Chapter Summaries

Plot points and events

• Yue Xiaofei calls the masked fighter “Xiaofei,” provoking a moment of recognition in her. He disarms her and shatters the Weeping Grief Mask, revealing that she is his long-missing older sister, Yue Lingfei—known as Zero.
• Lingfei briefly regains her identity and addresses him, but a Church-imposed Soul Curse activates, causing her terrible pain and restoring her cold, controlled state.
• With her remaining will, she warns Xiaofei to run. She then uses the life-burning Blood Escape technique to vanish, taking a half-eroded fragment of the Nine Cauldrons with her.
• Outside the Underground Palace, Li Jiahao and Ning Hongye defeat their opponents. Together, they have killed six of the seven Church combatants who attacked Mangshan; Lingfei is the sole survivor.
• Xiaofei finds the Central Province Cauldron split and diminished, along with a lock of Lingfei’s hair and a drop of her blood. Overcome with grief and fury, he unleashes a howl that awakens the Black Emperor Engine and causes his Tier Two Divine Sequence Gene Lock to show signs of breaking.

Character developments and interactions

• Yue Xiaofei shifts from hope at recognizing his sister to helpless anguish when the curse takes hold and she escapes. His grief turns into overwhelming rage and a surge of power.
• Yue Lingfei shows that her original consciousness and affection remain beneath the Church’s control. Even while suffering, she uses her last lucid moments to warn Xiaofei and leave him behind a personal trace.
• Li Jiahao and Ning Hongye demonstrate their formidable abilities by efficiently killing their respective Church opponents, then hurry to join Xiaofei.

Significant themes

• Family bonds versus coercive control: Lingfei’s love for her brother briefly breaks through the Church’s curse, but cannot free her.
• Hope and painful separation: The siblings reunite only momentarily before Lingfei is forced to flee, repeating Xiaofei’s loss.
• Grief transformed into power: Xiaofei’s anguish and anger trigger a dramatic awakening of his dormant power.

After discovering that the Ancient Gods Church had transformed his sister, Yue Xiaofei broke through to the peak of the second-tier divine sequence gene lock. He ordered Dragon Kingdom forces to prepare for war and vowed to lead a hundred thousand Swordbearer Cavalry against the Church within three years to bring his sister home.

• Yue Xiaofei lost control of his power, blasted Li Jiahao into a wall, and resolved to avenge his family and rescue his sister from the Ancient Gods Church.
• Yue Xiaofei broke through to the peak of the second-tier divine sequence gene lock, and his emperor dragon aura helped repair the Central Province Cauldron.
• Tu Gang arrived with reinforcements from the Luodu Theater and reported to Yue Xiaofei for orders.
• Yue Xiaofei issued a Swordbearer Order placing all theaters on the highest combat readiness and called for battle preparations.
• Yue Xiaofei vowed to lead a hundred thousand Swordbearer Cavalry against the Church within three years, and the soldiers answered with their battle cry as Ning Hongye and Li Jiahao pledged their support.

Yue Xiaofei hurried north to Changbai Mountain after Han Duoduo detected an enormous heat source and strange sounds beneath the Heavenly Pool, where his missing brother Yue Feng was last seen. He reunited with Zhao Mengsheng, who pledged the Northern Frontier forces to protect him and offered to lead him to the pool.

• Han Duoduo found signs of a massive underground heat source and strange war-drum-like sounds beneath Changbai Mountain's Heavenly Pool.
• Yue Xiaofei decided to go north immediately to search for his missing brother Yue Feng, despite Li Jiahao's warning that he had not recovered from forcing open the second-tier gene lock.
• Yue Xiaofei and the Reverse Scale Squad flew north aboard the Black Emperor Fighter, and Wild Chicken hoped they would find their former captain, Yue Feng.
• The fighter landed at a heavily fortified forward camp, where Zhao Mengsheng welcomed Yue Xiaofei and praised him as the Swordbearer.
• Zhao Mengsheng told Yue Xiaofei that a hundred thousand Northern Frontier troops were on alert and promised to take him to the Heavenly Pool.

Yue Xiaofei reached the Heavenly Pool on Changbai Mountain and used a mighty slash to part its waters, revealing the Cloudtop Heavenly Palace. After finding Yue Feng’s blood at its gate, he was confronted by a foreign god who had taken advantage of the broken seal.

• Zhao Mengsheng told Yue Xiaofei that Yue Feng had entered the mountain searching for the Heavenly Palace and their mother, but had not returned.
• At the Heavenly Pool, Ning Hongye sensed a great number of people below the ice, and Yue Xiaofei told the others to stand back.
• Yue Xiaofei unleashed the Earth-Splitting Style, shattering the ice and opening a passage through the water to the lakebed.
• Yue Xiaofei and Ning Hongye descended to an ancient gate marked Cloudtop Heavenly Palace, where Yue Xiaofei recognized Yue Feng’s blood on the steps.
• A foreign god appeared above the Heavenly Pool and mocked Yue Xiaofei for breaking the seal that had blocked its way.

Reynold and the Golden Griffin Legion attacked the camp above Heavenly Pool in pursuit of the Heroic Spirit Core, but the defenders fought back with modern weapons and powerful abilities. As Reynold’s lightning assault was stopped, Han Duoduo detonated an EMP mine above him.

• Reynold led more than thirty Berserkers toward the camp and ordered them to kill its defenders while he sought the Heroic Spirit Core.
• Zhao Mengsheng ordered the camp to fire, but the Berserkers’ rune barriers withstood the armored vehicles’ shells.
• Wild Chicken emerged with two Gauss Rotary Heavy Machine Guns and killed three Berserkers with a torrent of armor-piercing rounds.
• Reynold attacked Wild Chicken with the Thunder God's Hammer, but Ugly Ox blocked the blow with his Titan Greatshield.
• Han Duoduo appeared above Reynold and detonated a Miniature EMP Electromagnetic Collapse Mine, engulfing him in blue-white light.

Yue Xiaofei used his awakened Black Emperor bloodline to open the sealed gate beneath the Heavenly Pool and entered the ancient battlefield with Ning Hongye and Li Jiahao. They found a powerful figure seated beneath a vast, unmarked stone stele.

• Ning Hongye explained that Yue Feng had opened the gate with Yue Family blood and that brute force could not move it.
• Yue Xiaofei unleashed his Black Emperor bloodline, overcame the gate’s ancient will, and opened the enormous iron gate.
• Yue Xiaofei crossed the threshold, followed by Ning Hongye and Li Jiahao, and found a battlefield suspended over a dark void.
• The group saw countless ancient soldiers and weapons scattered across the battlefield, with the dead still radiating a battle formation’s baleful aura.
• Ning Hongye sensed a powerful presence at the battlefield’s center, where Yue Xiaofei spotted a figure seated beneath a towering black stele.