Chapter Summaries

Plot points and events

• Yue Xiaofei, still acting with vacant, instinctive focus, repeatedly attacks Basaka with the same overwhelming punch.
• Basaka is killed and resurrected thirteen times. Each revival takes longer, and his body becomes progressively weaker and more insubstantial.
• Anna, injured and desperate, tells Basaka that they are trapped inside Yue’s King’s Domain. Their only hope is to stall until Yue regains consciousness.
• Basaka tries threats, then begs for mercy and offers to become Yue’s servant, but Yue ignores him and continues attacking.
• After the twelfth resurrection, Basaka can barely reform. Yue crushes his head, ending all thirteen of his lives permanently.
• Yue then turns toward Anna and tells her she is next.

Character developments

• Basaka goes from proud and threatening to terrified, then pleading and utterly resigned. His confidence in his immortality collapses as each death leaves him weaker.
• Anna is badly wounded and frightened, but recognizes their predicament and urges Basaka to buy time.
• Yue Xiaofei remains silent and expressionless throughout the massacre. His speech at the end suggests his violence is still continuing, despite the possibility that he is not fully conscious.

Significant themes

• The limits of immortality: Basaka’s ability to revive cannot protect him indefinitely; each resurrection exacts a visible cost until his final life ends.
• Power and helplessness: Basaka’s rank, threats, and reputation mean nothing against Yue’s overwhelming force.
• Fear replacing pride: Basaka’s transformation from boastful warrior to desperate supplicant underscores how completely he has been broken.

Character interactions

• Anna warns Basaka that escape is impossible and advises him to stall for time.
• Basaka alternates between threatening Yue, appealing to his mercy, and offering submission; Yue gives him no answer and kills him repeatedly.
• After Basaka’s final death, Yue shifts his attention to Anna and threatens her directly.

Plot points and events

• Anna, seeing Basaka—the supposedly immortal Berserker—destroyed, is overcome by fear and uses her final technique, Murder of Crows, to scatter over a thousand copies of herself across Yue Xiaofei’s Divine Hall. If even one survives, she can be reborn.
• Yue Xiaofei calmly closes his hand. Every crow explodes at once, seemingly killing Anna and demonstrating his overwhelming control over the Divine Hall.
• At the Eastern Frontier Theater command center, officers detect two powerful foreign A-Level Transcendents near First People’s Hospital in Modu. The hospital is where Han Xiao’s ambulance is heading, and Yue Xiaofei is also there.
• Xiao Tian Ce orders elite Dragon Fang and Snow Leopard teams to deploy, authorizes heavy conventional weapons, and asks Ouyang Jian to arrange surveillance and traffic control.
• En route, Xiao Tian Ce learns that a third energy signature has appeared at the same location. It exceeds the monitoring system’s limits and is identified not as S-Level, but as Royal Authority level.

Character developments

• Anna goes from desperate hope to terror, exhausting her final means of escape. Her crows’ destruction leaves her fate apparently sealed.
• Yue Xiaofei is presented as a cold, godlike force whose power eclipses even the abilities of formidable Transcendents.
• Xiao Tian Ce shifts instantly from command to personal alarm when he realizes the danger may threaten Han Xiao and Yue Xiaofei. The Royal Authority reading raises the crisis far beyond what he can manage with ordinary forces.

Character interactions

• Anna’s last attempt to survive is met with Yue Xiaofei’s effortless, silent response.
• Xiao Tian Ce receives reports from his staff and coordinates with Elder Xu, Jin Dapao, and Ouyang Jian; the group acts swiftly to protect the hospital’s targets.
• Xiao Tian Ce’s concern for Yue Xiaofei and Han Xiao shapes his urgent decisions, while the soldiers’ escalating reports heighten the tension.

Significant themes

• Overwhelming power and helplessness: Anna’s schemes and escape ability prove useless against Yue Xiaofei.
• A new order emerging: The bloody “fireworks” suggest a symbolic coronation, while the Royal Authority detection hints that an unprecedented power has entered the wider conflict.
• Escalation and uncertainty: The command center’s response to two A-Level threats becomes inadequate once a force beyond known classifications appears.

After a mysterious [royal authority]-level presence vanished, Xiao Tian Ce and the others found Han Xiao and two Transcendents dead, while Yue Xiaofei lay gravely injured. With Yue Xiaofei's vital signs beyond medical explanation, Elder Xu ordered Professor Ye Kunlun brought in to save him.

