Chapter Summaries

Key plot points and events

• Wang Hongtao’s guards are about to arrest Elder Xu when Wang’s phone rings, showing that his father, Old General Wang, is calling.
• Gao Zisheng insists the call is a coincidence and urges Wang to ignore Elder Xu’s apparent bluff.
• Wang answers, only for his father to loudly berate him over the phone—especially for causing trouble and daring to pull a gun.
• Old General Wang orders Wang to return home immediately and apologize to Elder Xu. He threatens to disown him if Elder Xu does not forgive him.
• Wang’s authority collapses in front of the dockside crowd. The guards and witnesses silently observe his humiliation.

Character developments

• Wang Hongtao shifts from anger and confidence to shock, helplessness, and childhood dread. His father’s threat of a feather duster revives memories of being punished as a boy, stripping away his public authority.
• Gao Zisheng loses his confidence when the call proves Elder Xu’s influence is genuine; he realizes he has helped provoke someone far more powerful than he understood.
• Elder Xu remains calm and unreadable throughout, letting the phone call expose the power behind his position.
• Old General Wang is portrayed as forceful and uncompromising, treating his powerful son as a misbehaving child and demanding accountability.

Character interactions

• Gao tries to persuade Wang that Elder Xu is bluffing, but the call decisively disproves him.
• Wang makes a timid attempt to ask his father to preserve his dignity, but this only provokes a harsher reprimand.
• Old General Wang demands that Wang apologize directly to Elder Xu, placing the father’s authority—and Elder Xu’s standing—above Wang’s rank.

Significant themes

• Power and hierarchy: Wang’s political authority is overwhelmed by his father’s family authority and Elder Xu’s hidden influence.
• Public image versus private identity: The regional leader is reduced to a frightened son, and his childhood insecurities resurface in public.
• Accountability: Old General Wang insists that status does not excuse Wang’s misconduct, particularly the use of a gun.
• Humiliation and reversal: The scene turns the anticipated arrest into a public reckoning for Wang and Gao.

Wang Hongtao protested his father’s demand that he apologize to Elder Xu, but Old General Wang revealed that Xu came from Longdu and was a revered figure from Jade Spring Mountain. The chapter ended with Wang Hongtao pleading to learn Elder Xu’s identity.

• Wang Hongtao angrily defended his father and refused to accept Elder Xu’s insults.
• Lin Tiejun reflected that Elder Xu calling Wang Changshun “Little Shunliu” was an immense honor.
• Old General Wang warned Wang Hongtao that refusing to apologize could cost him his position and possibly his life.
• Wang Hongtao learned Elder Xu came from Longdu, not Jiangbei, and had ties to Jade Spring Mountain.
• Old General Wang said even his own chief and that chief’s superior would have respectfully saluted Elder Xu.
• Wang Hongtao begged his father to reveal who Elder Xu was.

After learning that the old man at the dock was Xu Anbang, Wang Hongtao realized he had publicly defied the Dragon Kingdom’s legendary Founding Marshal while backing Gao Zisheng. He bowed to Xu Anbang and apologized, leaving everyone at the dock stunned.

• Old General Wang told Wang Hongtao that Xu Anbang was celebrating his hundredth birthday and that even Wang Hongtao’s father could not gain an audience with him.
• Wang Hongtao recognized Xu Anbang as the First Commander-in-Chief of the Dragon Kingdom Navy and realized Xu had come to support Yue Xiaofei.
• Gao Zisheng mocked Xu Anbang and urged Wang Hongtao to arrest him and Yue Xiaofei.
• Wang Hongtao ordered Gao Zisheng to be quiet, then hurried toward Xu Anbang.
• Wang Hongtao bowed deeply to Xu Anbang and claimed his face had accidentally dirtied Xu’s cane instead of Xu hitting him.

Elder Xu confronted Wang Hongtao for abusing his authority and targeting innocent people, forcing the Modu Party secretary to admit his wrongdoing. Wang Hongtao was left overwhelmed with shame, while Gao Zisheng realized he could no longer rely on him.

