Chapter Summaries

Duan Rong reviewed the escort agency’s accounts and discovered that someone had been skimming money, while Xu Fuxian’s books were spotless. He suspected the brothers’ deep rift stemmed from Xu Fuxian’s refusal to join Xu Shouxian’s corruption, then recorded the discrepancies he had found.

• Duan Rong, Xiao Yu, and Huang Qing worked through the ledgers until dusk, and Duan Rong sent the exhausted Huang Qing home.
• Duan Rong told Xiao Yu that someone had been skimming money from the accounts.
• Duan Rong noticed that accounts signed by Xu Shouxian, Wang Dean, and Zhu Shicheng had discrepancies, while those signed by Xu Fuxian were exact.
• Xiao Yu explained that Xu Fuxian and Xu Shouxian were brothers whose relationship had soured after Xu Shouxian became Chief Accountant.
• Duan Rong concluded that Xu Fuxian had likely refused to participate in his younger brother’s corruption and recorded the discrepancies before going out to dinner.

Duan Rong, Xiao Yu, and Huang Qing spent five days auditing the accounting office’s ledgers while Wang Dean focused on Li Jun’s unexplained coma. After documenting every discrepancy and arranging the evidence, Duan Rong waited outside the Document Repository at dawn.

• Xiao Yu sent the exhausted Huang Qing to rest, and Wang Dean hurried away to find physician Gu Suxiu for the still-unconscious Li Jun.
• Duan Rong, Xiao Yu, and Huang Qing continued checking the accounts for five days while Wang Dean and Xu Shouxian ignored the audit.
• The three finished checking the twelfth month’s accounts, and Duan Rong told Huang Qing to go home and gave Xiao Yu further instructions.
• Duan Rong placed slips detailing the verification process and discrepancies into the relevant ledgers, then locked the Document Repository for the night.
• At dawn, Duan Rong unlocked the accounting office, lit the lamp he had left outside the Document Repository, and sat waiting at its entrance.

Duan Rong blocked the Document Repository and refused to let anyone enter before Ruan Fengshan arrived, alarming Wang Dean and Xu Shouxian. Xu Shouxian sent Wang Dean to find Huang Qing, who might know what had happened inside.

• Ye Chen found Duan Rong waiting outside the Document Repository before dawn, though the audit had supposedly ended the previous day.
• Wang Dean arrived and questioned Duan Rong, who said Xiao Yu would return with the shopkeeper and barred everyone from entering the repository until then.
• Wang Dean found Xu Shouxian and reported that Duan Rong was blocking the entrance.
• Xu Shouxian confronted Duan Rong, but Duan Rong insisted he was acting under the shopkeeper’s instructions and would not move.
• Xu Shouxian ordered Wang Dean to find Huang Qing, who had also been present during the audit.

Li Jun woke after nearly five days unconscious and warned Xu Shouxian that Duan Rong understood the layered accounts, prompting Xu to summon Luan Jingfu. Meanwhile, Ruan Fengshan returned to the escort agency unaware that the accounting room was in turmoil.

• Li Jun woke on the eighteenth of the twelfth month and ran from home despite his weakened condition.
• Wang Dean woke Huang Qing and took him to Xu Shouxian, where Huang Qing confirmed Duan Rong had audited nearly all the account books on four shelves.
• Li Jun burst into Xu Shouxian's room and warned him that Duan Rong could understand the structure of the layered accounts.
• Xu Shouxian realized Duan Rong's plan and sent Wang Dean to summon chief escort Mister Luan.
• Xiao Yu learned that Ruan Fengshan was absent, while Wang Dean found Luan Jingfu away and brought his son Luan Bao to the accounting room.
• Ruan Fengshan returned with the wounded Luan Jingfu after an operation for the Filthy Blood Sect's Yuan Yang Prefecture Branch in Lin County.

Duan Rong blocked the Document Repository after his audit had ended, and Luan Bao challenged him on behalf of the accounting office. Duan Rong struck Luan Bao aside, and Ruan Fengshan caught him as he flew backward.

• Xu Shouxian complained to Luan Bao that Duan Rong had blocked the Document Repository and disrupted the accounting office.
• Luan Bao ordered Duan Rong to move, then tried to use Xu Shouxian's key to open the repository.
• Duan Rong stood in Luan Bao's way, took the key, and evaded Luan Bao's punch while sending him flying backward.
• Luan Bao vomited as he flew, and Ruan Fengshan caught him at the corridor entrance.

Duan Rong led Ruan Fengshan and the accounting officials into the Document Repository and revealed that he had cracked the Account Maze. After Duan Rong explained a fraudulent transaction involving 985 taels, Ruan Fengshan examined the general ledger and realized the accounting office was deeply corrupt.