• Elder Xu ordered Xiao Tian Ce to rescue Yue Xiaofei, and Xiao Tian Ce mobilized troops and helicopters after the detected energy signatures disappeared.
• Xiao Tian Ce and the others reached First People's Hospital and found Han Xiao dead, two other bodies reduced to bloody remains, and Yue Xiaofei unconscious but alive.
• A Dragon Fang squad captain reported that the two A-Level Transcendents were likely among the dead, but no trace of the [royal authority]-level presence could be found.
• A medic warned that Yue Xiaofei's vital signs had exceeded every limit and that standard treatment had no effect.
• Elder Xu invoked wartime authorization and ordered Professor Ye Kunlun brought from Qingbei University to save Yue Xiaofei.

Key plot points and events

• Xiao Tian Ce realizes that only the disgraced scientist Ye Kunlun may be able to save the critically ill Yue Xiaofei. Ye was once a prodigy and chief scientist of the government’s secret Kunlun Project, but his dangerous genetic experiments led to his research being shut down and his confinement.
• Ye arrives at the hospital furious at being pulled away from his work. But when he examines Xiaofei, his irritation turns to scientific awe: Xiaofei’s cellular activity, energy production, and nerve transmission far exceed normal limits.
• Ye initially treats Xiaofei as a remarkable research specimen and announces that he intends to dissect him alive. Jin Dapao threatens him at gunpoint, while Xiao Tian Ce and Elder Xu insist that Ye was brought to save Xiaofei.
• Ye declares Xiaofei’s condition effectively incurable, estimating a 99.99 percent chance of death within twenty-four hours. Elder Xu provokes him by suggesting he lacks the ability to help.
• Stung by the challenge, Ye claims he is the exceptional 0.01 percent who can overcome the odds. He orders his team to prepare advanced gene- and cell-repair treatments, determined to defy fate.

Character developments

• Ye Kunlun shifts from an irritable, eccentric scientist to an intensely fascinated researcher, then from apparent defeat to fierce determination. His arrogance and competitive pride become the force driving him to attempt a rescue.
• Elder Xu remains composed and strategically provokes Ye, turning his pride into motivation.
• Jin Dapao shows fierce loyalty to Xiaofei, openly threatening Ye when he believes the scientist will harm him.
• Xiao Tian Ce recognizes the seriousness of Xiaofei’s condition and tries to keep Ye focused on saving him.

Significant themes

• Genius and madness: Ye’s extraordinary intellect is inseparable from his reckless methods and disregard for ordinary boundaries.
• Hope against overwhelming odds: The chapter turns a near-certain death sentence into a defiant attempt at rescue.
• Science versus ethics: Ye sees Xiaofei as both a patient and an unprecedented specimen, creating a sharp conflict between scientific curiosity and the duty to preserve life.
• Defying fate: Ye’s challenge to the 99.99 percent prognosis gives the chapter its central note of audacious resistance.

Character interactions

• Elder Xu explains Ye’s controversial history and persuades the others that he is their best hope.
• Ye clashes with Jin Dapao and Xiao Tian Ce when his proposed dissection conflicts with their demand to save Xiaofei.
• Elder Xu challenges Ye’s competence, deliberately provoking him into taking responsibility for the case.

Ye Kunlun used the Kunlun Project’s experimental treatments to stabilize Yue Xiaofei after his body rejected the initial stabilizer. As Yue Xiaofei remained unconscious, he dreamed of his father Yue Changlong accepting a secret mission that would brand him a traitor, and heard his father silently apologize and promise to return.

• Ye Kunlun injected Yue Xiaofei with the Ouroboros stabilizer, but Yue Xiaofei’s body rejected it and expelled the drug with golden blood.
• Ye Kunlun used the Kunlun Project’s Emperor’s Nectar and Pangu repair agent to stabilize Yue Xiaofei after three hours of treatment.
• Ye Kunlun left for Longdu aboard a White Emperor Fighter and told the unconscious Yue Xiaofei to find him when he woke.
• Yue Xiaofei dreamed of Yue Changlong accepting a mission that would erase his honors and make him infamous as a traitor.
• Yue Changlong declared that he would shed his last drop of blood for the Dragon Kingdom, then silently told Yue Xiaofei he was sorry and would return.

Yue Xiaofei woke in the hospital after a mysterious [Royal Authority]-level expert saved him, and he told his companions that Han Xiao had died protecting him. Zhang Beihai and Han Duoduo arrived, and Han Duoduo revealed that she had served under Yue Feng in [Reverse Scale].

