Chapter Summaries

Hu Xiaotian prepared to perform an exploratory laparotomy on the wounded rapist, whose death would put everyone in danger. As the preparations began, Zhou Wenju used gold needles coated with Mafeisan to ease the patient’s pain and put him back to sleep.

• Hu Xiaotian examined the rapist and said that although his chances were poor, he might still be saved by opening his abdomen to find the injury.
• Hu Xiaotian had Liang Dazhuang and one of the outlaws fetch his surgical instruments and herbs, while he made a list of supplies and ordered water boiled for disinfection.
• Zhou Wenju apologized for bringing Hu Xiaotian into captivity and explained that Zhou Xing had sought Hu Xiaotian’s help after the outlaws abducted him.
• Hu Xiaotian explained the difference between internal medicine and surgery, and he and Zhou Wenju shared their respect for each other’s medical skills.
• When the rapist began to wake, Hu Xiaotian asked Zhou Wenju for help managing his pain, and Zhou Wenju used Mafeisan-coated gold needles to put him back to sleep.

Hu Xiaotian manipulated a blood-matching test to make Hu Jinniu believe he was the only compatible donor for the wounded young chief. Hu Xiaotian cut Hu Jinniu’s wrist to draw blood, and the chapter left Hu Jinniu fearing that a second basin would be needed.

• Hu Xiaotian tested the group’s blood against the wounded young chief’s and claimed only Hu Jinniu’s blood was compatible.
• Hu Jinniu resisted donating blood, but the middle-aged scholar reminded him that the young chief’s death would bring severe consequences.
• Hu Jinniu finally agreed to donate, and Hu Xiaotian took him inside and cut his wrist.
• Hu Jinniu’s blood poured into a copper basin as the middle-aged scholar watched in alarm.
• Zhou Wenju arrived carrying another basin of warm water, making Hu Jinniu fear they planned to take even more blood.

Hu Xiaotian operated on the rapist Murong Feiyan had stabbed, using his modern surgical knowledge to locate a perforation in the jejunum and begin a bowel resection. The chapter ended with him preparing the injured bowel for removal and reconnection.

• Hu Xiaotian drained nearly two jin of blood from Hu Jinniu, then stopped the bleeding and stitched his hand.
• Zhou Wenju anesthetized the unconscious rapist while Hu Xiaotian prepared to operate.
• Hu Xiaotian made an abdominal incision, found signs of internal bleeding and a perforated hollow organ, and controlled a bleeding vessel.
• Hu Xiaotian examined the abdominal organs and found that Murong Feiyan's sword had perforated the rapist's jejunum.
• Hu Xiaotian isolated the injured bowel and began managing its blood supply and preparing it for resection.

Hu Xiaotian finished operating on the rapist, secretly making him incapable of sexual intercourse, while trying to keep the bandits from harming him and his companions. Murong Feiyan arrived to rescue him, but the bandits escaped through the smoke and the fight continued.

• Hu Xiaotian completed the rapist’s surgery, then secretly cut off blood flow to the man’s erectile tissue so he could never perform again.
• Hu Xiaotian discovered that several bandits were watching the courtyard and stood his ground when the middle-aged scholar threatened him with a knife.
• Murong Feiyan emerged from the camphor tree, knocked the scholar’s knife off course, and protected Hu Xiaotian from his attack.
• The middle-aged scholar threw a smoke bomb and fled toward the rapist’s room while Murong Feiyan and Hu Xiaotian took cover.
• Hu Jinniu escaped the West Wing with an accomplice, who abandoned him and fled when Murong Feiyan charged at them.

Hu Xiaotian and Murong Feiyan rescued Zhou Wenju, Zhou Xing, and Liang Dazhuang, then captured Hu Jinniu and questioned him. Hu Jinniu revealed that he belonged to the Hu Family and was related to Minister Hu Buwei, leaving Hu Xiaotian treating the interrogation like a family conversation.

