judgment and used eight golden light blades to cut a widening path toward Xue Beng.
• Yang Wudi and the Breaking Clan elites protected Dai Mobai’s wedge formation as it drove through the army.
• Xue Beng repeatedly ordered his soldiers to surround and attack Dai Mobai’s group, but the army’s movements grew chaotic under his command.
• Dai Mobai advanced from hundreds of meters away to within two hundred meters of Xue Beng, whose horse grew restless.

Dai Mobai attacked the Heaven Dou formation, and Xue Beng fled in terror, narrowly escaping a golden blade that knocked off his helmet. Dai Mobai then cut down the imperial swan banner, leaving it to fall over the battlefield.

• Dai Mobai fixed his golden gaze on Xue Beng, who panicked and ordered his guards to protect him before turning his horse to flee.
• Xue Beng whipped his horse through the formation, killing one of his own guards as he forced his way out.
• Dai Mobai sent a golden blade after Xue Beng, who leapt from his horse and hid beneath it after the blade knocked off his helmet.
• Dai Mobai recalled the blade and used it to sever the swan banner's flagpole at its base.
• The broken flagpole toppled as the white swan banner fluttered down.

Dai Mobai announced Xue Beng’s death, breaking the Heaven Dou army’s resolve and sending its soldiers fleeing. He nailed Xue Beng’s helmet and the imperial banner to Suotuo City’s wall, then led the Breaking Clan elites in pursuit.

• Dai Mobai displayed the fallen imperial banner and Xue Beng’s helmet, declared Xue Beng dead, and demanded the Heaven Dou soldiers surrender.
• Luo Bu ordered the city guards to continue defending Suotuo City, while Xue Beng hid beneath a horse and stayed silent.
• Believing Xue Beng was dead, the Heaven Dou soldiers lost their formation and fled as Dai Mobai sensed his blood-energy soul ring nearing completion.
• Dai Mobai pierced the banner pole through Xue Beng’s helmet and hurled them into Suotuo City’s wall, leaving the helmet nailed there.
• Dai Mobai ordered the pursuit, and Yang Wudi, Li Yue, and the Breaking Clan elites chased the fleeing Heaven Dou soldiers.

Dai Mobai and the Breaking Clan elites routed the Heaven Dou Guards outside Suotuo City and returned to the city as its residents looked on with new submission. Xue Beng gathered the surviving soldiers and discovered that fewer than forty thousand remained.

• Dai Mobai stopped the pursuit after the Heaven Dou Guards fled, and the Breaking Clan elites showed him their wholehearted respect.
• Dai Mobai returned to Suotuo City with his group, where residents viewed them with less wariness and greater submission.
• Dai Mobai told Yang Wudi to let the elites rest and said the fleeing guards and the city garrison would not threaten them for now.
• Xue Beng emerged after the surviving Heaven Dou Guards stopped fleeing and ordered them to gather.
• Xue Beng counted the survivors and learned that only a little more than thirty-eight thousand guards remained.

Xue Beng reflected on his humiliating defeat outside Suotuo City, while Ge Long received the battle report in Nuoding City and learned that Xue Beng’s fifty thousand troops had suffered devastating losses. Ge Long ended the chapter in a fury, smashing his desk over the report.

• Xue Beng brooded over losing more than twelve thousand men to fewer than a hundred defenders and worried that his failure would cost him his status as a prince.
• A scout secretly placed in Xue Beng’s army delivered a detailed report to Ge Long in Nuoding City.
• Ge Long considered how Zhu Song’s repeated probing attacks were wearing down Nuoding City while its supplies dwindled and the route through Suotuo City remained cut off.
• Ge Long read that Xue Beng’s forces had been defeated and suffered more than ten thousand dead and wounded.
• Ge Long smashed his desk and raged that even pigs could not have fought such a disastrous battle.

Zhu Song received a verified report that Dai Mobai and a little over eighty men had routed Xue Beng’s fifty-thousand-strong army near Suotuo City. He sent the report to the emperor and summoned his commanders, who were stunned as they read it.

• Zhu Song celebrated the report that Dai Mobai’s force had defeated Xue Beng’s army, killed more than twelve thousand enemy soldiers, and suffered no casualties.
• Zhu Song ordered ten copies of the report made, sent one urgently to the emperor, and summoned the army’s commanders.
• A messenger rode toward the Star Luo imperial capital carrying the sealed report for the emperor.
• Nine commanders gathered in Zhu Song’s tent and read the reports, then cried out in astonishment.