• Ruan Fengshan arrived as Duan Rong subdued Luan Bao, and Xiao Yu guarded the Document Repository entrance while the others went inside.
• Xu Shouxian, Wang Dean, Zhu Shicheng, and Xu Fuxian followed Duan Rong and Ruan Fengshan into the repository, while Li Jun fainted outside after realizing what Duan Rong intended to reveal.
• Xu Shouxian found Duan Rong's numerical formation among the account books and recognized that Duan Rong had cracked the Account Maze.
• Duan Rong showed Ruan Fengshan records for a transaction of 5,632 taels and explained that 985 taels were missing.
• Ruan Fengshan understood the layered accounting fraud, examined the twelfth-month general ledger, and angrily condemned the accounting office as rotten.

Ruan Fengshan uncovered corruption in the escort agency’s accounts, ordered the suspected officials detained, and appointed Xu Fuxian to lead a full investigation. As Ruan Fengshan left the Document Repository, Luan Bao reported that Li Jun had fainted and seemed to have stopped breathing.

• Ruan Fengshan ordered Luan Bao to surround the back courtyard accounts office and prevent anyone from entering or leaving freely.
• Duan Rong recommended that Xu Fuxian lead a thorough investigation of the accounts, and Ruan Fengshan agreed after reviewing Xu Fuxian’s precise records.
• Luan Bao reported that the Guards had surrounded the accounts office, and Ruan Fengshan ordered Xu Shouxian, Wang Dean, and Zhu Shicheng confined under watch.
• Ruan Fengshan appointed Xu Fuxian to take charge of the back courtyard accounts office and begin the investigation the next day.
• Luan Bao told Ruan Fengshan that Li Jun had fainted and seemed to have stopped breathing.

After Li Jun died in the accounting office, Ruan Fengshan ordered the accountants to write accusations, while Duan Rong and Xiao Yu reported the audit to Xiao Zongting. As the scandal’s effects began to spread, Luan Jingfu secretly gave Luan Bao a deadly order.

• Li Jun convulsed and died, and Ruan Fengshan left his body in the accounting hall and ordered Luan Bao to collect signed letters of accusation from every accountant.
• Zhu Xiaoqi summoned Duan Rong and Xiao Yu to see Xiao Zongting, who questioned them about the audit and reacted angrily to the accounting discrepancies.
• Duan Rong returned to Willow Lodge and ignored visitors, including Sun Huang, Wang Zhuoyong, and Ma Wentao.
• Maple Leaf told Luan Bao that Luan Jingfu had returned injured, and Luan Bao left the accounting office to visit his father.
• Luan Jingfu privately whispered an order to Luan Bao, who reacted in alarm when he heard that someone was to be strangled to death.

Luan Bao strangled Xu Shouxian and staged his death as a suicide, prompting Ruan Fengshan to react angrily when the news reached him. Later, Xu Shouxian’s old steward Ye Tian delivered a secret letter to Ruan Fengshan, who opened it.

• Luan Jingfu warned Luan Bao not to show mercy, and Luan Bao decided to kill Xu Shouxian.
• Luan Bao strangled Xu Shouxian, hung his body from a ceiling beam, and ordered the guard to keep watch over the room.
• A guard delivering Xu Shouxian’s meal discovered the body and announced that Xu Shouxian had hanged himself.
• Zheng Wei told Ruan Fengshan that Xu Shouxian was dead, and Ruan Fengshan cursed him for dying before his debts were settled.
• Ye Tian told Ruan Fengshan that Xu Shouxian had left a secret letter for him, then handed it over.
• Ruan Fengshan examined the envelope and sliced open its seal with a dagger.

After reading Xu Shouxian’s final letter, Ruan Fengshan learned that Luan Jingfu had drawn the former chief accountant into large-scale embezzlement and discovered a hidden chest of money and records. Ruan mourned Xu, then weighed how to deal with Luan, a corrupt escort chief who was also a valuable Filthy Blood Sect fighter.

• Ruan Fengshan read Xu Shouxian’s letter, which explained that Luan Jingfu had gradually led Xu into large-scale embezzlement and warned Ruan against punishing the agency too harshly.
• Ruan Fengshan learned that a chest beneath the east-wing floor of Xu’s secluded residence held embezzled funds, gifts, and records of dealings with agency officials and escort-team heads.
• Ruan Fengshan promised Ye Tian that Xu’s body would be sent home in a fine coffin, and Ye Tian left without delivering his separate family letter to Xu Fuxian.
• Ruan Fengshan ordered Zheng Wei to buy a coffin, hid Xu’s letter and deed, and went to the secluded residence to retrieve an account book.
• After reviewing the account book, Ruan Fengshan blamed himself for neglecting the agency and weighed Luan Jingfu’s corruption against his value as a fighter for the Filthy Blood Sect.