• Yue Xiaofei woke after twelve hours unconscious and learned that Ye Kunlun had saved him from death's door.
• Yue Xiaofei recounted how Han Xiao sacrificed himself against [Raven], Anna, and [Berserker], Basaka, but could not remember the final moments.
• Xiao Tian Ce said their monitors had detected a [Royal Authority]-level energy and that the mysterious expert had killed the attackers and saved Yue Xiaofei.
• Yue Xiaofei asked Elder Xu to bury Han Xiao on South Mountain, and Elder Xu promised him a hero's honors.
• Zhang Beihai of Bureau 7 arrived and said Ye Kunlun had found an unusual individual in Modu.
• Han Duoduo introduced herself as a former member of [Reverse Scale] and Yue Feng's trusted hacker, then embarrassed Yue Xiaofei by revealing details of his private searches.

Zhang Beihai invited Yue Xiaofei to join Bureau 7, while Xiao Tian Ce and Elder Xu objected because of the dangers. After a medical examination revealed Yue Xiaofei had become superhumanly strong, he chose to join Bureau 7 and vowed to become its strongest ace.

• Zhang Beihai explained that Yue Xiaofei's unknown power was dangerous and invited him to join Bureau 7 for guidance.
• Xiao Tian Ce, Elder Xu, and Jin Dapao opposed the invitation, but Yue Xiaofei rose from his bed and asked the doctor to examine him again.
• The doctor found that Yue Xiaofei's physical readings surpassed normal human peaks and even exceeded those of the Military's finest special forces.
• Yue Xiaofei asked Zhang Beihai and Han Duoduo whether Bureau 7 and the [Reverse Scale] squad still served the Dragon Kingdom with unwavering loyalty, and they affirmed that they did.
• Yue Xiaofei declared that his family's service to the country left him no right to seek a peaceful life, and he vowed to join Bureau 7 and become its strongest ace.

After gaining Elder Xu and Xiao Tian Ce’s support for joining Bureau 7, Yue Xiaofei left the hospital with Zhang Beihai and Han Duoduo. He learned that he had survived the only completed Emperor’s Nectar treatment and arrived at Bureau 7’s Modu branch, resolved to follow his family’s path.

• Elder Xu and Xiao Tian Ce accepted Yue Xiaofei’s decision to join Bureau 7, and Elder Xu invited him to the centennial military parade in Longdu in two months.
• Yue Xiaofei said goodbye to Jin Dapao, Lin Xiaolu, and Ouyang Jian, completed his discharge paperwork, and left the hospital with Zhang Beihai and Han Duoduo.
• Zhang Beihai explained that Yue Xiaofei had successfully integrated Emperor’s Nectar, the sole finished product of the Kunlun Project, and that his power shared its source with Reverse Scale.
• Han Duoduo told Yue Xiaofei he was a Reverse Scale reservist and jokingly offered to find him a girlfriend.
• Yue Xiaofei saluted the sculpture modeled on his grandfather at Bureau 7’s Modu branch and vowed to follow his family’s path.

Key plot points and events

• Zhang Beihai brings Yue Xiaofei and Han Duoduo to Bureau 7 for a full assessment of Yue’s abilities after his injection with Emperor’s Nectar.
• Yue records extraordinary results: a 3,500-kilogram punch, a 2.8-second 100-meter sprint, and skin tough enough to shatter a simulated B-Level attack without injury.
• During the sprint, Yue experiences a sensation like “bullet time,” suggesting he may have gained an additional, unexplained ability.
• The final scan rates him A-Level in strength, speed, defense, and endurance. His special ability is unknown, and his growth potential cannot be determined.
• His combat-power score is 2,223, above the 2,000 A-Level threshold and close to the scores of top A-Level fighters. Zhang orders the data classified as S-Level top secret.

Character developments

• Yue Xiaofei discovers that Emperor’s Nectar has given him immense, well-rounded power, though he has not yet mastered it. The speed test hints at a new ability.
• Han Duoduo, initially energetic and confident as the recorder, is repeatedly stunned by Yue’s results and doubts the machine’s accuracy.
• Zhang Beihai shifts from conducting a routine assessment to recognizing Yue as an unprecedented asset—and a potential security concern—then acts decisively to protect the secret.

