Chapter Summaries

Plot points and events

• Yue Xiaofei and Bai Bing discover a set of ten old Blood Covenants in a hidden chamber. Each was signed in blood by an ancestor of one of Modu’s Ten Great Financial Conglomerates, including Bai Bing’s grandfather, Bai Zhengling.
• The covenants pledge the families’ loyalty to the Lu family for generations and require them to surrender half their property if a Lu descendant presents a covenant.
• Bai Bing calculates that the families’ combined assets could make Yue Xiaofei extraordinarily wealthy. Yue, however, worries that the conglomerates might reject the covenants or retaliate.
• Bai Bing explains that Yue’s grandmother, Lu Lanxin, was a renowned diviner and feng shui practitioner who helped the families through crises. She supposedly embedded mystical power in the covenants, making betrayal bring divine punishment.
• Though Yue recognizes the potential inheritance, he sets the documents aside. He says he came to Modu to find his father, not to gain wealth. Bai Bing insists the fortune is his rightful family legacy and tells him, “A man must be tough!”

Character developments and interactions

• Yue Xiaofei is stunned by the scale of his inheritance but shows restraint and loyalty to his purpose, measuring the opportunity against his father’s example of service and sacrifice.
• Bai Bing moves from shock and excitement to confidence in the covenants’ force. She trusts her grandfather’s integrity, shares what she knows about Lu Lanxin, and challenges Yue to claim what is rightfully his.
• The discovery deepens Yue’s sense of his grandmother’s importance and reveals a powerful historical connection between the Lu family and Modu’s elite clans.

Significant themes

• Inheritance and obligation: The covenants represent both immense wealth and a binding legacy.
• Integrity versus temptation: Yue must decide whether accepting great riches conflicts with his motives and values.
• Honor and loyalty: The families’ pledges—and Bai Bing’s faith in her grandfather’s word—underscore the weight of keeping promises.
• Family legacy and identity: The revelations expand Yue’s understanding of his grandmother and the influence of the family he has inherited.

Plot points

• Bai Bing urges Yue Xiaofei to stop yielding to bullies, using Li Feiyu’s past attacks and Gao Zisheng’s treatment of him as examples. Yue accepts her advice and vows to stand firm against the Azure Alliance and other enemies.
• Bai reminds him that he is the Lu Family heir and holds the Blood Covenants of the Ten Great Financial Conglomerates, giving him considerable protection and influence. They turn to the unopened fourth drawer of the Jinling Pagoda, which may reveal information about his grandparents or his missing father.
• Before Yue can open it, Li Feiyu forces his way into Vault No. 001 with his family’s head and Gao Yuyan, despite Manager Wang’s objections. Li insults Yue, while the Li family head searches for the vault’s owner—the Lu heir.
• Bai reveals that Yue is the Lu Family heir, descended from its eldest daughter, and that the Li family’s ancestors swore to serve his line. She tells Li Feiyu that he must kneel and address Yue as “Master.”

Character developments

• Yue gains confidence and resolves to defend his dignity rather than retreat. He begins to see himself as someone with the authority and resources to confront powerful foes.
• Bai acts as Yue’s mentor and ally, reinforcing his resolve and publicly asserting his status.
• Li Feiyu and Gao Yuyan’s contempt turns to shock when they realize Yue’s identity; the Li family head is forced to recognize the heir he came to find.

Significant themes

• Self-respect and resistance: Yielding to bullies can invite further abuse; respect must be defended.
• Reversal of status: Those who once looked down on Yue may now be bound to serve him.
• Power and obligation: Yue’s inherited authority brings both influence and expectations of loyalty.

Character interactions

• Bai encourages Yue, teases him about his future power, and then helps him face the Li family.
• Yue gratefully credits Bai for helping him reach the vault and promises to help her in return.
• Li Feiyu insults Yue, while Gao Yuyan mutters against him but remains wary of Bai.
• The Li family head seeks the Lu heir; Bai identifies Yue and confronts the family with its ancestral obligation.

Yue Xiaofei revealed that he was Lu Lanxin’s grandson and presented the Blood Covenants as proof of his claim to the Lu family’s legacy. The heads of the Ten Great Financial Conglomerates accepted him, but Li Feiyu continued accusing Yue Xiaofei and Bai Bing of fraud.

