Chapter Summaries

• Plot points: At the City Guard Office’s training grounds, Li Feng demonstrates exceptional archery after only a few days of practice. Instructor An Hongye praises him, while another instructor dismisses archery as useless beside true Martial Dao. Li Feng says he will stop training there, but accepts An Hongye’s invitation to enter next month’s Archery Guessing Tournament for its prize money. On his way back to patrol, he checks his Heavenly Dao Advance Panel and sees that he has fully repaid his advance in Archery Mastery.
• Character developments: Li Feng is calm and self-possessed, brushing off the other instructor’s mockery. His archery is both a hard-won skill and a practical way to survive in a dangerous job. Now that its “debt” is repaid, he plans to seek a genuine cultivation method—but poverty makes that difficult. An Hongye’s disappointment at his departure suggests she has become personally invested in him, and she is pleased when he agrees to the tournament.
• Character interactions: An Hongye admires Li Feng and encourages his potential, even defending him against the skeptical instructor. The second instructor argues that only martial strength matters and belittles Li Feng’s low status as a temporary White Runner. Li Feng avoids a confrontation and leaves on courteous terms with An Hongye.
• Themes: The chapter contrasts practical skill with the prestige of Martial Dao, and highlights how poverty blocks access to power. Li Feng’s supernatural panel offers instant mastery but requires repayment through effort: “board first, pay the fare later.” His archery gives him a measure of self-protection, but cannot replace the cultivation he needs to advance and survive.

Key plot points and events

• Li Feng, an eighteen-year-old temporary constable, returns home through Blackrock City’s impoverished outer district. He buys a little rice and, after hesitating over the cost, pork—an illustration of how inflation and poverty constrain daily life.
• At home, he finds his sister-in-law, Lin Yanqiu, waiting for him. She warns that the City Guard Office has a secret operation that night and tells him firmly to stay indoors, whatever he hears.
• Li Feng reflects on how Lin took responsibility for the family after his older brother and father died. Despite never formally marrying his brother, she supported the household, joined the Guard Office, and rose to become a Chief Constable. She also secured Li Feng his own temporary post.
• After Lin leaves, Li Feng sleeps. Later, her subordinate Wang Meng pounds on the door and reports that the operation went wrong: Lin is badly injured and being treated at Spring Renewal Hall.

Character development

• Li Feng is shown as poor but practical and considerate. He recognizes Lin’s sacrifices and hopes to gain a genuine martial arts technique and permanent employment so he can help her in return.
• Lin Yanqiu emerges as resilient, capable, and deeply loyal. She has built a career and sustained Li Feng’s family despite hardship and personal loss.
• Wang Meng appears briefly as a trusted subordinate who rushes to alert Li Feng about Lin’s condition.

Significant themes

• Poverty and inequality: Inflation, dangerous streets, and scarce food make ordinary survival difficult.
• Family and sacrifice: Lin’s devotion to the Li family binds her to them even without a formal marriage.
• Protection and indebtedness: Lin has long sheltered Li Feng; he now wants to become strong enough to support her.
• Uncertainty and danger: Lin’s warning and the failed operation foreshadow the threat surrounding the Guard Office.

Character interactions

• Lin visits Li Feng specifically to protect him, withholding operational details but stressing that he must stay home.
• Li Feng responds with gratitude and affection, viewing her as one of his last family members.
• Wang Meng’s urgent report breaks Lin’s warning’s uneasy calm and leaves Li Feng alarmed for her safety.

Plot points

• Li Feng arrives at Spring Renewal Hall to find Lin Yanqiu badly injured after confronting an escaped death-row convict from the inner city.
• Lin took the convict’s blow while protecting her fellow constables. Her right arm’s bones and meridians are nearly shattered, threatening both her martial career and her ability to defend herself.
• Wang Meng mentions an expensive medicine, Black Jade Bone-Molding Paste, that might restore her arm, but the group may not be able to afford it.
• Lin orders Li Feng to resign from his auxiliary constable post before a new captain arrives. Since Li Feng has not reached the required first level of Blood and Qi, she fears the incoming superior will punish him to establish authority.
• Li Feng agrees for now, while privately resolving to find a way to earn money and obtain a martial cultivation method.
• Lin warns him that the Green Bamboo and Black Tiger Gangs are competing for territory and tells him to avoid going out at night. Shadow Guards are protecting Spring Renewal Hall after the incident.