Significant themes

• Power and potential: Yue’s abilities already rival elite Transcendents, while his true limits remain unknown.
• The unknown consequences of transformation: His possible bullet-time perception and unclassified special ability suggest Emperor’s Nectar may have effects beyond measurable physical strength.
• Secrecy and control: Bureau 7’s response shows how extraordinary power becomes a matter of institutional security.

Character interactions

• Zhang guides Yue through the tests and directs Han to record the results.
• Han’s increasingly shocked reactions contrast with Zhang’s attempt to remain composed; both recognize the significance of Yue’s performance.
• After the assessment, Zhang takes control of the situation by ordering that only the three of them know the results.

Yue Xiaofei learned that his combat power qualified him to join [Reverse Scale] as a full member and chose the codename [Torch Dragon]. The celebration ended when Bureau 7 received news that Eastern Japan’s Demon God squad had brutally defeated the Dragon Kingdom’s Snow Wolf team and publicly insulted its soldiers.

• Han Duoduo encrypted Yue Xiaofei’s test data after Zhang Beihai recognized how dangerous its disclosure would be.
• Yue Xiaofei feared his combat ability was too weak to join [Reverse Scale] and pleaded to be accepted even as a reserve.
• Zhang Beihai invited Yue Xiaofei to join [Reverse Scale] as a full member, and Yue Xiaofei chose the codename [Torch Dragon] rather than take his brother’s former codename, [Heavenly Dragon].
• A Bureau 7 agent reported that Eastern Japan’s Demon God squad had defeated the Dragon Kingdom’s Snow Wolf team in the International Special Forces Competition, breaking all ten soldiers’ limbs.
• The agent told Zhang Beihai that an opponent suspected of being a Transcendent had led the defeat and that Eastern Japan had displayed a humiliating plaque and called the Dragon Kingdom’s soldiers trash.

Yue Xiaofei refused to let the Dragon Kingdom endure public humiliation after an Eastern Japan fighter injured its soldiers, and Zhang Beihai tacitly allowed him to act on his own. Yue Xiaofei and Han Duoduo headed to the competition venue, where they learned their opponent was Ito Makoto.

• Yue Xiaofei demanded to avenge the Dragon Kingdom's injured soldiers, but Zhang Beihai warned that intervening could spark an international dispute and expose Yue Xiaofei as a secret weapon.
• Han Duoduo showed Yue Xiaofei footage of an Eastern Japan warrior breaking the limbs of ten Snow Wolf Special Forces soldiers, insulting them with a plaque, and taunting the cameras.
• Yue Xiaofei declared that he would confront the warrior in his own name and take personal responsibility, and Zhang Beihai tacitly approved by noting Yue Xiaofei was not yet under Bureau 7's authority.
• Han Duoduo took Yue Xiaofei to the Modu International Expo Center, the competition's main venue, where the Eastern Japan team was giving interviews.
• Han Duoduo identified the opponent as Ito Makoto, a twenty-five-year-old physical-enhancement Awakened and one of the Divine Sons of the Amaterasu Group.

Yue Xiaofei arrived at the venue after Ito Makoto’s team defeated the Dragon Kingdom’s Snow Wolf special forces, leaving the soldiers and spectators humiliated. When Eastern Japan’s team mocked the Dragon Kingdom, Yue Xiaofei stepped forward to challenge their claim that the country had no worthy fighters.

• Han Duoduo told Yue Xiaofei that Ito Makoto had super-speed regeneration, neural acceleration, and swordsmanship capable of slashing through the sound barrier.
• Yue Xiaofei and Han Duoduo reached the venue and saw the ten injured Snow Wolf soldiers being carried out on stretchers.
• Yue Xiaofei comforted the soldiers and promised to repay their humiliation tenfold, a hundredfold.
• Nine Eastern Japan team members mocked the Dragon Kingdom and trampled a plaque bearing the words "Sick Man of East Asia" as spectators watched in anger.
• Yue Xiaofei stepped out of the crowd and shouted, "Who said the Dragon Kingdom had no one?!"

Plot points and events

• After Eastern Japan team members mock Yue Xiaofei and trample a humiliating plaque, he walks toward it without responding to their taunts.
• Two men attack him. Yue disables both with single blows, astonishing the crowd and leaving the rest of the team furious and frightened.
• Yue kicks the plaque in half. Tournament officials and referees intervene, reminding everyone that fighting outside the match is forbidden.
• Vice-captain Koinu Taro challenges Yue to a private showdown, hoping to restore his team’s pride. Yue dismisses him as unworthy and demands that their captain, Ito Makoto, face him.
• Koinu insists he can handle Yue. Yue accepts, wagering his own life against Koinu’s promise to swallow the broken plaque in front of the world’s media. Koinu accepts in rage.