• Wang Hongtao groveled before Elder Xu, who rebuked him for treating his face as clean while his heart was filthy.
• Elder Xu condemned Wang Hongtao for deploying armed forces against Yue Xiaofei, Ouyang Jian, Chen Mo, and other innocent people.
• Wang Hongtao admitted he had let power blind him and promised to write a self-criticism, while Gao Zisheng lost hope of receiving his help.
• Elder Xu reminded Wang Hongtao that his father, Wang Changshun, had served in the heroic Ninth Column of the East China Field Army and accused him of betraying its legacy.
• Wang Hongtao broke down in shame, as Yue Xiaofei, Jin Dapao, Lin Tiejun, and Ouyang Jian watched Elder Xu take control of the situation.

Elder Xu confronted Gao Zisheng over his crimes and ordered his arrest and a full investigation. Gao claimed his Jun Family ties and Eagle Country citizenship would shield him, but Elder Xu mocked the Jun Family as the one that had waited outside his house for hours.

• Gao Zisheng begged Elder Xu to forgive him, but Elder Xu listed his crimes and reminded him that he would have been shot for treason on the battlefield seventy years earlier.
• Wang Hongtao ordered the guards to arrest Gao Zisheng and asked Elder Xu how he wanted him dealt with.
• Elder Xu ordered an impartial investigation into every charge and warned that anyone who tried to interfere should also be arrested.
• Gao Zisheng resisted arrest, invoked his father and the Jun Family, and claimed his Eagle Country citizenship put him beyond Dragon Kingdom law.
• Elder Xu smiled and asked whether Gao meant the Jun Family that had waited outside his house for three hours without getting in.

Plot points and events

• Elder Xu dismisses Gao Zisheng’s claim that the Jun Family can protect him, saying even Jun Xiao’er would be humbled by his presence. He also insults the late Jun patriarch, provoking Gao.
• Gao calls his father, Second Master Jun, expecting him to threaten Elder Xu into backing down. While waiting, Lin Tiejun reassures Yue Xiaofei that Elder Xu is powerful enough to overturn the city.
• Second Master Jun answers, boasting of his influence and threatening Ouyang Jian. Gao distorts events, portraying Elder Xu as an abusive troublemaker and himself and Secretary Wang as victims.
• Furious at the reported insults to the Jun Family and his late father, Second Master Jun threatens to have Elder Xu killed. But when Gao says the old man is nearly a hundred and surnamed Xu, Jun’s confidence collapses and he anxiously asks whether the name is truly Xu.

Character developments and interactions

• Elder Xu remains calm and amused, openly defying the Jun Family and showing no fear of its reputation.
• Gao Zisheng shifts from disbelief to vindictive confidence, using a misleading account to enlist his father’s help.
• Second Master Jun begins arrogantly confident and threatening, but the clues to Elder Xu’s identity abruptly make him fearful.
• Wang Hongtao silently suffers as Gao falsely casts him as a victim and defender of justice, unable to correct the story.
• Yue Xiaofei remains worried, while Lin Tiejun expresses unwavering faith in Elder Xu.

Significant themes

• Reputation versus real power: The Jun Family’s intimidating name may not impress someone with greater authority.
• Arrogance and self-deception: Gao assumes Elder Xu is bluffing; Second Master Jun’s threats depend on incomplete, biased information.
• The reversal of power: The chapter ends with the powerful-sounding Jun suddenly afraid, building suspense around Elder Xu’s identity.

Key plot points and events

• When Gao Zisheng tells his father, Second Master Jun, that the old man confronting them is named Xu, Jun dismisses it as a bluff: no great Longdu family is called Xu, and he assumes the man is an impostor.
• Elder Xu takes the phone and addresses Jun by the childhood nickname “Jun Xiao’er.” Jun immediately recognizes the voice and realizes the man is the legendary Uncle Xu.
• Elder Xu recalls Jun’s humiliating past misdeeds, then condemns him for letting Gao bully the descendant of a decorated veteran, burn down the family home, insult the war dead, and use foreign citizenship as protection.
• Gao, still unaware of who Elder Xu is, urges his father to have the old man arrested or killed. Instead, a thud sounds over the phone—and Jun admits that he is kneeling before Elder Xu.