Character developments and interactions

• Li Feng is deeply worried about Lin and recognizes how serious her injury is. He accepts her advice to resign, but privately plans to advance his cultivation and find another way forward.
• Lin Yanqiu tries to hide her pain and remains defiant, insisting she can still fight with her left hand. Despite her own condition, she focuses on protecting Li Feng from political fallout and gang violence.
• Wang Meng is furious and guilty over what happened, and he hopes the officers’ compensation and pooled funds can pay for Lin’s treatment. Lin rebukes him for dwelling on uncertain hopes.

Significant themes

• The cost of duty: Lin’s injury comes from protecting her team, but it may end her martial career.
• Power and insecurity: Martial strength shapes survival, while workplace hierarchy and political maneuvering threaten even those who serve the law.
• Family loyalty and protection: Li Feng and Lin worry about each other, and Lin’s order to resign is an attempt to keep him safe.
• Hope versus harsh reality: The possible restorative medicine offers hope, but its price may put it out of reach.

Key plot points and events

• After the previous day’s violence, Wang Meng urges Li Feng to reconsider his dangerous job as a temporary White Runner. He suggests training in martial arts and eventually seeking safer work, such as joining an escort agency or guarding a wealthy family’s estate.
• Li Feng returns home exhausted but has not decided whether to resign.
• The next morning, he reports for duty. An urgent order sends the White Runners to Changle Ward, where the Black Tiger Gang has fought another gang.
• Li Feng and the others clear the street of more than a dozen brutally slain fighters. While working, Li Feng searches the bodies for valuables—a tolerated source of extra income for temporary runners.
• Among the belongings of one corpse, Li Feng finds a bloodstained booklet titled Water-Cutting Saber Art.

Character developments and interactions

• Li Feng remains cautious about his future but recognizes the danger of his work. Despite that caution, he takes a risk by examining and keeping the mysterious booklet.
• Wang Meng acts as a concerned friend, warning Li Feng that survival matters most and encouraging him to pursue martial training.
• Zhang San, another White Runner, alerts Li Feng to the assignment and joins him in cleaning the aftermath; like Li Feng, he quietly searches the corpses.
• The White Runners work together under routine orders, treating brutal gang violence as an ordinary part of their duties.

Significant themes

• Survival in a violent society: Gang warfare and death are commonplace, and even low-level officials face danger.
• The appeal of martial strength: Li Feng’s conversation with Wang Meng frames martial arts as a possible route to safety and a better life.
• Poverty and compromise: The runners supplement their meager earnings by looting bodies, a practice their superiors tacitly permit.
• Risk and opportunity: Li Feng’s discovery of the saber manual may offer a chance to improve his prospects, but its unknown dangers echo the hazards of life in Blackrock City.

Key plot points and events

• After settling his archery advance debt, Li Feng discovers a Water-Cutting Saber Art manual among the corpses he is helping transport. He secretly takes it, seeing it as a chance to improve his close-combat skills.
• He declines Zhang San’s invitation to drink at the Spring Breeze House, citing exhaustion and lack of money. He is also focused on caring for his injured sister-in-law.
• At home, Li Feng learns the manual and practices through the night. The Heavenly Dao panel cannot advance the art until he reaches beginner level through his own effort.
• After hours of difficult practice, he finally grasps the basics. He then uses the panel to perfect the art, triggering a painful surge of qi and blood that strengthens his body.
• Li Feng reaches the qi-blood first stage, gains a trace of saber force, and resolves to train discreetly while repaying the panel’s debt.

Character developments

• Li Feng shows growing discipline and determination, pushing through exhaustion to learn the saber art.
• His priorities remain practical: he needs stronger combat skills, has little money, and must help his sister-in-law.
• His rapid advancement gives him new confidence, though he recognizes that his cultivation still trails that of official runners.