• Murong Feiyan rescued Hu Xiaotian and the three bound men, while Hu Xiaotian freed Zhou Wenju, Zhou Xing, and Liang Dazhuang.
• Zhou Wenju slapped Zhou Xing to shield him, and Hu Xiaotian forgave Zhou Xing for drawing him into danger.
• Hu Xiaotian and Murong Feiyan returned to their residence, where Murong Feiyan explained that she had left Le Yao recovering in Fork River Town.
• Hu Xiaotian and Murong Feiyan questioned Hu Jinniu in the woodshed, and Hu Jinniu claimed they shared the Hu surname and were kin.
• Hu Jinniu said his great-grandfather was the Duke of Jing and that Minister Hu Buwei was his relative, prompting Hu Xiaotian to indulge their family conversation while Murong Feiyan left in anger.

Hu Xiaotian interrogated Hu Jinniu, learning that the bandits came from Heavenly Wolf Mountain and that their injured young chief was Yan Boguang, but he kept Hu Jinniu locked up. After Murong Feiyan checked on the aftermath of the previous night, Wan Boping arrived at dawn in tears, pleading for Hu Xiaotian’s help with a new crisis.

• Hu Xiaotian bluffed Hu Jinniu into admitting that he and his companions were mounted bandits from Heavenly Wolf Mountain who had come to seek treatment for Yan Boguang.
• Hu Jinniu said he knew little about why Yan Boguang had come to Azure Cloud County, and Hu Xiaotian left him confined in the woodshed.
• Hu Xiaotian watched Murong Feiyan practice swordsmanship, then told her what he had learned from Hu Jinniu.
• Murong Feiyan volunteered to visit the county office and find out how much news of the previous night had spread.
• Wan Boping arrived at Hu Xiaotian’s home at dawn in a panic and begged him for help.

Wan Boping told Hu Xiaotian that Heavenly Wolf Mountain bandits had kidnapped Wan Tingchang and demanded that Hu treat Yan Boguang at Blackstone Stockade. Hu agreed to go after negotiating for Wan Boping to rebuild Azure Cloud Bridge, but he kept his plans to avoid involving the authorities.

• Wan Boping showed Hu Xiaotian a letter saying the bandits held Wan Tingchang and demanded Hu treat Yan Boguang at Blackstone Stockade.
• Wan Boping revealed that he knew Hu had treated Yan Boguang the previous night and offered to keep the matter secret.
• Hu refused to enter Blackstone Stockade at first and demanded that the bandits bring Yan Boguang to him.
• Wan Boping offered to rebuild Azure Cloud Bridge and warned that the bandits would kill Wan Tingchang if Hu did not comply.
• Hu agreed to go to Blackstone Stockade after Wan Boping accepted the bridge deal, and he told Wan Boping to return home while he prepared to handle the matter.

After learning that the horse bandits had ignored Hu Jinniu and planned to meet at Blackstone Stockade, Hu Xiaotian questioned him and uncovered why the settlement had been chosen. Hu Xiaotian then set out with Murong Feiyan and Liu Kuohai for Blackstone Stockade, leaving Liang Dazhuang behind to summon help if they failed to return.

• Hu Xiaotian and Murong Feiyan showed Hu Jinniu the bandits’ letter, and Hu Jinniu agreed to answer their questions after realizing his sworn brothers had not asked for his rescue.
• Hu Jinniu explained that the bandits had first sought help from Physician Meng at Blackstone Stockade, then kidnapped Yan Boguang and learned about Hu Xiaotian from Zhou Wenju’s medicine boy.
• Hu Jinniu told Hu Xiaotian that the bandits had no known ties to the Black Miao, though their third young miss often visited Blackstone Stockade.
• Hu Xiaotian decided to go to Blackstone Stockade with Murong Feiyan and Liu Kuohai, while Liang Dazhuang stayed behind with instructions to seek reinforcements if they did not return by evening.
• Hu Xiaotian, Murong Feiyan, and Liu Kuohai set out for Blackstone Stockade, and Liu Kuohai explained that he knew Physician Meng there.

Hu Xiaotian and his companions entered Blackstone Stockade to seek Doctor Meng, while Wan Changchun’s men waited outside. At the stockade’s entrance, a young Black Miao woman who had met Murong Feiyan before showed her special attention, and Hu Xiaotian disguised Murong Feiyan as his elder brother.