Character developments and interactions

• Yue Xiaofei is calm, focused, and overwhelmingly confident. He ignores insults and attacks until he has dealt with the trampled symbol, then turns the confrontation into a public challenge with humiliating stakes.
• Koinu Taro shifts from smug mockery to alarm after seeing Yue’s strength, then lets wounded pride and anger push him into accepting the wager.
• The Eastern Japan team moves from laughter and contempt to shock, fear, and aggression. Their attacks fail to stop Yue.
• Han Duoduo cheers Yue’s display with amused admiration.
• Officials and referees step in to prevent further violence, but cannot defuse the escalating personal challenge.
• Yue’s treatment of Koinu—calling him unworthy and demanding Ito—turns the encounter into a direct contest over status and national pride.

Significant themes

• Dignity and retaliation: Yue’s actions answer the public humiliation represented by the trampled plaque.
• Pride and provocation: Koinu’s wounded ego drives him to accept a dangerous challenge.
• Power and spectacle: The violence unfolds before spectators and international media, making the confrontation a public test of honor as well as strength.

Yue Xiaofei defeated Koinu Taro and the six other Eastern Japan team members in thirty-one seconds, forcing them to eat the broken plaque in front of the crowd. After meeting Han Duoduo, he learned that Ito Makoto was at the Bund No. 8 Club and discovered that the club—and Bund Nos. 1–38—belonged to him.

• Yue Xiaofei defeated the seven Eastern Japan team members in thirty-one seconds and knocked Koinu Taro's jaw out of joint.
• Koinu Taro and the other six team members emerged from the fighting room and ate the plaque fragments as the Dragon Kingdom spectators celebrated.
• Yue Xiaofei slipped out the back and met Han Duoduo, who told him Ito Makoto was at the Bund No. 8 Club.
• Yue Xiaofei called Bai Zhengling to arrange a club membership, and Bai Zhengling revealed that the Bund No. 8 Club and Bund Nos. 1–38 were Yue Xiaofei's properties.

Yue Xiaofei learned that Bund Nos. 1-38 belonged to him and declined Bai Zhengling’s offer to send a convoy. At Bund No. 8 Club, Wang Zicong and his friends protested being kicked out until Bai Zhengling arrived, leaving them intimidated.

• Yue Xiaofei was stunned to learn that Bund Nos. 1-38 belonged to him, while Han Duoduo imagined buying lollipops by the pound.
• Yue Xiaofei declined Bai Zhengling’s offer to send a convoy and said he would take a taxi to the club.
• Manager Li escorted Wang Zicong and the other wealthy guests out of Bund No. 8 Club because an important guest had booked it for the night.
• Wang Zicong refused to leave the entrance, and he rebuked an influencer model who dismissed the expected guest.
• Bai Zhengling arrived in a convoy led by a Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost, and Wang Zicong warned the model that even his father would have to kowtow to Bai Zhengling.

Yue Xiaofei arrived at The Bund No. 8 with Han Duoduo, where Bai Zhengling and the club staff welcomed him with elaborate deference. After learning that Ito Makoto and a Black Dragon Chamber of Commerce executive were meeting several heiresses upstairs, Yue Xiaofei headed to confront them.

• Bai Zhengling waited outside The Bund No. 8, then bowed to Yue Xiaofei and welcomed him as Young Master, stunning Wang Zicong and the assembled rich heirs.
• Yue Xiaofei told Bai Zhengling to keep a low profile, and Bai dismissed the welcoming crowd before leading Yue Xiaofei and Han Duoduo inside.
• Bai Zhengling reported that Ito Makoto was in the Heavenly Palace private dining room and that Section Chief Jia of the Black Dragon Chamber of Commerce was there too.
• Bai Zhengling told Yue Xiaofei that Section Chief Jia had invited daughters of Modu's Ten Great Financial Groups, who were already in the private dining room.
• Yue Xiaofei recalled the Black Dragon Chamber of Commerce's role in the deaths of 117 Night Watchers and decided to visit Ito Makoto.

Ito Makoto and Section Chief Jia lured nine heiresses from Modu’s financial families to a private dining room, where Ito intended to choose women to bear his children. After the heiresses rejected him and tried to leave, Ito defeated their bodyguards and left them trapped with him.