Significant themes

• Effort and advancement: The panel accelerates mastery but requires Li Feng to learn a skill’s fundamentals himself.
• Survival amid hardship: War, dangerous work, poverty, and the threat of violence shape everyday choices.
• Hidden potential: A seemingly ordinary low-grade saber art produces unexpectedly powerful results.
• Ambition balanced by responsibility: Li Feng pursues strength while keeping family obligations and limited finances in mind.

Character interactions

• Zhang San warmly invites Li Feng out, but Li Feng politely refuses; their exchange reflects the camaraderie among auxiliary runners.
• The other runners respect an unspoken code and do not investigate Li Feng’s concealed discovery.
• Li Feng’s thoughts about his sister-in-law reveal the responsibility and concern that influence his decisions, even though she does not appear directly.

Summary

• Key events: Li Feng goes to the City Guard Office to formally demonstrate that he has entered the martial path and reached the first level of blood and qi. He wants his auxiliary-constable record updated before a new chief constable arrives, so his appointment cannot be dismissed as favoritism. Clerk Wang initially mocks him as an unqualified, well-connected hire, but agrees to test him. Li Feng lifts and holds the 300-jin stone weight for several minutes, showing strength far beyond what is typical for a new first-level cultivator. Wang updates the register.
• Character development: Li Feng remains calm under Wang’s insult and lets his achievement speak for itself. His rapid progress and unusual strength establish him as talented and disciplined, while his understated manner keeps him from boasting. Clerk Wang’s contempt gives way to respect. Chief Constable Chen is likewise astonished by Li Feng’s advancement.
• Character interactions: Li Feng explains that his sister-in-law, Chief Constable Lin Yanqiu, is recovering at the Spring Renewal Hall after a dangerous encounter. Chen expresses relief that she survived, though her injured right arm may prevent her from wielding a saber again. He praises Li Feng’s talent and notes that his progress at eighteen surpasses Lin’s at the same age. Li Feng responds modestly and leaves to report for duty.
• Themes: The chapter highlights merit overcoming prejudice, the social barriers that make martial cultivation rare, and the value of formal recognition. Li Feng’s strength is not only personal progress but also a way to secure legitimacy and ease Lin’s concerns about his future.

Key events

• The chapter establishes Blackrock City’s divide between a guarded, prosperous inner city and a chaotic outer city, where gangs and criminals often operate beyond the City Guard Office’s control.
• At the City Guard Office, Li Feng notices colleagues avoiding him after word spreads that his sister-in-law, Chief Runner Lin, has had her right hand crippled.
• Sun Yan boasts that his family has paid for him to become a registered student at an inner-city martial arts school. Li Feng is unconcerned: he is already at the first qi-blood stage and trusts his Heavenly Dao Advance Panel to help him progress.
• Sun Yan approaches Li Feng, mocks his loss of protection, and offers to teach him once he learns martial arts. Li Feng refuses, warns Sun Yan not to assume he will succeed, and avoids a fight by admitting that he has little training.
• Li Feng leaves on patrol with Zhang San and Chen Song.

Character developments and interactions

• Li Feng remains calm and practical. Though Sun Yan provokes him by bringing up Chief Runner Lin’s injury, Li Feng avoids an unnecessary confrontation, partly because he knows he is not yet strong enough. His confidence in his own future contrasts with the despair others assume he feels.
• Sun Yan is boastful and status-conscious. He interprets Lin’s injury as an opportunity to assert superiority over Li Feng, whom he already resents for refusing his invitations.
• Zhang San and Chen Song treat Li Feng as a friend, but Zhang San misreads his restraint as defeat and assumes he has given up on advancement. Their cautious outlook reflects the dangers faced by low-ranking runners.

Significant themes

• Power and social status: Wealth buys access to martial training, while connections and strength shape people’s prospects.
• Survival through restraint: In a violent, corrupt city, avoiding needless enemies can be wiser than defending one’s pride.
• Misjudged appearances: Li Feng’s outward humility hides his confidence and long-term plans.
• Uncertainty and vulnerability: Chief Runner Lin’s injury weakens Li Feng’s perceived position and highlights how quickly security can disappear.

