Chapter Summaries

Qin Yao showed his family the weapons and armor he had forged at the Foreign Repelling Camp, gave Pale Silver armor to Qin Dashan, and shared an imperial meal with his grandfather and Qin Lan. After they fell asleep, Qin Yao savored a quiet moment and checked his system panel, only to be shocked by what he saw.

• Qin Yao displayed his old weapons and explained that his Innate Realm strength had made the Divine Eagle Bow and Awakening of Insects Flying Knives nearly useless to him.
• Qin Yao gave his Pale Silver soft armor to Qin Dashan for protection from the fourth prince.
• Qin Lan opened the gate when an imperial meal bestowed by the emperor arrived, and Qin Yao and his family ate the cultivation-enhancing food.
• After Qin Dashan and Qin Lan fell asleep, Qin Yao stepped into the courtyard to enjoy the night breeze and reflect on his eventful day.
• Qin Yao checked his system panel after reaching the Innate Realm and was shocked by what he saw.

Qin Yao discovered that his system had lost several cultivation techniques after the soul impact, but he deleted them and confirmed his five Heaven Rank techniques and skills remained intact. As his classmates arrived late at night to ask him for help, he opened the gate and welcomed them.

• Qin Yao read the system's explanation that the soul impact had damaged it and caused some techniques and martial skills to be lost.
• Qin Yao deleted the lost techniques and saw that his skills and five Heaven Rank techniques had been preserved.
• Qin Yao credited his jade Storage Ring with blocking the fatal calamity caused by his cultivation going berserk.
• Murong Qingquan arrived with Qi Huansu, Su Muzhi, Lu Ciwu, and Liu Qingqing to ask Qin Yao to help her persuade her parents to stop pressing her to marry.
• Qin Yao opened the courtyard gate just as Murong Qingquan turned to leave and greeted the group.

Murong Qingquan and her friends visited Qin Yao before his Northern Expedition and asked him to help her avoid an arranged marriage. She wanted him to wave at her from outside a restaurant while her parents met a prospective match, leaving her hopeful that the gesture would persuade them she had found someone more suitable.

• Qin Yao welcomed Murong Qingquan, Su Muzhi, Lu Ciwu, Liu Qingqing, and Qi Huansu into his courtyard without acting superior about his new status.
• Qi Huansu explained that the group had one matter that required Qin Yao's help, and Murong Qingquan nervously explained that her parents were coming to arrange her marriage.
• Murong Qingquan said she did not want to marry early or wed a stranger chosen for wealth and connections.
• Liu Qingqing explained that Murong Qingquan wanted Qin Yao to pose as her romantic interest so her parents would stop pressing her to marry.
• Murong Qingquan clarified that she only wanted Qin Yao to wave to her from outside Good Fortune Restaurant while her parents met a prospective match there the next morning.

Qin Yao agreed to help Murong Qingquan convince her parents that they were close classmates, then set out from the Imperial Capital as Northern Expedition General. He waved to Murong at Good Fortune Restaurant, leaving her parents amazed by her connection to him and Murong secretly wishing their relationship were real.

• Qin Yao agreed to wave to Murong Qingquan from Good Fortune Restaurant as he departed, helping her prove their closeness to her parents.
• Qi Huansu and the others ended their visit so Qin Yao could rest before his campaign, and everyone wished him well.
• Qin Yao rode out at the head of several hundred officers, while Zhou Yuanqing watched the procession and praised his former classmate.
• Qin Yao spotted Murong Qingquan waiting at the restaurant window and reassured her with a smile.
• Qin Yao waved to Murong and joked that she owed him a thank-you meal, convincing her parents that the Northern Expedition General was her classmate.
• Murong Qingquan blushed and secretly wished that she and Qin Yao could truly be together.

After Qin Yao departed, Murong Qingquan’s parents learned he was the young Northern Expedition General and questioned her about their relationship. They mistook her classmates-only explanation for romantic interest and dropped their plans to arrange a match, leaving Murong Qingquan relieved but flustered as she returned to the academy.