Ruan Fengshan investigated the padded accounts and Xu Shouxian’s death, then decided the Luan father and son could no longer be spared. The next morning, he gathered the escort agency’s members to address the aftermath, with Duan Rong among those summoned.

• Ruan Fengshan questioned Wang Dean and Zhu Shicheng, who admitted each had embezzled thirty percent of the padded accounts.
• Wang Dean told Zhu Shicheng that Xu Shouxian’s house steward had sent Ruan Fengshan a letter, which made honesty essential to their survival.
• Ruan Fengshan examined Xu Shouxian’s body, recognized that he had been strangled, and concluded Luan Bao was responsible.
• Ruan Fengshan arranged Xu Shouxian’s burial at the Xu Residence and spent the night deciding how to handle the crisis.
• Zheng Wei summoned Duan Rong to a dawn meeting, where Ruan Fengshan appeared before the assembled members of the Yuan Shun Escort Agency.

Ruan Fengshan burned the accounting office's Accusation Letters, forgave past wrongdoing while tightening oversight, and appointed Xu Fuxian to run the accounts. He also announced that Duan Rong would be rewarded and allowed to compete for a Taiyi Sect Registered Disciple place, though Duan Rong's true cultivation was far beyond what the hall knew.

• Ruan Fengshan burned the Accusation Letters and explained that he would let past matters go while personally inspecting the escort agency's year-end accounts from the next year onward.
• Ruan Fengshan named Xu Fuxian the new head of the accounting office, and Xu Fuxian announced a new reimbursement method to be issued before the fifteenth day of the first lunar month.
• Ruan Fengshan said Xu Shouxian's former colleagues should visit his residence and offer incense in his memory.
• Ruan Fengshan praised Duan Rong for his service and said he qualified to enter Taiyi Sect's Registered Disciple selection.
• Duan Rong's actual cultivation had reached the Subtle realm, though he remained unable to break through the final layer before Great Perfection.

Ruan Fengshan forced Duan Rong, Xiao Yu, and Luan Bao to compete for two registration spots, expecting Duan Rong to displace Luan Bao. On the Martial Arts Field, Xiao Yu fought Luan Bao and wounded him, leaving Duan Rong puzzled by her earlier restraint.

• Ruan Fengshan announced that the three qualified escorts would fight for two spots, and ordered the contest to begin immediately.
• Duan Rong decided to deliberately lose to Luan Bao to avoid angering Luan Jingfu.
• Xiao Yu challenged Luan Bao first, and he accepted before the gathered escorts and agency leaders.
• Xiao Yu's saber work overwhelmed Luan Bao, but she reduced her inner breath and let him recover his footing.
• Xiao Yu suddenly struck through Luan Bao's defense and stabbed his right thigh, drawing blood.

Xiao Yu deliberately wounded Luan Bao, forcing Luan Jingfu to forfeit and giving Duan Rong and Xiao Yu the two registration spots. After Duan Rong celebrated his victory, he went to Snow Covered Residence to ask Xi Men Kan Kan to return the money for his registration because he had found another way to register.

• Xiao Yu wounded Luan Bao, and Luan Jingfu forfeited the match rather than let him fight Duan Rong.
• Ruan Fengshan declared that Duan Rong and Xiao Yu had won the two spots, while planning to strengthen his ties with them and potentially recruit Duan Rong into the Filthy Blood Sect.
• Xiao Zongting and the escort agency's escorts congratulated Duan Rong for winning the spot and exposing the agency's rotten accounts.
• Duan Rong went to Snow Covered Residence and caught Xi Men Kan Kan hiding inside with Xia Shuangshuang's nude paintings.
• Duan Rong asked Xi Men Kan Kan to return the registration money because he had another channel, and Xi Men Kan Kan said his father would return soon with the letters of recommendation.

Xu Fuxian mourned his estranged brother Xu Shouxian and read his final letter, which explained his repayment to Ruan Fengshan and warned Xu Fuxian about becoming chief accountant. As the year-end approached, Wei Yutian received a visit from Luan Jingfu, who revealed that the Helm Master had gone to the prefectural city amid a crackdown on branch helms.

• Xu Fuxian and his family paid respects at Xu Shouxian’s bier, where Ye Tian gave him a letter from the deceased.
• Xu Fuxian read Xu Shouxian’s letter, learning that his brother had repaid the money to Ruan Fengshan and asking him to care for his sons, dismiss his concubines, and step down from the chief accountant post within three years.
• Duan Rong stocked Willow Lodge with food ahead of the New Year closures.
• Wei Yutian sat alone in his courtyard until Luan Jingfu arrived with wine.
• Luan Jingfu told Wei Yutian that the Helm Master had gone to the prefectural city branch hall and that three branch helms in Yuan Yang Prefecture had recently been swept away.