Plot points and events

• Li Feng, Zhang San, and Chen Song patrol South City to discourage gang violence near busy markets. They avoid spending money at a brothel because Li Feng is trying to afford medicine for his injured sister-in-law, Constable Lin Yanqiu.
• At a tea stall, they witness a brutal clash between the Black Tiger Gang and the rising Green Bamboo Gang. Li Feng and his companions choose not to intervene, both because they are too weak and because gang fights are outside their duties as low-ranking runners.
• Zhang San explains that the Green Bamboo Gang has recently killed several Black Tiger hall masters and reportedly has more than a dozen fighters at the third qi-blood stage. Li Feng worries that a change in control could affect his neighborhood and his own position.
• Back at the City Guard Office, a notice orders personnel not to interfere in the gang conflict, but to report unusual developments. The office’s leadership is effectively letting the rival gangs weaken each other.
• Constable Wang Bei singles out the wealthy Sun Yan for a private conversation. Other runners envy Sun’s prospects, since his family can fund martial-arts training that may lead to a constable’s post.

Character developments and interactions

• Li Feng shows restraint and financial responsibility, prioritizing Lin Yanqiu’s treatment over entertainment. He remains wary of the gang conflict but believes that further cultivation and promotion could eventually protect him.
• Zhang San acts as the group’s source of information, sharing rumors about the Green Bamboo Gang and easing the group’s decision to stop for tea instead of wine.
• Chen Song is initially surprised by the Black Tiger Gang’s apparent defeat and joins Zhang San in discussing the shifting balance of power.
• Sun Yan displays pride at receiving Wang Bei’s attention, while other runners look on with envy and hope to benefit from his future advancement.
• The three patrol partners share an easy, joking rapport, but their conversation also reveals the sharp differences in status and opportunity within the City Guard Office.

Significant themes

• Pragmatism and self-preservation: Li Feng and the other runners avoid a fight they cannot safely influence.
• Power and instability: The Green Bamboo Gang’s rise threatens to reshape South City and exposes how quickly local authority can shift.
• Institutional self-interest: The City Guard Office chooses noninterference, preferring to observe the gangs’ struggle rather than risk its own forces.
• Money and advancement: Wealth gives Sun Yan access to martial training and potential promotion, while Li Feng’s limited means constrain his choices.

Plot points and events

• After leaving the City Guard Office, Li Feng heads toward the Spring Renewal Hall to check on his injured sister-in-law. He suspects the authorities are allowing the Green Bamboo Gang to absorb the weakened Black Tiger Gang.
• In a dark alley, he witnesses three Green Bamboo Gang members kill a wounded Black Tiger Gang member. The dying man calls for help, and the gang members mistake Li Feng for an accomplice.
• When they attack, Li Feng tests his perfected Water-Cutting Saber Art. He kills all three with ease, demonstrating the speed and combat ability he gained through the Heavenly Dao Advance Panel.
• Li Feng feels unexpectedly calm after his first killings. Concluding that violence is necessary for survival in this world, he searches the bodies and takes jewelry and more than twenty taels of silver before continuing on.
• Later, Green Bamboo Gang members discover the bodies. Their leader correctly infers that a skilled martial artist using the Water-Cutting Saber Art killed their comrades, but assumes the avenger was from the Black Tiger Gang. With that gang near defeat, he decides not to pursue the matter.

Character developments and interactions

• Li Feng shifts from avoiding trouble to acting decisively when threatened. His calm reaction to killing surprises him, and he accepts the ruthless pragmatism survival may require. He also learns that his acquired techniques include real combat experience.
• The Green Bamboo Gang attackers first act with confidence, then panic and plead for mercy after seeing Li Feng’s skill. When he refuses, they make a desperate final attack and are killed.
• The Green Bamboo Gang leader is observant enough to identify the weapon style and infer an outside killer, but misreads the killer’s allegiance. He prioritizes the gang’s larger campaign over revenge.