• Murong Jue and his wife watched Qin Yao’s banner disappear, then asked Murong Qingquan about her classmate and his rank.
• Murong Qingquan told her parents that Qin Yao had saved her at the Foreign Repelling Camp and helped her in the Imperial Capital.
• Murong Qingquan said she had mentioned their blind-date plans to her specially recruited classmates, alarming her parents.
• Murong Jue and his wife assumed Murong Qingquan fancied Qin Yao and decided not to arrange a match for her.
• Murong Qingquan left for the academy, while her father urged her to thank Qin Yao and pass along his greetings.
• Murong Qingquan gazed toward the vanished banner and quietly thanked Qin Yao.

Qin Yao encountered the criminals from the Red River County exam-fraud framing case being judged at Judgment Square and saw Qin Yuwei and Qin Yongnian among them. They realized he had become the Northern Expedition General, while Qin Yongnian suspected Qin Yao had caused the Qin Family’s collapse.

• Qin Yao heard that Judgment Square was being used to execute major criminals and surveyed the prisoners with his Spirit Sense.
• Qin Yao recognized Qin Yuwei, Qin Yongnian, the former county magistrate, and other accomplices from the exam-fraud framing case.
• Qin Yuwei spotted Qin Yao riding with the Northern Expedition banner and recognized his rank and Ke Leiyong among his followers.
• Qin Yongnian saw Qin Yao and struggled to accept that the former mine slave had become a powerful general.
• Qin Yongnian recalled the Imperial Capital officials’ arrests of the Red River County officials and Qin Family leaders, then suspected Qin Yao had brought about their downfall.

Qin Yao arrived at Judgment Square as the condemned Qin clan members faced execution, and he recounted how they had framed him and ruined his family. Just as he was about to authorize an early execution, a crowd announced the arrival of Eunuch Nur.

• Qin Yuwei lamented her downfall and threatened the execution supervisor, who had her mouth struck with the flat of a blade.
• Yao Wenyuan welcomed Qin Yao and explained that the condemned criminals had been found guilty of examination fraud and framing Qin Yao.
• Qin Yongnian begged Qin Yao for mercy, but Qin Yao condemned him for conspiring to steal Qin Yao's scholarly title and send him to the mines.
• Spectators realized that Qin Yao was also the Great Yan Poet Sage and the Young Grandmaster.
• Qin Yuwei threatened Qin Yao with her connection to His Highness the Fourth Prince, but Qin Yao ignored her and asked when the execution would begin.
• A disturbance broke out as the crowd announced that Eunuch Nur had arrived.

Eunuch Nur brought Qin Dashan and Qin Lan to Judgment Square so Qin Yao could witness the punishment of those involved in the Red River County examination fraud. The Fourth Prince Yan Yangyi was dragged onto the platform in shackles, leaving Qin Yuwei and the crowd stunned as he desperately demanded to see the emperor.

• Eunuch Nur told Qin Yao that the emperor had spared the accused until Qin could judge them himself, and had arranged for his family to witness the reckoning.
• Qin Lan recognized Qin Yuwei as the woman who had bullied them, and Qin Yao reassured her that justice would be served.
• Qin Yuwei panicked when Eunuch Nur ordered someone brought forward and tried to invoke the Fourth Prince's protection.
• Imperial guards dragged the bound and battered Yan Yangyi onto the execution platform, revealing that the Fourth Prince had been seized.
• Yan Yangyi shouted that he wanted to see the emperor.

Qin Yao watched as the Fourth Prince, Yan Yangyi, was executed for his crimes, while the imperial decree left the fate of Qin Yao’s clan in his hands. Eunuch Nur conveyed the emperor’s further message, and Qin Yao was left to decide what would happen to the kneeling prisoners.

• Eunuch Nur read the imperial decree listing Yan Yangyi’s crimes and ordering his execution.
• Yan Yangyi begged Qin Yao to plead for him, but Qin Yao remained silent and watched coldly.
• The executioner beheaded Yan Yangyi in Judgment Square, shocking the watching crowd.
• Qin Yuwei screamed and recoiled when Yan Yangyi’s body struck her, then wet herself.
• Eunuch Nur told Qin Yao that the emperor had left the lives and deaths of Qin Yao’s clan members for Qin Yao to decide.

At Judgment Square, Qin Yuwei, Qin Yongnian, and the Red River County magistrate begged Qin Yao and his family for mercy. Qin Yao stopped Qin Dashan from pleading for the clan and ordered the corrupt officials to pay for their crimes first.