• Section Chief Jia told Ito Makoto he had gathered nine heiresses from Modu’s financial families for him.
• The nine heiresses arrived, and Chen Duo and the others questioned Section Chief Jia about the supposed business meeting.
• Section Chief Jia announced that Ito wanted to choose some of the heiresses as his women and ordered them to kneel in gratitude.
• The heiresses rejected Ito and turned to leave, but Section Chief Jia had the doors shut.
• Ito Makoto swiftly defeated the heiresses’ bodyguards and asked whether anyone still wanted to leave.

Ito Makoto threatened the nine heiresses and forced Chen Duo to agree to wear a maid outfit to save Huo Shuixian. Just as he mocked Yue Feng, Yue Xiaofei burst into the dining room and challenged him to fight.

• Ito Makoto announced that he had chosen the nine heiresses as his consorts, while Section Chief Jia revealed that he had blocked the room's phone signal.
• Ito Makoto ordered Chen Duo to wear a maid outfit and threatened to kill Huo Shuixian if she refused.
• Huo Shuixian and the other heiresses begged Chen Duo to comply, and Chen Duo agreed as Ito Makoto counted down.
• Chen Duo warned Ito Makoto that Yue Feng could defeat him, but Ito Makoto mocked the claim.
• Yue Xiaofei kicked open the dining room's gold doors and declared that he would deal with Ito Makoto himself.

Yue Xiaofei entered Ito Makoto’s private dining room and found Chen Duo and eight other heiresses in danger. He told them he had come alone, then revealed that he had already defeated Ito Makoto’s special forces, leaving Ito furious and murderous.

• Yue Xiaofei crashed into the dining room, where Chen Duo and the other heiresses pleaded for him to save them from Ito Makoto.
• Chen Duo told Yue Xiaofei that Ito Makoto had attacked Shuixian and tried to force Chen Duo into degrading clothes.
• Yue Xiaofei said his older brother, Asura Hall’s experts, and other allies had not come, and that he was alone.
• Section Chief Jia mocked Yue Xiaofei and boasted that Ito Makoto’s special forces had defeated Snow Wolf.
• Yue Xiaofei claimed he had crippled Ito Makoto’s soldiers and shown them eating the “Sick Man of East Asia” plaque, then played footage proving it.
• Ito Makoto watched the footage and erupted with murderous rage.

Key plot points and events

• Ito Makoto furiously confronts Yue Xiaofei over the defeat of his “sacred warriors,” but Yue mocks him and refuses to be intimidated.
• Section Chief Jia claims Yue must have relied on the Azure Alliance, then draws a handgun and has his men block the exit. He demands Yue transfer his Lu family inheritance to the Black Dragon Chamber of Commerce.
• Chen Duo and the other eight heiresses beg Yue to give in, fearing he will be killed. Instead, he says he bets Jia’s gun is unloaded and steps directly into its muzzle.
• Jia shows that the magazine is full and pulls the trigger—but the gun only clicks. Yue swiftly disarms him and points the weapon back at him.
• Jia assumes Yue emptied the gun and dares him to shoot. Yue fires three times, killing Jia, then reveals that he lied: the gun was loaded.

Character developments

• Yue Xiaofei remains cool and taunting under extreme pressure. His confidence and quick action overturn Jia’s apparent advantage, though the chapter leaves the gun’s misfire and continued supply of bullets unexplained.
• Section Chief Jia moves from smug control and greed to panic, then regains false confidence by convincing himself Yue’s gun is empty. His misjudgment proves fatal.
• Chen Duo and the other heiresses show concern for Yue and fear for their own safety, pleading with him to preserve his life.
• Ito Makoto is enraged by his warriors’ defeat, but the confrontation shifts to Jia before he acts.

Significant themes

• Bluffing and misdirection: Yue manipulates Jia’s assumptions, using uncertainty about the gun to seize control.
• Power and reversal: The armed aggressor’s apparent dominance collapses in seconds.
• Consequences of arrogance: Jia’s overconfidence and greed prevent him from recognizing the danger he faces.

Character interactions

• Yue openly provokes Ito, then refuses Jia’s demand and challenges him at gunpoint.
• Jia tries to use the heiresses’ fear and Yue’s inheritance to force compliance.
• The heiresses plead with Yue to surrender, while Yue’s defiance heightens their alarm.
• After disarming Jia, Yue turns Jia’s own confidence against him, ending their confrontation with a fatal shot.