• Li Feiyu and Gao Yuyan called Yue Xiaofei an impostor, while the Head of the Li Family hesitated over whether to accept his claim.
• Yue Xiaofei said his grandmother had given him the Golden Key and challenged the Li family to verify the Blood Covenants in their ancestral hall.
• Bai Bing kicked Li Feiyu behind the knee after he refused to accept Yue Xiaofei’s claim.
• The heads of the Chen, Xu, Pei, and other financial families arrived and bowed to Yue Xiaofei after he said Lu Lanxin was his grandmother and showed them the Blood Covenants.
• Li Feiyu challenged Yue Xiaofei’s knowledge of the Lu family and then accused Bai Bing of using him as a puppet to seize the other families’ businesses.

Yue Xiaofei confronted the family heads' doubts about his identity as Lu Lanxin's descendant, while Bai Bing defended him and the Blood Covenant. Li Feiyu tore the covenant in defiance of warnings, and the chapter ended as the paper ripped.

• The Xu, Pei, and Fu family heads called for Yue Xiaofei's identity to be verified before they accepted the Blood Covenant, and Li Feiyu and Gao Yuyan dismissed his photos and letters as possible forgeries.
• Yue Xiaofei slapped Gao Yuyan and punched Li Feiyu after they mocked his grandmother, while Bai Bing stopped the Head of the Li Family from intervening.
• Bai Bing reminded the family heads that Lu Lanxin had once saved their families and warned them of Heaven's Retribution.
• Li Feiyu rejected the Blood Covenant as worthless and demanded that Yue Xiaofei hand it over so he could tear it up.
• Yue Xiaofei gave Li Feiyu the Li family's Blood Covenant, and Li Feiyu pulled it apart.

Li Feiyu tore up the Blood Covenant and dismissed Yue Xiaofei’s claim, but the Li family’s jade pendant shattered and its ancestral tablets toppled, alarming the gathered family heads. Li Feiyu continued denying any supernatural warning and urged the younger heirs to reject Yue Xiaofei, leaving the families divided over the covenant and the Lu family’s legacy.

• Li Feiyu and Gao Yuyan tore the Blood Covenant, and Li Feiyu mocked Yue Xiaofei when nothing happened immediately.
• The Head of the Li Family’s inherited jade pendant cracked apart, but Li Feiyu called it old and dismissed the damage as a coincidence.
• The ancestral hall caretaker reported that every Li family tablet had fallen and shattered despite no one entering the hall.
• The Pei and Xu family heads feared the incidents signaled Heaven’s Retribution, while Li Feiyu blamed unstable foundations and denied the covenant’s power.
• Yue Xiaofei accused Li Feiyu of betraying Lu Lanxin, but Li Feiyu claimed the Li family owed its success to its own ancestors.
• Li Feiyu urged the younger family members to reject Yue Xiaofei, calling him an impostor who might seize their family assets.

The young masters of the Nine Great Conglomerates tore up their families’ Blood Covenants and agreed to shut out Yue Xiaofei and the Bai family. Bai Bing accused the family heads of using the dispute as an excuse to suppress the Bai family.

• Pei Ye and Xu Ming urged the young masters to tear up the Blood Covenants, and their fathers tacitly allowed it despite their fears of retribution.
• Yue Xiaofei laid out the nine remaining Blood Covenants and said anyone could tear theirs up, warning that they would face consequences.
• Pei Ye, Xu Ming, and the other young masters tore up their families’ Blood Covenants, while Chen Duo apologized to Yue Xiaofei for being unable to stop them.
• Li Feiyu proposed that the conglomerates join forces to isolate Yue Xiaofei and the Bai family, and the young masters pledged to block them from services across Modu.
• Yue Xiaofei asked them to leave Bai Bing out of the dispute, but Bai Bing said the families were using his identity as a pretext to attack the Bai family.

As the family heads moved to blacklist Yue Xiaofei, the last two surviving signatories of the Blood Covenant arrived and recognized him as the Lu family’s heir. The chapter ended with Bai Zhengling and Li Bowen kneeling before Yue Xiaofei and renewing their loyalty to the Lu family.

• Bai Bing reminded the family heads that their Blood Covenant bound them to the Lu family, while Yue Xiaofei worried his search for his father had brought trouble to her family.
• Bai Zhengling and Li Bowen arrived at the vault, and Li Bowen asked to meet the Lu family heir.
• Yue Xiaofei identified himself as a descendant of the Lu family, and Li Bowen rose from his wheelchair to kneel and pay his respects.
• Li Bowen rebuked Li Feiyu for insulting Yue Xiaofei and ordered him to kneel before the young master.
• Bai Zhengling also rose from his wheelchair and knelt before Yue Xiaofei, explaining that the Blood Covenant made the families servants of the Lu family.
• Bai Zhengling and Li Bowen vowed to brave fire and water for every generation of the Lu family.