• Qin Yuwei and Qin Yongnian pleaded with Qin Yao to spare their lives, invoking their shared family ties and offering repentance.
• The Red River County magistrate confessed to taking Qin Yongnian's bribe and begged Qin Dashan to spare him.
• Qin Yuwei redirected her pleas to Qin Dashan, while Qin Yongnian recalled their childhood and the crowd condemned their sudden appeals to family loyalty.
• Qin Dashan began to soften and moved to speak for the Qin clan, but Qin Yao stopped him and pointed out that the magistrate and officials were not relatives.
• Qin Dashan refused to plead for the officials, and Qin Yao ordered them to repay their blood debts in blood.

The Red River County magistrate revealed that Qin Yongnian had colluded with bandits to murder Qin Dashan’s son and daughter-in-law, and Qin Dashan ordered Qin Yongnian’s household executed. Qin Yao left the punishment to the law, and Yao Wenyuan gave the order to carry it out.

• The Red River County magistrate claimed Qin Yongnian had arranged the bandit ambush that killed Qin Dashan’s son and daughter-in-law.
• The magistrate revealed that Qin Yongnian’s third wife had helped pass messages and money to bandits, and that her lover was the bandit Wula.
• Qin Yongnian denied the accusations, then vomited blood and collapsed as Qin Yuwei watched in despair.
• Qin Dashan confronted Qin Yongnian and ordered Qin Yao to kill him and his household.
• Qin Yao told Yao Wenyuan to proceed according to the law, and Yao Wenyuan ordered their execution.

After Qin Yuwei and Qin Yongnian were executed, Qin Yao left his family in the emperor’s care and rode north to join the army. He reached the outskirts of the camp with Ke Leiyong and the cavalry, where the watchtowers sounded his arrival.

• Qin Yao watched Qin Yuwei and Qin Yongnian be executed, settling his family’s vengeance.
• Eunuch Nur assured Qin Yao that the emperor had arranged protection for Qin Dashan and Qin Lan before departing.
• Qin Yao said goodbye to Qin Dashan and Qin Lan, promised his sister he would return, and rode toward the northern gate with Ke Leiyong and the cavalry.
• Qin Yao discovered that the Flamefire Black Steed was a rare mid-grade mystic beast mount and slowed down so the cavalry could catch up.
• Ke Leiyong pointed out the army’s camp beyond a grassy slope, and watchtower soldiers sounded a horn to announce Qin Yao’s arrival.

Qin Yao arrived at the Flame Lion Legion’s camp to take command of its thirty thousand elite cavalry as the new Northern Expedition General. The soldiers watched him approach, and one scar-faced veteran dismissed him as an inexperienced young master.

• Qin Yao surveyed the Flame Lion Legion’s vast camp and learned about the high martial standards and strong bonds among its troops.
• Ke Leiyong urged Qin Yao to descend the slope, and the cavalry’s arrival stirred the legion’s front ranks.
• The soldiers speculated about which general would command them and recognized the Northern Expedition General’s command banner.
• The riders examined Qin Yao’s horse, armor, command token, and spear as he approached.
• A scar-faced veteran called Qin Yao a beardless boy and suspected he had come to coast on military merit.

Qin Yao arrived to take command of the Flame Lion Army and found its soldiers openly scornful of him. As he recognized how past nobles had earned the army’s distrust, the troops remained hostile and unreceptive.

• Qin Yao rode up to the thirty thousand soldiers and admired the Flame Lion Army’s discipline and equipment.
• The soldiers mocked Qin Yao’s youthful appearance and fine gear, assuming he was an unworthy noble seeking military merit.
• The cavalrymen recalled that a previous high-born commander had led them into disaster and resented being placed under Qin Yao.
• Qin Yao remembered how Yan Yangyi’s reckless charge had cost the Flame Lion Army two thousand lives and understood the soldiers’ mistrust.

Qin Yao introduced himself as commander-in-chief of the northern campaign, but the Flame Lion Army's soldiers distrusted him and feared he would waste their lives. He decided to win their submission through his martial strength and began removing his armor before them.