After reading Dai Mobai’s report of defeating fifty thousand enemies with just over eighty men, Zhu Song’s generals were awed by the fifteen-year-old Crown Prince’s battlefield achievement. They pledged to capture Nuoding City within three days and began pushing their soldiers harder that night.

• Xue Meng, Zhao Yunlan, Han Dang, and the other generals praised Dai Mobai after reading his battle report and his words, “Offense is the best defense.”
• Zhu Song reminded the generals that Dai Mobai had won his first battle at fifteen and asked whether they felt ashamed by the comparison.
• The nine generals admitted their shame and pledged to take Nuoding City within three days, with Xue Meng offering his head if they failed.
• Zhu Song dismissed the generals after telling them not to disappoint the Emperor or the Crown Prince.
• The generals returned to camp, and soldiers were berated through the night to improve their fighting skills.

Zhu Song launched a relentless assault on Nuoding City after ordering his Star Luo soldiers to train through the night, while Ge Long struggled to hold the exhausted defenders against the overwhelming attack. Ge Long recognized that Dai Mobai’s capture of Suotuo City had caused the crisis and feared the fall of the wider Barak Defense Line.

• Xue Meng and Han Dang drove their soldiers through brutal overnight training, and Zhu Song watched the Star Luo camp prepare for battle.
• At dawn, Zhu Song ordered successive waves of attacks against Nuoding City, committing his siege forces to take the city within three days.
• Ge Long’s outnumbered and exhausted troops fought off the Star Luo soldiers, whose willingness to charge left him deeply unsettled.
• Ge Long feared that losing Nuoding City after Suotuo City would unravel the Barak Defense Line and expose the heartland of the Heaven Dou Empire.
• Ge Long blamed Dai Mobai’s capture of Suotuo City for cutting the supply line and forcing him into his desperate position.

At Nuoding City, Ge Long reflected on the vast difference between princes as the Heaven Dou forces suffered under the Star Luo assault. In the Star Luo court, the emperor waited through ministers’ objections for a battle report, which announced that Xue Beng had attacked Suotuo City with fifty thousand troops.

• Ge Long watched Star Luo soldiers assault Nuoding City and questioned how princes could differ so greatly.
• The Star Luo Emperor listened as ministers argued against the war and dismissed Dai Mobai’s capture of Suotuo City as luck.
• The Star Luo Emperor waited for a battle report while the ministers continued their debate.
• A messenger delivered an eight-hundred-li urgent dispatch announcing that Xue Beng had led fifty thousand troops in an attack on Suotuo City.

A battle report announced that Dai Mobai had led more than eighty Soul Masters to defeat Heaven Dou's forces, killing over twelve thousand and driving them back a hundred li. The Star Luo Emperor proudly praised his son and rebuked Du Ruhai, who had argued for withdrawal and peace.

• The messenger reported that Dai Mobai had cut down Heaven Dou's banner, forced its fourth prince to feign death, and routed its army.
• The courtiers were stunned, while Du Ruhai's confidence faded after the report contradicted his prediction that Heaven Dou would retake Suotuo City.
• The Star Luo Emperor rose from the Dragon Throne and praised his fifteen-year-old son for fighting without retreating.
• The Star Luo Emperor condemned the officials for advocating withdrawal and peace, fixing his gaze on Du Ruhai.
• Du Ruhai turned pale and shakily bent his back as the Star Luo Emperor regarded him like an ordinary courtier.

The Star Luo Emperor dismissed Du Ruhai from court after the old scholar tried to rely on their former teacher-student relationship to escape consequences. He then declared before the court that Dai Mobai’s battlefield achievements surpassed anything he himself could have accomplished, leaving the ministers stunned.

• Du Ruhai called himself blind and muddleheaded, expecting the Star Luo Emperor to forgive him because of their past relationship.
• The Star Luo Emperor ordered Du Ruhai, who was eighty, to retire and return to his hometown.
• Du Ruhai tried to speak again, but the Star Luo Emperor silenced him and reminded the court of his own military accomplishments.
• The Star Luo Emperor praised Dai Mobai’s battle report and declared, “I am no match for the crown prince.”
• The court officials were left in disbelief at the Emperor’s admission that Dai Mobai’s achievements exceeded his own.

The Star Luo Emperor praised the Crown Prince’s victory, and Du Ruhai accepted his dismissal before collapsing in the court. At Duke Mansion, Zhu Zhuyun entered Zhu Zhuqing’s room with a parchment she had taken from their father’s study.