Yue Xiaofei learned that Elder Bai and Elder Li recognized him as Miss Lu’s young master, while Li Bowen condemned the families for tearing up their Blood Covenants. Bai Zhengling warned the gathered heirs that their ingratitude would bring terrible consequences.

• Bai Zhengling and Li Bowen knelt before Yue Xiaofei, called him their young master, and praised his resemblance to Miss Lu.
• Li Bowen found the torn Blood Covenants and learned from Yue Xiaofei that Li Feiyu and the other young masters had destroyed the agreements of nine families, leaving only the Bai family’s intact.
• Li Bowen kicked Li Feiyu and demanded that the heirs kneel, apologize to Yue Xiaofei, and swear loyalty, but Li Feiyu and Gao Yuyan dismissed his warnings.
• Li Feiyu insulted Li Bowen and rejected the idea of returning the family’s assets to Yue Xiaofei, leaving Li Bowen heartbroken.
• Bai Zhengling reminded the families how Miss Lu had helped their ancestors rise to power and warned them that tearing up the Blood Covenants and forgetting her kindness would bring terrible consequences.

Yue Xiaofei and Bai Zhengling condemned Li Feiyu and the other young masters for betraying the Blood Covenant, but Li Feiyu dismissed their warnings and boasted about buying rights to Myanmar’s Pagan Old Mine. His trusted subordinate then reported that the warlord who signed the contract had been killed and the new regime had voided it, wiping out the Li family’s thirty-billion investment.

• The family heads and young masters recalled their ancestors’ hardships after Bai Zhengling exposed their families’ pasts.
• Li Feiyu, Xu Ming, and Chen Hao offered to repay Miss Lu’s old gifts in money, while Yue Xiaofei argued that her help had been worth far more than its original value.
• Li Bowen and Bai Zhengling warned that breaking the Blood Covenant and betraying their benefactor would bring divine punishment, but Li Feiyu and the other young masters denied it.
• Li Feiyu boasted that he had spent thirty billion to secure fifty years of operating rights to Myanmar’s Pagan Old Mine, and Gao Yuyan praised him.
• After Li Feiyu challenged Miss Lu’s spirit to strike him down, his subordinate called to report that the warlord who signed the contract had been killed and the new warlord had voided all prior mining contracts.

After the Nine Great Conglomerates broke the Blood Covenant and moved against Yue Xiaofei, their assets were struck by disasters, while the Bai family remained untouched. Bai Zhengling told Yue Xiaofei about his grandmother Lu Lanxin, whose loyalty to the nation had defined her life.

• Li Feiyu and Gao Yuyan blamed each other after learning that the Li family's thirty billion investment had vanished and its bank loan was due.
• The other eight conglomerate heads received reports of catastrophic losses, while the Bai family suffered no harm.
• Bai Zhengling said the disasters were retribution for the families' betrayal of Miss Lu and the Blood Covenant.
• Yue Xiaofei asked Bai Zhengling about his grandmother, and Bai described Lu Lanxin as an exceptional leader who had made the Lu family the wealthiest in the country.
• Bai Zhengling recalled that when Japanese invaders threatened the country, Lu Lanxin declared that the nation came before the family.

Plot points and events

• Bai Zhengling recounts Lu Miss’s extraordinary history: she resisted Japanese efforts to seize the Lu family’s businesses, then secretly married a soldier and sold half the family’s assets to supply the front lines. She donated the remaining assets to national schools and hospitals and helped establish the Ten Great Financial Conglomerates.
• Bai explains that the Blood Covenant was not imposed on the families. They themselves begged Lu Miss to bind their descendants to the Lu family in gratitude for her help.
• Yue Xiaofei is deeply moved to learn that his grandmother—whom he remembered as a gentle woman from his childhood—was a patriotic businesswoman and benefactor. The others express admiration or shame over having misjudged her and the covenant.
• The families who tore up the covenant begin suffering alarming symptoms, including nosebleeds, dizziness, chest pressure, and coughing blood. Bai Zhengling identifies this as the covenant’s supernatural backlash.
• Terrified family heads plead with Yue for mercy, while the young heirs blame Li Feiyu and Gao Yuyan and attack them. Yue stops the crowd and refuses to forgive them, insisting that their regret comes from fear, not remorse, and that they have dishonored the Lu family.
• As despair spreads, an unidentified voice announces that there is another way.