Significant themes

• Survival in a violent world: hesitation can be fatal, and force becomes necessary when peaceful explanations fail.
• Power and mistaken identity: Li Feng’s appearance and the chaos between rival gangs lead others to misjudge his loyalties.
• Unexpected consequences of gained strength: his acquired skill proves effective in practice, while his lack of emotional distress raises questions about how violence is changing—or revealing—him.
• Pragmatism and opportunity: after surviving the encounter, Li Feng turns the danger into material gain, while the gang leader dismisses the killings as an acceptable cost of war.

Key plot points and events

• Li Feng visits his gravely injured sister-in-law, Lin Yanqiu. She demands to know whether he has resigned from his White Runner post at the City Guard Office; he says he has not.
• Li Feng reveals that he has entered the Martial Dao and reached the qi-blood first stage. He explains that he learned from a damaged saber manual and crossed the threshold through self-directed practice. Lin Yanqiu verifies his martial aura and accepts that staying at the office may be sensible.
• Li Feng says Yanqiu’s injury made him realize how dangerous the world is. He wants to learn stronger cultivation methods, and the City Guard Office offers a relatively safe route, along with a salary.
• Yanqiu agrees but warns him to value his life, stay inconspicuous, and avoid corrupt side income that could compromise him. She also discourages him from risking himself to earn the costly Black Jade Bone-Molding Paste needed for her injured hand.
• Li Feng asks about the reward for capturing the powerful criminal who wounded her. Yanqiu sharply warns that even badly injured, the criminal is far beyond Li Feng’s current ability.
• At home, Li Feng practices the Water-Cutting Saber Art to repay the advancement he received from his Heavenly Dao panel. Careless practice makes no progress; focused practice earns 2%, implying about fifty days to repay the technique.
• Training leaves him ravenously hungry. He realizes faster practice will require more food or medicinal meals and considers selling jewelry and the saber art to raise money.

Character developments

• Li Feng shifts from preferring a quiet life to pursuing strength and advancement after seeing Yanqiu badly wounded. He remains cautious, but his interest in rewards and valuable medicine hints at ambition and a willingness to look for opportunities.
• Lin Yanqiu moves from alarm and disbelief to cautious acceptance of Li Feng’s decision. Her concern for him remains strong, and she tries to keep him from taking reckless risks.
• Li Feng and Yanqiu’s bond is reaffirmed: she has long protected him, while he now wants to grow stronger partly because he cannot bear remaining helpless.

Significant themes

• Danger and self-preservation: Violence forces Li Feng to reconsider his sheltered life, while Yanqiu stresses that survival must come before ambition.
• The cost of cultivation: Martial progress requires not just technique but food, money, and sustained effort—advantages more accessible to the wealthy.
• Ambition versus caution: Li Feng wants strength, money, and perhaps a chance to help Yanqiu, but her warnings underscore the risks of reaching beyond his abilities.
• Practice and discipline: The panel may grant a technique instantly, but repaying that advancement requires serious, repeated work.

Character interactions

• Yanqiu confronts Li Feng over refusing to resign; he calms her and proves his new ability.
• They discuss his reasons for staying at the City Guard Office, with Yanqiu accepting his choice but advising caution.
• Li Feng raises the possibility of earning money for Yanqiu’s medicine, and she firmly rejects the idea of dangerous profiteering.
• His question about the criminal’s bounty prompts another warning, emphasizing the gap between his current strength and the dangers he hopes to face.

Li Feng entered the black market at night to sell jewelry taken from the Black Tiger Gang and the Water-Cutting Saber Art. After selling the jewelry for forty taels, he set up a stall for the saber art, where a new customer approached him.

• Li Feng disguised himself, avoided the City Guard Office patrols, and paid five copper coins to enter the black market.
• Li Feng negotiated with a black-market merchant and sold the bloodstained Black Tiger Gang jewelry for forty taels of silver.
• Li Feng set up a stall to sell the Water-Cutting Saber Art, hoping to find a buyer willing to pay more than a merchant would.
• A black-clothed visitor tried to handle the booklet, but Li Feng slapped his hand away, and the visitor left without buying.
• Other passersby showed no interest in the saber art, until a new figure approached Li Feng's stall and asked what he was selling.