Character developments

• Second Master Jun shifts from anger and confidence to terror and submission once he recognizes Elder Xu. His authority and family influence prove useless against the man who has disciplined him throughout his life.
• Gao Zisheng remains arrogantly loyal to his father’s power and refuses to believe Jun might be kneeling, even as the evidence becomes clear.
• Elder Xu is revealed as a formidable figure with longstanding personal ties to Jun. His calm manner makes his rebuke more intimidating.

Significant themes

• Power versus moral authority: Wealth and family status cannot shield Jun from Elder Xu’s judgment.
• Accountability across generations: Elder Xu condemns Jun not only for his own conduct but for enabling his son’s abuse.
• Patriotism and respect for sacrifice: Burning a veteran’s home and insulting the fallen are treated as especially serious offenses.
• The limits of privilege: Gao’s claimed foreign citizenship offers no protection from consequences in the Dragon Kingdom.

Character interactions

• Elder Xu uses intimate knowledge of Jun’s past to expose and reprimand him, reinforcing their history as uncle-like disciplinarian and unruly younger man.
• Jun’s call with Gao turns into a public reversal: Gao expects his father to punish Elder Xu, but Jun instead kneels to him.
• Jin Dapao and Yue Xiaofei react with shock and realize the sound over the phone may have been Jun falling to his knees.

Elder Xu forced Second Master Jun to kowtow and apologize after revealing Gao Zisheng’s crimes. Terrified of the consequences, Second Master Jun disowned Gao Zisheng, leaving him collapsed and stripped of his Jun Family status.

• Second Master Jun kowtowed, apologized, and slapped himself while Elder Xu refused to accept his apology easily.
• Gao Zisheng collapsed as the people on the dock watched Second Master Jun beg for mercy.
• Elder Xu told Second Master Jun that Gao Zisheng had burned the Yue Family ancestral home, defiled the [Pillar of the Country] plaque, and framed Yue Qinhu's grandson.
• Second Master Jun blamed Gao Zisheng for deceiving him and furiously denounced him over the phone.
• Second Master Jun expelled Gao Zisheng from the Jun Family and declared that his fate no longer concerned them.

Elder Xu forced Second Master Jun to disown Gao Zisheng, leaving Gao without protection and begging everyone for mercy. Yue Xiaofei asked for a private meeting with Gao Zisheng, and Elder Xu ordered Ouyang Jian to find them a secluded room.

• Gao Zisheng tried to stop Elder Xu from taking the phone, but Second Master Jun insulted him and disowned him to save himself.
• Elder Xu told Second Master Jun he would settle his account when he returned to Longdu, then challenged Gao Zisheng to reveal any other backers.
• Gao Zisheng collapsed and kowtowed to Elder Xu, Yue Xiaofei, Jin Dapao, Ouyang Jian, Lin Xiaolu, and Chen Mo, begging them to spare him.
• Yue Xiaofei asked Elder Xu to arrange a private chat with Gao Zisheng, and Gao screamed and tried to crawl away.
• Elder Xu approved Yue Xiaofei's resolve, then ordered Ouyang Jian to find a storage room without surveillance cameras and take Gao there.

Key plot points and events

• Gao Zisheng tries to flee the docks, but Chen Mo catches him and hands him over to Yue Xiaofei.
• Yue asks Chen Mo and the others to leave him alone with Gao in a locked storage room.
• Gao begs for his life, offering money, celebrity connections, and obedience. Yue refuses to be swayed and recalls Gao’s past crimes: stealing his place at school, framing him, pursuing revenge, nearly killing him, and burning down the Yue family’s ancestral home.
• Yue says that when the law failed to deliver justice, he chose to pursue it himself. He declares that only one of them will leave the room.
• Gao agrees to fight, but secretly attacks with a switchblade. Yue dodges, breaks Gao’s wrist, and begins beating him, naming the harms each blow is meant to answer.