• The Star Luo Emperor declared that he could not match the Crown Prince, leaving Du Ruhai with no grounds to challenge him.
• Du Ruhai thanked the emperor, praised the Crown Prince, and fainted after bowing.
• The Star Luo Emperor ordered guards to carry Du Ruhai out, ending his place in court.
• Zhu Zhuyun rushed into Zhu Zhuqing’s room at Duke Mansion while Zhu Zhuqing cultivated.
• Zhu Zhuyun brought a parchment she had intercepted outside their father’s study.

Zhu Zhuyun teased Zhu Zhuqing with Duke Spirit Cat Zhu Song’s battle report, which described Dai Mobai, until Zhu Zhuqing’s eagerness overcame her aloofness. After reading the report, Zhu Zhuqing’s eyes shone with pride.

• Zhu Zhuyun arrived with Zhu Song’s battle report from the border front and hinted that it was about Mobai.
• Zhu Zhuqing rushed from her cultivation to block Zhu Zhuyun at the doorway and asked if the report concerned Crown Prince Brother.
• Zhu Zhuyun laughed at Zhu Zhuqing’s reaction, then handed her the parchment when she asked to see it.
• Zhu Zhuqing opened the report and read Zhu Song’s handwriting, growing visibly proud as she reached its final lines.

Dai Mobai ordered Luo Bu to agree to Xue Beng’s plan to open Suotuo City’s gates, but to delay it until the change of guard the following day. Xue Beng received the message and learned that the gate would be opened then.

• Luo Bu confessed that Xue Beng had asked him to secretly open Suotuo City’s gates at midnight.
• Dai Mobai told Luo Bu to agree, but to claim the patrols prevented an opening that night and promise to open the main gate during the change of guard one day later.
• Luo Bu sent a trusted subordinate out of Suotuo City to deliver Dai Mobai’s message to Xue Beng’s scout.
• The scout brought the intelligence to Xue Beng, whose eyes lit up.

Xue Beng received intelligence that Luo Bu would open Suotuo City's main gate during the guard change the following day. Pang Fei suspected a trap but judged the city's people still favored Heaven Dou, and Xue Beng ordered the army to prepare an assault.

• A scout delivered Luo Bu's message to Xue Beng, who deferred to Pang Fei and let him inspect it first.
• Xue Beng read that Luo Bu could open the main gate during the guard change in one day and eagerly welcomed the chance to retake Suotuo City.
• Pang Fei questioned the scout about how the message had been delivered and considered whether Luo Bu had defected to Star Luo.
• Pang Fei concluded that Suotuo City's people still leaned toward Heaven Dou and told Xue Beng to attack as planned in one day.
• Xue Beng ordered the entire army to prepare for battle and level Suotuo City.

Luo Bu waited for Xue Beng’s army outside Suotuo City, then ordered the city’s bonfires lit and its gates opened. Xue Beng rode toward the entrance with Pang Fei beside him.

• A black-armored cavalry army marched across the Lima Plain toward Suotuo City under the White Tiger Flag.
• Luo Bu waited on Suotuo City’s wall as the city lay dark and silent, and his trusted aide told him the hour of the ox was near.
• Luo Bu felt the ground tremble, saw an army approaching, and ordered the bonfires lit and the gates opened.
• Luo Bu’s aide relayed the order, the guards raised the heavy crossbar, and the city gates swung open.
• Xue Beng rode toward the city with Pang Fei beside him and saw the bonfires burning.

Xue Beng’s army entered Suotuo City after Luo Bu confirmed the agreed signals and opened the gates. Xue Beng reclaimed his helmet from the city wall and vowed that next time, someone would lose their head instead.

• Luo Bu and Pang Fei exchanged the agreed torch signals, confirming that Suotuo City’s gates were open for the attack.
• Pang Fei gave Xue Beng the signal to advance, and Xue Beng ordered the Heaven Dou army to charge into the city.
• The Heaven Dou soldiers entered Suotuo City beneath Xue Beng’s Swan Flag as residents woke and watched from their homes.
• Xue Beng saw his helmet nailed to the wall with the Swan Flag and asked Pang Fei to retrieve it.
• Pang Fei pulled the flagpole and helmet from the wall, then returned the helmet to Xue Beng.
• Xue Beng took back his helmet and vowed that someone would lose their head next time.