Li Feng proved the Water-Cutting Saber Art’s worth by demonstrating his martial cultivation and blade force, then sold it to the youth for thirty taels. With the money secured, he left the black market one step closer to treating his sister-in-law’s right hand.

• A thin, tall man accused Li Feng of selling fake martial arts, causing the youth and nearby onlookers to doubt the Water-Cutting Saber Art.
• Li Feng wagered that the thin, tall man would pay the twenty-tael shortfall if Li Feng demonstrated Qi-Blood First Stage cultivation, and the man accepted with an added penalty if Li Feng failed.
• Li Feng demonstrated his Qi-Blood First Stage cultivation and manifested blade force with the Water-Cutting Saber Art, impressing the crowd.
• A middle-aged saber practitioner offered forty taels for the manual, but Li Feng kept his promise to sell it to the youth for thirty taels.
• The thin, tall man paid Li Feng twenty taels, the youth paid ten taels and received the manual, and Li Feng left the black market.

After leaving the black market, Li Feng was ambushed by the tall, thin man who had lost a wager and two Qi-Blood First Stage martial artists. Li Feng killed all three, took their silver, and disappeared into the night.

• Li Feng left the black market cautiously and hurried through the dark alleys.
• The tall, thin man confronted Li Feng with two accomplices and demanded his saber, silver, and submission.
• Li Feng used the narrow alley and his perfected Water-Cutting Saber Art to kill the two attackers in quick succession.
• Old Gao pleaded for mercy, but Li Feng killed him after he handed over his silver.
• Li Feng searched the three bodies, took more than twenty taels, and vanished into the alley.

Jiang Yue took over Lin Yanqiu’s duties as chief constable and moved to dismiss temporary white runners who lacked the required cultivation. When she singled out Li Feng, Constable Chen alerted her that he had already reached the Qi-Blood First Stage, so Jiang Yue publicly praised him instead.

• Li Feng arrived late at the City Guard Office and told Zhang San he had visited his sister-in-law, while Zhang San mentioned that a new chief constable was arriving.
• Jiang Yue came with Constable Chen, learned that Li Feng was Lin Yanqiu’s brother-in-law, and called for temporary white runners who failed recruitment standards to be removed.
• Jiang Yue announced that she was taking over Lin Yanqiu’s duties and ordered underqualified white runners to hand in their tokens and resign.
• Several white runners resigned and blamed Li Feng, while Jiang Yue prepared to call him out as another unqualified runner.
• Constable Chen quietly indicated that Li Feng had reached the Qi-Blood First Stage, prompting Jiang Yue to praise him publicly as a model employee.

Li Feng revealed that he had reached the Qi-Blood First Stage, silencing white runners who challenged Jiang Yue’s decision to keep him in the City Guard Office. During patrol, Li Feng and his coworkers disposed of a dead Black Tiger Gang incense master, and Li Feng resolved to repay his debt for the Water-Cutting Saber Art and train with another manual.

• White runners demanded that Jiang Yue dismiss Li Feng too, but Li Feng displayed his Qi-Blood First Stage cultivation and they left.
• Zhang San questioned Li Feng about his sudden breakthrough, and Li Feng claimed he had practiced a manual he found while cleaning.
• Li Feng, Zhang San, and Chen Song began their street patrol and found the corpse of a Black Tiger Gang incense master in an alley.
• The three coworkers carted the corpse to a mass grave and discussed the dangers of gang life and Li Feng’s prospects.
• Zhang San and Chen Song teased each other about taking Li Feng to a brothel and reporting Zhang San to Constable Lin.
• Li Feng relaxed with his coworkers but reminded himself to repay his debt for the Water-Cutting Saber Art and practice another cultivation manual.

Li Feng’s cousin Chen Yulian asked him to help her son Zhang Qiang, who had been imprisoned after harassing a martial artist. Li Feng accepted her silver and headed to the City Guard Office to seek help, though he could not promise Zhang Qiang would be released.