• Hu Xiaotian dismissed Liu Kuohai’s offer to investigate the riders following them, correctly guessing they belonged to the Wan Family.
• Wan Changchun caught up with Hu Xiaotian and sent Ma Qiao into Blackstone Stockade with him, while the others waited outside.
• Hu Xiaotian, Murong Feiyan, and Liu Kuohai crossed the White Dragon River bridge and entered the stockade after dismounting.
• More than a dozen Black Miao girls welcomed the visitors with gate-blocking wine, and the girl in red recognized Murong Feiyan from the earlier bride-snatching incident.
• The girl in red focused her attention on Murong Feiyan, who resisted drinking; Hu Xiaotian introduced her as his second elder brother, Hu Dadi.

Hu Xiaotian and Murong Feiyan entered Blackstone Stockade to seek Physician Meng, with Teng Zidan mistakenly believing Murong Feiyan was Young Master Hu. Yan Nujiao then confronted Hu Xiaotian and demanded he treat her brother Yan Boguang, leading him into the stilt house alone.

• Teng Zidan welcomed Murong Feiyan as Young Master Hu and escorted the group through Blackstone Stockade toward Physician Meng's home.
• Teng Zidan explained that Physician Meng disliked crowds, then left Hu Xiaotian and Murong Feiyan at the stilt house.
• Yan Nujiao introduced herself as Yan Boguang's sister and threatened Azure Cloud County unless Hu Xiaotian saved her brother.
• Hu Xiaotian agreed to see Yan Boguang, and Yan Nujiao told him to come inside alone.

Hu Xiaotian forced Qu Guangbai to apologize before agreeing to examine Yan Boguang, then found the patient weak from blood loss but otherwise stable. Doctor Meng returned to Blackstone Stockade with a young woman, and he went to examine Yan Boguang while ignoring Hu Xiaotian.

• Hu Xiaotian confronted Yan Nujiao and demanded that Qu Guangbai kneel and apologize for betraying him the previous night.
• Qu Guangbai knelt and apologized, and Hu Xiaotian followed Yan Nujiao inside to examine Yan Boguang.
• Hu Xiaotian found no infection and concluded that Yan Boguang was weak from blood loss and should wake later that day.
• Mister Meng returned from gathering herbs with a veiled young woman, and Yan Nujiao welcomed him anxiously.
• Mister Meng reassured Yan Nujiao and went straight to Yan Boguang's bedside without acknowledging Hu Xiaotian.

Mr. Meng and Qin Yutong treated Yan Boguang’s severe blood loss after Hu Xiaotian explained his emergency surgery. After the transfusion, Qin Yutong questioned Hu about his surgical instruments, and Hu warned her that Yan Boguang was a rapist.

• Mr. Meng and Qin Yutong examined Yan Boguang’s incision, and Hu Xiaotian explained that he had removed a punctured section of intestine and rejoined the ends.
• Qin Yutong tested Yan Boguang’s blood and found that Yan Nujiao was not a suitable donor, so Mr. Meng brought in several Black Miao youths.
• Qin Yutong used leeches to transfer blood from suitable donors to Yan Boguang, and Mr. Meng later assured Yan Nujiao that her brother would survive.
• Hu Xiaotian left the room, but Qin Yutong caught up with him and asked to see the instruments he had used for surgery.
• Hu Xiaotian refused to show Qin Yutong his instruments, then told her that Yan Boguang was a rapist who had ruined many women.

Qin Yutong saved Yan Boguang, while Yan Nujiao refused to release Wan Tingchang until her brother recovered. After Hu Xiaotian prepared to leave the Black Miao settlement, Meng Zizai drew him into a private conversation about his medical knowledge and asked whether he knew Sumeru Heaven.

• Qin Yutong defended treating every patient and saved Yan Boguang, who briefly woke before falling unconscious again.
• Yan Nujiao told Hu Xiaotian she would keep Wan Tingchang until her brother recovered, and Hu left the stilt house to rejoin Murong Feiyan and the others.
• Meng Zizai called Hu Xiaotian back and reassured him that the Black Miao would not harm him.
• Meng Zizai introduced himself as a former practitioner of the Heavenly Mystery Hall and offered Hu Xiaotian Black Maple Tree tea.
• Hu Xiaotian concealed the identity of his teacher, and Meng Zizai asked whether he knew Sumeru Heaven.