Character developments

• Yue Xiaofei is controlled and resolute at first, then unleashes long-contained anger. His fight is presented as personal retribution for his family and for people Gao has victimized.
• Gao Zisheng shifts from arrogant threats to desperate pleading, then reveals his willingness to cheat by hiding a knife. His confidence collapses when Yue easily overpowers him.
• Chen Mo supports Yue’s demand to handle the confrontation privately, recognizing it as revenge.

Significant themes

• Justice versus revenge: Yue loses faith that the law will punish Gao and takes matters into his own hands.
• Power and accountability: Yue confronts Gao for exploiting status to humiliate, frame, and harm others.
• Family, dignity, and memory: The destruction of the ancestral home deepens Yue’s grievance, while Gao’s treatment of Yue’s grandfather and others broadens it.
• False honor: Gao accepts a “one-on-one” fight but immediately uses a concealed blade, exposing his hypocrisy.

Character interactions

• Gao threatens and bargains with Yue, but Yue answers with a cold recounting of past wrongs rather than negotiation.
• Chen Mo physically restrains Gao and, with the others, gives Yue the privacy he requests.
• During the fight, Yue repeatedly connects each punch to a specific victim or offense, turning the beating into an explicit reckoning.

Summary

• Yue Xiaofei gets his revenge: He beats Gao Zisheng until Gao is unconscious and near death, then washes the blood from his hands. With the score settled, Xiaofei feels his anger lift and describes himself as having received “a new lease on life.” Chen Mo waits outside as Xiaofei steps into the sunlight and sea breeze.
• The Xu family searches for Xu Anbang: While Xiaofei is settling matters, Jiangcheng is gripped by a high-level search. Xu Anbang has disappeared along with his old companion Lin Tiejun, and neither their phones nor tracking devices can be located. The family fears the worst, especially because Xu Anbang has left on his hundredth birthday.
• The family suspects he went to see Yue Qinhu: Xu Jingtao suggests that Xu Anbang may have visited Yue Qinhu, his longtime friend and former comrade. But Yue is now in a military sanatorium with dementia, reportedly muttering about battles and positions. The family worries that seeing him in this condition would deeply affect Xu Anbang.
• A birthday crisis grows: Xu Sanjiang receives an urgent call from Jade Spring Mountain: an enormous crowd of dignitaries, military leaders, clan heads, and officials has gathered to celebrate Xu Anbang’s birthday. With the guest of honor missing, the family is under pressure to find him and manage the situation.

Character developments and interactions

• Yue Xiaofei moves from pent-up humiliation and rage to a sense of release after taking revenge.
• Xu Sanjiang tries to maintain control but is visibly worried about his father; he grows frustrated as the search yields nothing.
• Xu Sihai, Qin Qianshan, and Xu Jingtao work together to trace Xu Anbang. Jingtao takes a more reflective approach, while the older men respond with mounting anxiety.
• Xu Anbang and Yue Qinhu’s long bond is emphasized: the family believes their shared history may explain Xu Anbang’s disappearance.

Significant themes

The chapter contrasts personal vengeance and emotional release with family duty and public responsibility. It also highlights the weight of old friendships and shared wartime history, while Xu Anbang’s disappearance shows how even powerful families can be left helpless by uncertainty.

Key plot points and events

• After Xu Zhenlong goes missing, Xu Sanjiang postpones the birthday banquet by two hours, tells guests the old master is unwell, and orders an all-out search across Jiangcheng. Xu Sanjiang flies back to Longdu to manage the gathering.
• Unbeknownst to the search party, Xu Zhenlong is safely at the docks in Modu, where an “investigation” is about to begin.
• On a private jet to Modu, Bureau 7 deputy chief Hou Liangbing imagines the power and status he expects to gain by capturing Yue Xiaofei and handing him to Special Agent Smith.
• Hou questions why Smith’s Eagle Country intelligence service is so interested in Yue Xiaofei. Smith reveals his connection to the secretive Skull and Bones society, then discloses that Yue’s value exceeds that of even a hundred Zhao Families: he is the son of the Black Emperor, Yue Changlong.