Character developments and interactions

• Yue Xiaofei gains a fuller understanding of his grandmother’s legacy and connects her courage and patriotism to his family’s military tradition. He remains firm when the families beg forgiveness.
• Bai Zhengling serves as the keeper of Lu Miss’s history and sternly warns the families about the consequences of breaking the covenant.
• Lin Xiaolu and Bai Bing voice their admiration for Lu Miss, while Chen Duo feels guilty for wrongly believing the covenant was extortion.
• The family heads and heirs shift from arrogance to panic, then turn on Li Feiyu and Gao Yuyan, whom they blame for encouraging their betrayal.

Significant themes

• Patriotism and sacrifice: Lu Miss gives up wealth and security to aid the country and its people.
• Legacy and inherited values: Yue recognizes that courage and devotion to country have shaped his family across generations.
• Loyalty and betrayal: The covenant represents a freely chosen obligation rooted in gratitude, and breaking it carries severe consequences.
• Accountability versus self-preservation: Yue rejects apologies motivated only by fear, emphasizing that wrongdoing cannot be undone by a quick plea for mercy.

Li Bowen urged the assembled families to sign a new Blood Covenant as household slaves to escape Heaven’s Retribution, while Yue Xiaofei exposed Li Feiyu as unrelated to the Li family. The Head of the Li Family expelled Li Feiyu and Gao Yuyan, and Yue Xiaofei warned that the Gao family would face further investigation.

• Li Bowen and Bai Zhengling explained that signing a slave covenant would place the signers and their assets under the Lu family’s control, and several families agreed to sign rather than die.
• Li Feiyu claimed Yue Xiaofei and the Bai family had poisoned the chamber, but Yue Xiaofei said Li Feiyu was not related by blood to the Li family.
• Bai Bing presented Li Feiyu’s birth records and photographs linking his mother to her fitness trainer, and the Head of the Li Family struck Li Feiyu and rejected him as his son.
• The Head of the Li Family expelled Li Feiyu and Gao Yuyan, removed Li Feiyu’s name from the family register, and ordered the recovery of his assets.
• Yue Xiaofei cited the Gao family’s crimes and said Uncle Jin Dapao’s Investigation Team would investigate its businesses and immediate family members.

Yue Xiaofei brought Modu’s Ten Great Financial Groups under his command and found letters in the Jinling Pagoda’s fourth tier, signed by Lu Zhenhua, the missing younger brother of his grandmother Lu Lanxin. The chapter ended as Yue Xiaofei began reading a letter explaining that Lu Zhenhua had enlisted to fight the enemy and serve his country.

• Yue Xiaofei ordered Li Feiyu and Gao Yuyan imprisoned, then accepted the other family heads’ renewed servant blood covenants and warnings against betrayal.
• The family heads and young masters’ nosebleeds and other symptoms stopped after the final Blood Covenant was signed, placing Modu’s Ten Great Financial Groups under Yue Xiaofei’s command.
• Yue Xiaofei asked about his father, Yue Changlong, but the family heads knew nothing and pledged to search for information.
• Yue Xiaofei opened the Jinling Pagoda’s fourth-tier drawer and found a bundle of letters signed by Lu Zhenhua.
• Bai Zhengling and Li Bowen identified Lu Zhenhua as Lu Lanxin’s missing younger brother and the Lu family’s rightful young master.
• Yue Xiaofei read Lu Zhenhua’s letter, which said he had enlisted to fight the enemy and serve his country.

Yue Xiaofei read Lu Zhenhua’s letter describing how he abandoned his planned escape overseas and joined the defenders at Sihang Warehouse. The family heads and others were left shaken and ashamed by his sacrifice, while Chen Duo and Lin Xiaolu wept over his courage.

• Lu Zhenhua wrote that he left his ship at Wusongkou, gave his protection money to civilians, and followed retreating soldiers toward the fighting.
• Lu Zhenhua joined the soldiers heading to Sihang Warehouse and described their retreat under fierce enemy fire.
• The family heads reacted with shame and admiration as Yue Xiaofei read about Lu Zhenhua choosing to fight despite being the Lu family’s only son.
• Lu Zhenhua’s letter described the defenders’ position at Sihang Warehouse and declared that he would live or die with Regimental Commander Xie and the Eight Hundred Heroes.
• Yue Xiaofei finished reading Lu Zhenhua’s pledge to defend his homeland, leaving the chamber silent as Chen Duo and Lin Xiaolu wept.