After Hu Xiaotian and his companions left Blackstone Stockade without rescuing Wan Tingchang, they were ambushed while resting in Flying Eagle Valley. Murong Feiyan and Liu Kuohai fought back against the masked killers as Hu Xiaotian remained underwater to evade their arrows.

• Meng Zizai told Hu Xiaotian that he would help Yan Nujiao save someone out of gratitude, but Blackstone Stockade would remain neutral toward both officials and bandits.
• Hu Xiaotian, Murong Feiyan, and Liu Kuohai left Blackstone Stockade without Wan Tingchang, while Wan Changchun kept men outside to watch the horse bandits.
• The three travelers entered Flying Eagle Valley, stopped at a stream, and Hu Xiaotian splashed Murong Feiyan while diving into a pool.
• Murong Feiyan detected an ambush and charged into the woods as masked killers attacked them with arrows.
• Liu Kuohai shot one archer in the throat, and Murong Feiyan killed the other archer before the remaining killers tried to flee.
• Liu Kuohai pursued the attackers, kicking one down and hurling his saber into another killer's back.

Hu Xiaotian survived an ambush on the road back from Blackstone Stockade, captured two assassins, and returned to Azure Cloud County with an arrow wound in his backside. As he recovered, Liu Danggui explained that Meng Zizai was a Black Miao physician who had once worked at Heavenly Mystery Hall.

• Murong Feiyan and Hu Xiaotian defeated the attackers, while Liu Kuohai helped capture two survivors who said someone from the county office had hired them to kill Hu Xiaotian.
• Hu Xiaotian had Liu Kuohai remove the arrow and treat the wound before traveling back to Azure Cloud County facedown across his horse with Murong Feiyan setting a gentle pace.
• Hu Xiaotian sent Murong Feiyan to take the captured assassins to the county office and told Wan Boping that his son remained captive at Blackstone Stockade.
• Xu Qinglian and Liu Baoju visited Hu Xiaotian, feigned concern, and said they had sent men to Flying Eagle Valley, while Hu Xiaotian concealed what he had been doing outside town.
• Liu Danggui and Zhou Wenju visited Hu Xiaotian, whose wound improved after he applied Zhou Wenju's Golden Wound-Healing Medicine.
• Liu Danggui described Meng Zizai's Black Miao medical expertise, and Hu Xiaotian revealed that Meng had been the resident physician at Heavenly Mystery Hall.

Hu Xiaotian questioned Zhou Wenju about the events surrounding the attack, then planned to use released prisoner Hu Jinniu and watchers at Blackstone Stockade to uncover the bandits’ allies. Hu Jinniu revealed that he had buried an Iron Deed of Redemption at his father’s grave, leaving Hu Xiaotian to wonder whether it was the missing deed from his own family or a counterfeit.

• Zhou Wenju told Hu Xiaotian that he would leave Azure Cloud the next day, while Hu Xiaotian wondered how Wan Boping had learned about the previous night’s events.
• Murong Feiyan reported that the two assassins were jailed with Zhou Batian, and Hu Xiaotian explained his plan to release Hu Jinniu and have Liu Kuohai follow him.
• Hu Xiaotian told Hu Jinniu that Yan Boguang had survived and that Wan Tingchang had not been handed over, then threatened to turn Hu Jinniu over to the authorities.
• Hu Jinniu described his father’s grave at Yang Family Slope and revealed that he had buried an ancestral Iron Deed of Redemption beneath its gravestone.
• Hu Xiaotian realized Hu Jinniu was likely a fellow clansman but suspected the buried deed might be a fake or a different deed from the one missing from his family.

Hu Xiaotian recovered the Iron Deed of Redemption from Hu Bucheng’s grave and arranged for Liang Dazhuang to carry proof of it to his father in the Capital City. After setting the Charity Auction date, Hu Xiaotian went to meet Xiao Tianmu of Red Willow Village.