Character developments and interactions

• Xu Sanjiang responds to the crisis with discipline and urgency, taking charge of the banquet and deploying his sons to search for Xu Zhenlong.
• Hou Liangbing shows ambition, greed, and resentment toward those he hopes to dominate. Though eager to cooperate with Smith, he is wary enough to demand a reason for the mission.
• Smith uses his secret affiliation and the revelation about Yue’s father to secure Hou’s loyalty and deepen the conspiracy around Yue Xiaofei.
• Their exchange shifts Hou’s understanding of the mission: Yue is not merely tied to Asura Hall, but connected to a far more powerful figure.

Significant themes

• Power and hidden influence: The revelations suggest that unseen networks and personal lineage can outweigh formal institutions and political families.
• Ambition and corruption: Hou’s fantasies of status and revenge expose how self-interest drives his cooperation.
• Misplaced certainty: While the Xu family mobilizes to find Xu Zhenlong, he is far away and safe, underscoring the gap between what characters believe and what is actually happening.
• Identity and inherited significance: Yue Xiaofei’s true importance rests not on the background Hou investigated, but on his connection to the Black Emperor.

Hou Liangbing agreed to help Smith capture Yue Xiaofei in exchange for favors from Eagle Country, then led Bureau 7 operatives toward the dock. Meanwhile, Yue Xiaofei emerged from the storage room as Wang Hongtao fled the scene and requested a week of leave.

• Smith told Hou Liangbing that Yue Xiaofei was a valuable target and offered him benefits for handing Yue over.
• Hou Liangbing called Zhong Zhenguo, who angrily hung up while waiting at Jade Spring Mountain to visit a military elder on his hundredth birthday.
• Hou Liangbing vowed to gain power over the Zhong Family and ordered Bureau 7 operatives to capture Yue Xiaofei at the dock.
• Yue Xiaofei left the storage room with Chen Mo and approached Elder Xu and the others.
• Wang Hongtao fled the dock and called Modu's secretary-general to request a week off, claiming he had suffered a heart attack.

Yue Xiaofei asked Elder Xu to investigate his father Yue Changlong’s secret imprisonment, and Elder Xu used his authority and an old debt to obtain access to the classified case. The investigation revealed that Yue Changlong had been imprisoned for treason.

• Yue Xiaofei thanked Elder Xu for protecting him and his companions, and Elder Xu explained that he had acted for his old comrade Yue Qinhu.
• Yue Xiaofei told Elder Xu that his father, Yue Changlong, had vanished into Yanshan Prison five years earlier under an SSS+ classified file and asked him to uncover the truth.
• Elder Xu called Xiao Ma and ordered him to investigate Yue Changlong, reminding him that he had once saved his life.
• Xiao Ma called back and revealed that Yue Changlong's charge was treason.

Elder Xu learned that Yue Changlong was accused of treason, but the evidence had been erased, prompting him to vow to investigate whether Yue Changlong had been framed. Before a lead in the file could be revealed, Hou Liangbing stormed in with armed operatives and ordered Yue Xiaofei arrested.

• Jin Dapao and Yue Xiaofei protested that Yue Changlong was a loyal hero who could not have betrayed the country.
• Elder Xu learned from Xiao Ma that the treason records had been erased by someone with high-level clearance.
• Elder Xu ordered a full investigation and vowed to fight anyone responsible if Yue Changlong had been framed.
• Xiao Ma began to reveal the presiding officer's signature, but Hou Liangbing and dozens of armed operatives burst into the office.
• Hou Liangbing ordered his operatives to arrest Yue Xiaofei.

Hou Liangbing ordered Bureau 7 operatives to aim their guns at Yue Xiaofei, but Jin Dapao drew his pistol and pressed it to Hou Liangbing’s forehead. Ouyang Jian challenged Hou Liangbing’s authority in the naval port, and Hou Liangbing displayed his Bureau 7 credentials and claimed he could arrest anyone in the name of national security.