Wei Yutian and Luan Jingfu drank together, and Luan Jingfu revealed he had pocketed money from Yuan Shun Escort Agency and was upset that the Helm Master had caught him. After they finished the wine, Luan Jingfu asked whether Wei Yutian still had any goods at home.

• Wei Yutian and Luan Jingfu discussed the Filthy Blood Sect’s recent troubles and drank wine with dishes served by Su Di.
• Luan Jingfu confessed that he had taken money from Yuan Shun Escort Agency and believed the Helm Master had discovered it.
• Wei Yutian urged Luan Jingfu to consider the harm his actions could cause, but Luan Jingfu argued that he deserved a share for risking his life.
• The two set aside their argument and finished the wine together.
• Luan Jingfu asked Wei Yutian whether he still had any goods at his residence, and Wei Yutian said he had two saved for New Year’s Eve.

Wei Yutian and Luan Jingfu prepared to worship the Five Manifestations God, while Bai Ai, Su Di, and Pei Qing set up a hidden ritual chamber and brought two captive Maidens as offerings. The chapter ended with the women arranging the ritual around a platform, blazing fire basins, and towering stone idols.

• Luan Jingfu agreed with Wei Yutian to use the Maidens to vent his pent-up gloom, and Wei Yutian ordered Bai Ai to prepare a Five Manifestations God ritual.
• Bai Ai, Su Di, and Pei Qing entered a concealed chamber beneath a secluded side room and opened a hidden passage into a deeper complex.
• Su Di found two captive Maidens in an iron cage, pulled them out, and knocked them unconscious when they resisted.
• Su Di carried the Maidens to Bai Ai and Pei Qing, and the three began arranging the ritual in a spacious chamber with a central platform, fire basins, and towering stone idols.

Su Di, Bai Ai, and Pei Qing prepared the mandala chamber for Wei Yutian and Luan Jingfu to perform a dangerous Filthy Blood Divine Skill ritual. After completing the offerings and Smoke Offering, the two men approached the unconscious Farmer's Daughters, and screams rose from the smoke-filled platform.

• Su Di, Bai Ai, and Pei Qing arranged offerings and placed the unconscious Farmer's Daughters and ritual supplies in the mandala chamber.
• Wei Yutian and Luan Jingfu arrived in ritual clothing, entered the chamber, and began making offerings to the four Five Manifestations God statues.
• Wei Yutian and Luan Jingfu poured pus-blood over themselves and chanted the Five Manifestations God Incantation, enduring the dangerous God and Demon Illusion.
• The statues' eyes glowed with bloody light, and Wei Yutian and Luan Jingfu completed the Smoke Offering with a prolonged ritual dance.
• Wei Yutian and Luan Jingfu knelt on the platform, chanted, and approached the unconscious Farmer's Daughters as screams sounded through the smoke.

Wei Yutian and Luan Jingfu cultivated the Filthy Blood Divine Skill by draining two captive girls, then discussed targeting Xiao Yu. Luan Jingfu revealed he wanted Xiao Yu killed and hoped Wei Yutian would act for him.

• Wei Yutian and Luan Jingfu used ritual awls and the statues’ bloody light to cultivate the Filthy Blood Divine Skill, draining two girls until they became corpses.
• After drawing the blood threads back into themselves, Wei Yutian and Luan Jingfu left Su Di, Bai Ai, and Pei Qing to clear the secret chamber and bury the bodies.
• Wei Yutian pressed Luan Jingfu to name the quality goods he had hinted at, and Luan Jingfu named Rouge Tiger, Xiao Yu.
• Wei Yutian warned that Xiao Yu belonged to the Yuan Shun Escort Agency and that the Helm Master had ordered them to lie low.
• Luan Jingfu admitted that he wanted Xiao Yu dead but could not kill her himself, making clear he wanted Wei Yutian to do it.

Luan Jingfu lured Wei Yutian into abducting Xiao Yu and arranged an alibi by taking Sun Huang to Lin County. Wei Yutian broke into the Yuan Shun Escort Agency and attacked Xiao Yu, who rang a copper mirror with her saber as he struck her.

• Luan Jingfu persuaded Wei Yutian to abduct Xiao Yu while the Helm Master was away, promising him a layout map of the Yuan Shun Escort Agency.
• Luan Jingfu took Sun Huang on a Letter Escort to Lin County to establish an alibi for Xiao Yu's abduction.
• Wei Yutian entered the escort agency at midnight and crept toward Xiao Yu's bedchamber.
• Xiao Yu practiced her stance alone, then drew her saber when Wei Yutian appeared in her room.
• Wei Yutian struck at Xiao Yu, and she flung her saber into the copper mirror, sending a ringing sound through the night.