• Hu Xiaotian, Liang Dazhuang, and Liu Kuohai dug up a rust-free iron plate from Hu Bucheng’s grave, which Hu Xiaotian believed was the genuine Iron Deed of Redemption.
• Hu Xiaotian encountered Madam Wan near the graves and wondered whether Le Yao had been involved in Wan Tingguang’s death.
• Song Shaofu agreed to hold the Charity Auction at Wild Goose Tower the evening after tomorrow.
• Hu Xiaotian cleaned the iron plate, read its inscription, made a rubbing, and wrote a letter to his father explaining the discovery.
• Hu Xiaotian ordered Liang Dazhuang to deliver the letter to his father in the Capital City and return quickly.
• Murong Feiyan gave Hu Xiaotian a visiting card from Xiao Tianmu, who was waiting outside in his carriage.

Hu Xiaotian met secretly with Xiao Tianmu, who warned him that the Five Immortals Cult had attempted to assassinate him and helped him assess the suspicious story about Wan Boping’s abducted son. The two strengthened their alliance, and Hu Xiaotian left with Xiao Tianmu’s support and a new task to investigate Yan Nujiao’s party.

• Xiao Tianmu met Hu Xiaotian in a dark carriage and learned how the assassination attempt and the events surrounding Wan Boping had unfolded.
• Hu Xiaotian and Xiao Tianmu suspected that Wan Boping’s account of his son’s abduction concealed an effort to get Hu Xiaotian to treat someone.
• Xiao Tianmu identified the assassins as members of the Five Immortals Cult and warned Hu Xiaotian that the cult had resurfaced in Western Sichuan.
• Xiao Tianmu offered to help Hu Xiaotian and asked him to warn Zhou Batian about the Five Immortals Cult.
• Hu Xiaotian asked Xiao Tianmu to watch Yan Nujiao and her party from Blackstone Stockade, and Xiao Tianmu agreed.

Hu Xiaotian and Murong Feiyan discovered that someone inside the Azure Cloud County Yamen had poisoned two captured assassins to silence them. Hu Xiaotian decided to treat everyone in the yamen as a potential enemy, then told Murong Feiyan that the assassins belonged to the resurrected Five Immortals Cult.

• Hu Xiaotian confessed that he wanted Murong Feiyan by his side for life, and she retorted that she might consider it if she could break both his legs.
• Hu Xiaotian and Murong Feiyan arrived at the jail, where one captured assassin had died and the other was near death from poison; Hu Xiaotian induced the survivor to vomit, but he died soon afterward.
• Hu Xiaotian sealed samples of the prisoners’ food and concluded that someone inside the yamen had poisoned them, while Murong Feiyan agreed that the assassins had been killed to conceal the mastermind’s involvement.
• Liang Dazhuang reported that Hu Jinniu had escaped, and Hu Xiaotian told him to let the fugitive go because Liu Kuohai was already following him.
• Hu Xiaotian told Murong Feiyan that he had reached an agreement with Xiao Tianmu and that the assassins belonged to the Five Immortals Cult, whose leader Shangguan Wuqing was reputed to be a Grandmaster.

Hu Xiaotian planned to retaliate against Azure Cloud’s corrupt officials and learned that Zhou Batian feared the Five Immortals Cult. The chapter ended with Qin Yutong visiting the yamen to ask for the instruments used on Yan Boguang and noticing Hu Xiaotian’s injury.

• Hu Xiaotian asked Murong Feiyan to steal valuables from Xu Qinglian’s home during a charity auction, but she objected that it was theft.
• Hu Xiaotian returned to the yamen and questioned Zhou Batian about the two prisoners who had died; he told him they belonged to the Five Immortals Cult.
• Zhou Batian urged Hu Xiaotian to investigate the deaths and asked to leave the jail after hearing the cult’s name.
• Qin Yutong arrived at the yamen and asked to see the instruments Hu Xiaotian had used to open Yan Boguang’s abdomen.
• Qin Yutong noticed Hu Xiaotian limping, and he told her that an ambush on the way back from Blackstone Stockade had left an arrow in his backside.