Yue Xiaofei read Lu Zhenhua’s second letter, which described the desperate defense of Sihang Warehouse and the soldiers who sacrificed themselves to break a Japanese steel-plate assault. The family heads were overcome with grief and shame, and vowed to honor the fallen with a monument bearing their names.

• Bai Bing, Li Bowen, and Bai Zhengling praised Lu Zhenhua’s courage and sacrifice after hearing his first letter.
• Yue Xiaofei read Lu Zhenhua’s account of the defenders’ dwindling numbers and his bond with deputy squad leader A Sheng.
• A Sheng and other soldiers strapped on explosives and leaped from the warehouse, breaking the Japanese steel-plate formation at the cost of their lives.
• Lu Zhenhua described his grief at watching the soldiers die and vowed to live on and see the Japanese driven out.
• Bai Zhengling declared that the fallen must be remembered, and the Head of the Li Family proposed erecting a monument inscribed with their names.

Key plot points and events

• Yue Xiaofei reads the rest of Lu Zhenhua’s letter, describing the defenders’ ordeal at Sihang Warehouse and the support they receive from civilians across the Gusu River.
• Students, merchants, workers, and beggars bring food, medical supplies, tools, and money, despite Japanese fire.
• When sharpshooters make the bridge impassable, members of rival local gangs and the Azure Alliance volunteer to carry a telephone wire across. More than a dozen die before the line reaches the defenders.
• A young woman brings the soldiers a national flag. Commander Xie announces that they will raise it over the warehouse to show that the position—and the nation—still stands.
• Zhenhua is chosen for the flag guard. The Japanese attack the flag with aircraft and gunfire, but the wounded defenders shield the flagpole with their bodies and keep it aloft.
• Zhenhua ends his letter vowing that the sacrifice is worthwhile if it helps drive out the Japanese, and calls for the nation to avenge its suffering rather than leave the task to future generations.

Character developments

• Lu Zhenhua moves from thinking mainly of defending his country to fully understanding the human cost of that duty. Witnessing the deaths of fellow soldiers and volunteers makes him accept that some ideals matter more than survival.
• Commander Xie turns the flag into a rallying symbol, emphasizing that the defenders’ resistance is a declaration of national endurance.
• The volunteers and civilians are portrayed as courageous and united, willing to risk their lives to support the soldiers.
• Yue Xiaofei is deeply moved by the letter, while Bai Zhengling presses for the rest of Zhenhua’s story.

Significant themes

• Patriotism and sacrifice: Soldiers and civilians alike risk or give their lives for their country.
• Unity amid division: People from rival gangs and different walks of life come together as “people of the Dragon Kingdom.”
• The flag as national dignity and resistance: Keeping it aloft represents the continued survival and defiance of the nation.
• Hope sustained by solidarity: Civilian cheers and aid strengthen the defenders as much as supplies do.
• Intergenerational responsibility: Zhenhua rejects leaving the nation’s grievance for future generations to settle.

Character interactions

• Yue reads Zhenhua’s letter aloud as Bai and others listen and ask about his fate.
• Civilians across the river encourage the defenders, while volunteers from different groups cooperate to deliver supplies and the telephone line.
• Commander Xie addresses the soldiers, connecting the flag-raising to the hopes of the public and the nation.
• During the attack, wounded flag guards take one another’s places and brace the flagpole together; Zhenhua is especially affected by a dying young soldier’s plea for his mother.

Yue Xiaofei read Lu Zhenhua’s final letter, which described the soldiers’ internment after they withdrew from Sihang Warehouse and their determination to resist. The letter ended with Lu Zhenhua preparing to fight his way out, leaving Yue and the others grieving his likely death.

• Yue Xiaofei finished reading Lu Zhenhua’s first letter, moving the gathered family heads and others with its account of the defense of Sihang Warehouse.
• Bai Bing and Bai Zhengling praised Lu Zhenhua’s heroism, while Yue Xiaofei wondered whether his granduncle had survived the battle.
• Yue Xiaofei read Lu Zhenhua’s final letter, which recounted Regimental Commander Xie’s order to withdraw and the foreigners’ confinement of the soldiers in the Solitary Army Camp.
• Lu Zhenhua wrote that the Japanese Invaders assassinated Regimental Commander Xie and that fewer than a hundred of the more than eight hundred soldiers remained.
• Lu Zhenhua described his plan to fight out of the camp and closed his letter with a wish for the Dragon Kingdom to grow strong and a declaration of loyalty.