• Qin Yao announced that he was commander-in-chief, prompting the Flame Lion Army soldiers to question his youth and competence.
• The soldiers complained that an inexperienced noble commander might use them as fodder, while Qin Yao learned they had not heard of his reputation as a young Grandmaster.
• General Ke Leiyong tried to reveal Qin Yao's martial status, but Qin Yao stopped him, and the soldiers took the interruption as further cause for mockery.
• Qin Yao ordered Ke Leiyong and the other generals to withdraw a hundred paces, leaving only two attendants beside him.
• Qin Yao removed his helmet, dismounted, and ordered the attendants to take off his armor as the soldiers mocked him.

Qin Yao stripped off his armor and called out 217 unruly Flame Lion soldiers, provoking them with insults. He then summoned the legion’s ten captains, who welcomed the chance to confront him.

• Qin Yao sent his armor, weapons, and mount away, prompting the soldiers to mock his appearance.
• Qin Yao used his Innate True Qi to order the men he had pointed out to fall in.
• Two hundred and seventeen hostile soldiers rode forward and formed a semicircle before Qin Yao.
• Qin Yao called the soldiers too few and too weak, provoking their anger.
• Qin Yao ordered the Flame Lion Legion’s ten captains to fall in, and they eagerly prepared to face him.

Qin Yao challenged two hundred troublemaking soldiers and ten lieutenants to attack him barehanded, offering huge rewards to anyone who could touch or wound him. The soldiers eagerly accepted, and Qin Yao beckoned them to begin.

• Zhou Qing introduced himself as commander of the First Company of the Left Camp and challenged Qin Yao's claim that the soldiers were weak.
• Qin Yao said he had called out the troublemakers and the ten lieutenants to teach them a lesson, and announced that he would fight without weapons or armor.
• The soldiers argued that battlefield tactics and numbers could overwhelm even a stronger martial artist, and questioned whether they would be punished if they injured Qin Yao.
• Qin Yao promised a hundred gold to anyone who touched his clothes, a thousand gold to anyone who wounded him, and immunity plus his estate to anyone who killed him.
• The soldiers grew eager to attack, and Qin Yao beckoned them to fight.

Qin Yao faced the Flame Lion Legion’s Lion Pack Hunt formation as its soldiers expected him to fall quickly. The archers’ first volley struck the spot where he had stood, but Qin Yao was nowhere to be seen.

• Zhou Qing ordered the Flame Lion Legion’s captains to form the Lion Pack Hunt around Qin Yao.
• The soldiers explained how mounted archers, javelin cavalry, and charging knights would attack in successive rings, while many mocked Qin Yao’s chances.
• Qin Yao watched the formation close around him and remained still as the mounted archers prepared to fire.
• Zhou Qing ordered the archers to loose, and their arrows filled the place where Qin Yao had been standing.
• The soldiers saw that the arrow-riddled ground held no sign of Qin Yao.

Qin Yao evaded the Flame Lion Legion’s arrows and javelins with astonishing speed, then slipped into their cavalry formation to force a close-quarters fight. Surrounded by more than two hundred Thornhead Soldiers, he remained untouched as he darted between their horses.

• Qin Yao used his movement technique to escape the arrowstorm, leaving the Flame Lion soldiers astonished by his speed.
• Zhou Qing ordered the javelin unit to attack, but Qin Yao evaded the volley and appeared before a charging cavalry squad.
• Qin Yao dodged the squad captain’s spear and slipped into the riders’ formation, preventing the archers and javelin throwers from firing safely.
• Zhou Qing ordered the troops to discard their ranged weapons and surround Qin Yao in close combat.
• The Thornhead Soldiers attacked Qin Yao, but he weaved between the horses and evaded every strike.

Qin Yao evaded the Flame Lion Army’s encirclement with his Nine Skies Thunder Step, then revealed he had struck palm prints into their armor without any of them noticing. The soldiers realized he could have killed them all and stood shaken before their commander.

• Qin Yao used the Nine Skies Thunder Step to slip through the cavalry’s attacks and leap beyond their battle formation without a speck of dust on him.
• The Flame Lion Army soldiers mocked Qin Yao for relying on speed instead of fighting with weapons.
• Wang Lütian and the other soldiers discovered palm prints pressed into their armor and helmets, while the scar-faced man found one stamped over his heart.
• The scar-faced man and the cavalrymen realized Qin Yao had marked their armor as he passed and had hidden his strength from them.
• Zhou Qing warned that Qin Yao could have killed all two hundred soldiers during his passage through the encirclement.