Chapter Summaries

The Ministry of Justice delivered verdicts in the treason case against Ning Xiu, Huang Zhaolong, the Third Prince Zhao Fu, and the Star-Gazing Academy leaders. Huang Zhaolong was executed, and Zhao Fu was sentenced to death as the chapter ended with his response still pending.

• Xie Jinjia left to return to the Ministry of War after Pei Zhiyan warned that the Rong Tribe was preparing for war.
• Yang Ling introduced Pei Zhiyan as the Iron Garment Division’s First Office of the Strategy Division director and revealed that Huang Zhaolong had betrayed him.
• News of Pei Zhiyan’s return and his identity as the Rong Tribe’s Sky Wolf Guard Chief spread through Kyoto and toward the Seven Provincial Capitals.
• Qi Tairan sentenced Ning Xiu to a hundred years of confinement and executed Huang Zhaolong after he admitted his guilt.
• Qi Tairan stripped Zhang Xuanshui and the other Star-Gazing Academy leaders of their cultivation and sentenced them to a life of manual labor, barring them from the classics.
• Qi Tairan sentenced the Third Prince Zhao Fu to death for treason and attempted murder, then asked whether he admitted his guilt.

Yang Ling and Qi Tairan condemned Zhao Fu as the Immortal Gods Sect Leader, while Yang Ling suspected the real leader, Luo Kai, had fled to the Great Dream Dynasty. Zhao Fu was executed after revealing the Second Prince’s cultivation might rival the Crown Prince’s, and Yang Ling destroyed his body to prevent any trickery.

• Yang Ling suspected Luo Kai had escaped to the Great Dream Dynasty, while Zhao Chongxu said the authorities were still searching for him among the Rong Tribe.
• Qi Tairan charged Zhao Fu with violating the royal family’s ban on joining religious sects, and Zhao Fu denied being the Immortal Gods Sect Leader before accusing Yang Ling of framing him.
• Zhao Fu offered a hidden ledger and invoked the Crimson Blood Vermilion Fruit he had given Yang Ling, but Yang Ling refused to challenge the verdict.
• Zhao Fu named Luo Kai and his stand-in Li Fengxian as the real leaders, then revealed that the Second Prince had cultivated at the Extreme Flame Sword Palace and might rival the Crown Prince.
• Yang Ling ordered Qi Tairan to carry out the sentence, and Qi Tairan killed Zhao Fu with a palm strike.
• Yang Ling kicked Zhao Fu’s corpse into ash, claiming he had wanted to prevent Zhao Fu from feigning death or using another trick.

The abbot of Bitter Enlightenment Temple seized the Cloud Pattern Provincial Capital Iron Garment Division, accusing its officers of planning an attack on his temple and demanding blood-written denunciations of Yang Ling. After Qin Mo messaged him for help, Yang Ling used Descending God to arrive through Qin Mo, leaving the abbot confronting him.

• Qin Mo and Chen Xu noticed the Iron Garment Division had gone unnaturally quiet, then learned that Bitter Enlightenment Temple had rebelled and captured the compound.
• The abbot defeated Wei Xing and the other Iron Garments, including Qin Mo and Chen Xu, and demanded they denounce Yang Ling in their own blood.
• Yang Ling received Qin Mo's message and activated Descending God, discovering he could use it to enter the body of a player in his contact list.
• Yang Ling descended through Qin Mo into the Iron Garment Division's front hall, where Wei Xing saw him appear behind the abbot.
• The abbot sensed Yang Ling, turned around, and demanded to know who he was.