• Hou Liangbing ordered dozens of Bureau 7 operatives to point their guns at Yue Xiaofei.
• Jin Dapao drew his service pistol and aimed it at Hou Liangbing, threatening to shoot him.
• Hou Liangbing dismissed Jin Dapao’s threat and asserted his authority as Bureau 7’s deputy chief.
• Ouyang Jian identified himself as captain of the Sea Dragon and warned Hou Liangbing that the port was navy territory.
• Hou Liangbing showed his Bureau 7 credentials and claimed national security gave him the authority to enter and arrest anyone.

Hou Liangbing used a Bureau 7 Special-Class Arrest Warrant to declare Yue Xiaofei a Class-A Suspect and threatened to arrest anyone who resisted. When Yue Xiaofei demanded evidence, Hou Liangbing accused his brother Yue Feng of treason and claimed Yue Xiaofei had colluded with him.

• Hou Liangbing revealed his Bureau 7 credentials and produced a Special-Class Arrest Warrant for Yue Xiaofei.
• Hou Liangbing warned Jin Dapao, Ouyang Jian, and the others that interference would make them accomplices to obstructing national security.
• Yue Xiaofei challenged Hou Liangbing to state the charges and provide evidence.
• Hou Liangbing accused Yue Feng of stealing national secrets, founding Asura Hall, and returning to Dragon Kingdom to attack Modu.
• Hou Liangbing claimed Yue Xiaofei had aided Yue Feng from inside the country and was part of a greater conspiracy.

Yue Xiaofei confronted Hou Liangbing for twisting Yue Feng’s actions into crimes, then learned Hou Liangbing believed Yue Feng had died at Cloudtop Heavenly Palace. Hou Liangbing claimed the Yue Family had no one left to protect them, and challenged Yue Xiaofei to find a backer stronger than Yue Feng.

• Yue Xiaofei exposed Hou Liangbing’s past public humiliation, revealing that he had knelt and begged the [Reverse Scale] squad for mercy.
• Hou Liangbing threatened Yue Xiaofei, then told him he had received confirmed information that Yue Feng had gone to Cloudtop Heavenly Palace on Changbai Mountain and was likely dead.
• Yue Xiaofei realized that Hou Liangbing knew about Yue Feng’s secret mission to find their mother, Ye Qingmei, and suspected there was more to the revelation.
• Hou Liangbing taunted Yue Xiaofei about his grandfather, father, and supposedly dead brother, and dismissed Jin Dapao, Ouyang Jian, and Elder Xu as protectors.
• Yue Xiaofei accused Hou Liangbing of acting only because Yue Feng was absent, while Hou Liangbing declared himself the victor and challenged Yue Xiaofei to produce a backer more powerful than Yue Feng.

Hou Liangbing ordered Bureau 7 agents to seize Yue Xiaofei and anyone who resisted, and Jin Dapao fought them to protect him. With the office cut off from outside communication, Ouyang Jian defied Hou Liangbing and vowed to protect Yue Xiaofei, leaving the confrontation unresolved.

• Hou Liangbing ordered Bureau 7 agents to arrest Yue Xiaofei and anyone who obstructed them.
• Jin Dapao charged the agents, but they subdued him with stun batons and handcuffed him.
• Hou Liangbing accused Jin Dapao of harboring a Class-A suspect and ordered the agents to take him away.
• Ouyang Jian tried to summon reinforcements, but Hou Liangbing revealed that he had jammed nearby signals.
• Ouyang Jian refused to yield and declared that he would protect Yue Xiaofei.

Hou Liangbing’s Bureau 7 guards overpowered Ouyang Jian and arrested him, leaving Yue Xiaofei with few allies. Lin Tiejun stepped forward to defend Yue Xiaofei, but Hou Liangbing dismissed him as a retired officer and challenged his authority.

• Hou Liangbing ordered Bureau 7’s elite guards to arrest Ouyang Jian, and Ouyang fought them until their numbers overwhelmed him.
• The guards handcuffed Ouyang Jian, and Hou Liangbing had him taken away.
• Hou Liangbing taunted Yue Xiaofei after his remaining allies were removed and moved to cuff him.
• Lin Tiejun rose and declared that he would protect Yue Xiaofei because Yue Qinhu had saved his life.
• Hou Liangbing identified Lin Tiejun as a retired one-star general and mocked his medals and ability to stop the arrest.