• The Green Bamboo Gang eliminated the Black Tiger Gang while Li Feng continued his duties and practiced the Water-Cutting Saber Art.
• Chen Yulian and Zhang Yuner visited Li Feng and told him that Zhang Qiang had been taken to the City Guard Office’s dungeon.
• Chen Yulian explained that Zhang Qiang had insulted a martial woman, who beat him and summoned patrollers to arrest him.
• Chen Yulian offered Li Feng thirty taels of silver to bribe the jailers into keeping Zhang Qiang alive.
• Li Feng accepted the silver, warned that he could not guarantee Zhang Qiang’s release, and hurried to the City Guard Office.

Li Feng tried to help his nephew Zhang Qiang after Zhang Qiang was imprisoned for harassing Constable Jiang, but learned that her powerful backing prevented the jailers from releasing him. He paid Jailer Chief Zhao Gang to spare Zhang Qiang further abuse, then left him to endure prison until the scandal faded.

• Li Feng visited the prison and offered Zhao Gang thirty taels of silver to protect Zhang Qiang.
• Zhao Gang revealed that Zhang Qiang had harassed the newly appointed Constable Jiang and said he could not defy her, but would allow Zhang Qiang's family to bring him food and water.
• Li Feng gave Zhao Gang the silver as wine money, and Zhao Gang arranged for him to visit Zhang Qiang.
• Li Feng told Zhang Qiang to endure prison and have his mother bring food and water, explaining that Constable Jiang had powerful backing.
• Zhang Qiang despaired and blamed Li Feng's family for failing to help him despite his mother's past support of them.

Li Feng returned home and told Chen Yulian that Zhang Qiang would avoid severe torture in prison, though he could not yet be released. After agreeing to meet Shen Xiuying through Chen Yulian’s matchmaking, Li Feng resumed training the Water-Cutting Saber Art and saw his debt progress rise to 15%.

• Li Feng told Chen Yulian that a jailer had accepted silver and promised Zhang Qiang would not suffer heavy torture, but that Constable Jiang’s influence made an immediate release impossible.
• Li Feng explained that Chen Yulian and Zhang Yuner could deliver food to Zhang Qiang at the prison each night, and he rejected her suggestion that he approach Constable Jiang for help.
• Chen Yulian proposed arranging a meeting between Li Feng and Shen Xiuying, and Li Feng agreed to consider it.
• After Chen Yulian and Zhang Yuner left, Li Feng practiced the Water-Cutting Saber Art until late into the night.
• Li Feng checked his Heavenly Dao Advance Panel and found his Water-Cutting Saber Art debt progress had increased to 15%.

Chen Yulian and Zhang Yuner returned home and told Zhang Maochun that Zhang Qiang was imprisoned and would need food brought to him. Chen Yulian then proposed that Shen Xiuying marry Li Feng, but Shen tactfully refused because she wanted a more secure household where her bookkeeping skills would be valued.

• Chen Yulian told Zhang Maochun that Li Feng had arranged for Zhang Qiang to avoid major torture, but the family would have to bring him food and water.
• Zhang Maochun blamed Zhang Qiang for provoking the City Guard Office chief constable, while Chen Yulian defended Li Feng for helping them.
• Shen Xiuying brought tea and privately judged that Zhang Qiang's imprisonment might teach him to behave.
• Chen Yulian suggested that Shen Xiuying marry Li Feng, concealing that he was only a white runner.
• Shen Xiuying declined, explaining that she wanted to manage accounts for a household and did not want to marry a low-ranking runner.
• Zhang Maochun supported Shen Xiuying's refusal, and Chen Yulian dropped the proposal.

After entering the qi-blood first stage, Li Feng discovered his appetite and strength had increased, and he continued practicing the Water-Cutting Saber Art. As he checked his progress at home, someone suddenly knocked on his courtyard door.

• Li Feng reported for duty and heard that Constable Jiang had beaten and imprisoned a man who harassed her.
• After his shift, Li Feng bought meat and flatbreads, cooked a large meal, and satisfied his growing hunger.
• Li Feng carried full buckets of water home with ease, realizing his new cultivation had greatly increased his strength.
• Li Feng practiced the Water-Cutting Saber Art and saw that his repayment progress had reached 20%.
• A series of knocks sounded from beyond Li Feng's courtyard.