Yue Xiaofei and the others mourned Lu Zhenhua and vowed to honor his sacrifice after reading his final letter. In the fifth tier of the Jinling Pagoda, Yue Xiaofei found a marriage contract linking the Lu and Ning families, just as Third Master Du arrived with men to surround them.

• Lin Xiaolu, Chen Duo, and the others grieved over Lu Zhenhua's final letter, while Yue Xiaofei vowed to carry on his ideals.
• Bai Zhengling proposed a monument beside Sihang Warehouse, and Li Bowen urged them to bring Lu Zhenhua's ashes home or build a cenotaph.
• Yue Xiaofei opened the fifth-tier drawer and found a sealed Thousand-Mechanism Box and a vermilion letter.
• Bai Zhengling warned that opening the box incorrectly could destroy its contents, so Yue Xiaofei put it away unopened.
• Yue Xiaofei read a marriage contract between the Lu and Ning families, signed by Lu Lanxin and Ning Zhengxiong, and wondered how to find the mysterious Ning family.
• A guard reported that Third Master Du had arrived with many men and surrounded the place.

Chapter 139 Summary

• Du Asan’s arrival: After the Ten Great Financial Conglomerates pledge themselves to Yue Xiaofei through the Blood Covenant, they learn that Du Asan, leader of the Azure Alliance, is approaching. Bai Zhengling warns that Du is ruthless and is likely after the Dragon Head Staff—not coming to recognize Yue as its master.
• The vault is surrounded: Du’s forces storm the sealed vault, bringing over a hundred armed men inside. Du politely demands that Yue accompany him to discuss the staff, but Yue refuses. Du then orders his fighters to seize him.
• The families stand with Yue: Bai Zhengling, Li Bowen, and the ten family heads defend Yue, warning that harming him would provoke a war with their powerful business groups. Their united stance briefly surprises Du, but it does not deter him.
• Du reveals his trap: Du says the group is surrounded, and signal jammers prevent anyone from calling for help. He claims more than a thousand Azure Alliance troops encircle the vault and intends to capture Yue and all ten family heads, using the opportunity to seize control of Modu.
• Yue offers the staff: Hoping to spare the others, Yue hands Du the Dragon Head Staff and asks him to let the family heads go. Du accepts and admires it, but reveals that the staff is not his only goal: a powerful, unnamed figure wants Yue dead. He declares that Yue will not escape that night.

Character Developments and Interactions

• Yue Xiaofei remains composed and self-sacrificing, offering up the staff to protect the others, even as he faces an overwhelming ambush.
• Bai Zhengling and Li Bowen act as Yue’s protectors, challenging Du and rallying the financial families to his defense.
• The ten family heads move from newly pledged supporters to a united front, openly risking conflict with the Azure Alliance for Yue’s sake.
• Du Asan presents himself as courteous at first, but quickly exposes his ruthless ambition and willingness to exploit the gathering to dominate the city. His final revelation suggests Yue is targeted by an even more powerful enemy.
• Lin Xiaolu and the others are left frightened and trapped as Du’s plan becomes clear.

Significant Themes

• Loyalty and solidarity: The families’ covenant becomes a concrete test of whether they will stand by Yue under threat.
• Power and ambition: Du seeks both the Dragon Head Staff and control of Modu, treating the crisis as an opportunity to eliminate rivals.
• Self-sacrifice versus manipulation: Yue tries to protect others by surrendering the staff, but Du’s larger agenda makes that concession insufficient.
• A wider conspiracy: The revelation that someone else wants Yue dead raises the stakes beyond the Azure Alliance’s conflict.

Third Master Du revealed that Young Master Zhong of the Zhong Family had ordered Yue Xiaofei’s death, then threatened the gathered family heads into surrendering him. Just as Yue Xiaofei offered himself to spare the others, his uncle Jin Dapao burst in and identified himself as a senior provincial police official and Yue Changlong’s former comrade.

• Third Master Du named Young Master Zhong of Longdu as the person who wanted Yue Xiaofei dead, alarming the family heads with the Zhong Family’s power.
• Third Master Du ordered his Azure Alliance fighters to seize Yue Xiaofei and fired warning shots to intimidate the crowd.
• Bai Zhengling, Li Bowen, and the family heads formed a human wall to protect Yue Xiaofei, but Third Master Du threatened to kill them all.
• Yue Xiaofei offered to go with Third Master Du if he let the others leave, while Bai Bing warned that he would kill them regardless.
• Jin Dapao crashed into the secret chamber and announced that he was the acting director of the Jiangbei Provincial Public Security Department, a former comrade of Yue Changlong, and Yue Xiaofei’s uncle.