Chapter Summaries

Lin Mo visited Wei Manying at the Wei Residence, where he and Xiao Ming both tried to understand her relationships with each other. After Xiao Ming left, Qiu Xianyu appeared and warned Lin Mo to remember his station.

• Fang Qian left the Wei Residence after Xiao Ming challenged him, but he remembered the slight.
• Wei Manying invited Lin Mo and Xiao Ming inside, where Lin Mo claimed he was seeking the Wei Family's investment in the Railway Train.
• During lunch, Wei Manying discussed investing and called Lin Mo just a friend when Xiao Ming asked how they had met.
• After Xiao Ming left, Lin Mo entered through the back door and promised to help Wei Manying deal with him.
• Qiu Xianyu appeared, dismissed Lin Mo's staring as a one-time offense, and warned him to remember his station.

Lin Mo and Wei Manying grew closer during a nighttime walk, and she invited him to cultivate in the ancient tomb. Xiao Ming misread their relationship and resolved to rescue Wei Manying, while a mysterious rider passed near his returning team.

• Qiu Xianyu pressured Wei Manying to find a fourth key so they could open the Dragon Emperor's burial chamber.
• Lin Mo comforted Wei Manying about Qiu Xianyu and agreed to visit the ancient tomb with her to seek a breakthrough.
• Xiao Ming secretly followed Lin Mo and Wei Manying, mistakenly deciding Lin Mo was using his position to exploit her.
• Lin Mo and Wei Manying agreed to meet again at the ancient tomb, while Xiao Ming returned to the Imperial Capital at Pang Jin's urging.
• A huge mount passed near Xiao Ming's team, and his subordinate remarked that its rider seemed to be a powerful figure from a Hidden Sect.

Lin Mo followed Wei Manying and Qiu Xianyu into the Cloud-Net Mountains to enter the Dragon Emperor's Tomb and seek a cultivation breakthrough. After they opened the tomb's entrance, Lin Mo marveled at its lavish construction while Qiu Xianyu explained that they had only reached one section.

• Lin Mo traveled with Wei Manying and Qiu Xianyu through the Cloud-Net Mountains toward the Dragon Emperor's Tomb.
• Qiu Xianyu warned Lin Mo to follow her instructions inside the tomb, then used a magic treasure to open its stone gate.
• Lin Mo, Wei Manying, and Qiu Xianyu passed through the gate and arrived in an enormous underground palace.
• Lin Mo was astonished by the gold-brick road, jeweled walls, luminous pearls, and magic artifacts throughout the tomb.
• Qiu Xianyu told Lin Mo that the chamber was only one section of the tomb and that the Dragon Emperor had gathered its treasures and refined its artifacts.

Lin Mo entered the Dragon Emperor’s tomb with Qiu Xianyu and began a seven-day cultivation retreat, secretly imagining taking the tomb’s riches and women for himself and becoming emperor. Meanwhile, Li Chen and Wu Nanzhi found the tomb entrance, where the stone door began to rumble.

• Qiu Xianyu warned Lin Mo that the tomb’s abundant spiritual energy could backlash unless he absorbed it carefully.
• As Qiu Xianyu led him past guarded chambers and sleeping consorts, Lin Mo fantasized about claiming the Dragon Emperor’s wealth, overthrowing Li Chen, and establishing his own dynasty.
• Qiu Xianyu brought Lin Mo to a plain cultivation room suited to his Meridian Art and ordered him to remain there for seven days.
• Lin Mo shut the stone door, began cultivating, and resolved to surprise Qiu Xianyu and Wei Manying after his retreat.
• Li Chen and Wu Nanzhi discovered the tomb entrance, and its stone door rumbled as if someone inside were about to emerge.

Li Chen and Wu Nanzhi infiltrated an extravagant ancient tomb and overcame its traps and maze. They reached a palace guarded by puppet soldiers, where Wu Nanzhi struggled in battle until Li Chen destroyed them all.

• Li Chen and Wu Nanzhi slipped through the open stone door after two women left the tomb.
• Li Chen and Wu Nanzhi explored the tomb, marveling at its riches and dense spiritual aura.
• Li Chen caught a falling trap and dismantled a maze formation by refining its magic treasures.
• Li Chen sent Wu Nanzhi to fight the twenty-four puppet soldiers guarding a palace, and she battled them with the Saint Tiger's power.
• Li Chen rescued Wu Nanzhi when the puppets gained the upper hand, then shattered every puppet with a casual wave.

Li Chen and Wu Nanzhi entered a tomb palace that resembled the imperial palace and found a beautiful woman in suspended animation. Li Chen used the Emperor Dragon Sutra to revive her, hoping she could tell them where to find the Thunder Spirit Pearl.

• Wu Nanzhi reflected on her fight with the puppet, and Li Chen reassured her before they entered the palace.
• Wu Nanzhi and Li Chen noticed that the palace’s furnishings and fragrance resembled those of the imperial palace.
• Li Chen and Wu Nanzhi found a beautiful woman lying in a carved bed and concluded that she was a burial companion in suspended animation.
• Wu Nanzhi suggested reviving the woman to ask about the tomb, and Li Chen used the Emperor Dragon Sutra to restore her breathing and heartbeat after several hours.

Li Chen and Wu Nanzhi learned from Zhuo Shishi that she had been sealed in the tomb as a burial offering for the Great Yuan Dynasty’s Dragon Emperor. They decided to find the Dragon Emperor’s chamber before he awakened, and Zhuo Shishi pointed them toward his consort Qiu Xianyu, who had helped design the tomb.

• Li Chen asked Zhuo Shishi about her past, and she explained that the Dragon Emperor had taken her from the Zhuo Family and sealed her in his tomb.
• Wu Nanzhi told Zhuo Shishi that the Great Yuan Dynasty had fallen over a thousand years earlier and that Li Chen was now emperor of the Heavenly Strategy Dynasty.
• Zhuo Shishi revealed that the Dragon Emperor might still awaken, though she did not know where he slept or how to wake him.
• Wu Nanzhi suggested dealing with the Dragon Emperor before he awakened, and Li Chen agreed to search for his burial chamber.
• Zhuo Shishi identified Qiu Xianyu as the Dragon Emperor’s loyal consort, a master of formations and secret arts who had helped design the tomb.

Li Chen explored the Dragon Emperor's Tomb, awakened Consort Xiang, and learned key information about the Dragon Emperor and his forces. He opened the Treasure Vault by resetting its ancient lock and entered with Wu Nanzhi and the other consorts, who were stunned by what they saw inside.

• Li Chen entered Consort Xiang's Bedchamber Palace and awakened Nangong Xiang, winning her obedience.
• Nangong Xiang told Li Chen about the Dragon Emperor, the Dragon Cavalry, and the Treasure Vault.
• Wu Nanzhi examined the Treasure Vault's ancient lock, but Nangong Xiang said only the Dragon Emperor knew its combination.
• Li Chen used golden energy to reset the lock's three discs and opened the stone door.
• Li Chen, Wu Nanzhi, and the other consorts entered the Treasure Vault and were awestruck by what they saw.

Li Chen and his companions explored the Dragon Emperor’s treasury and discovered that Qiu Xianyu’s palace had recently been disturbed. Qiu Xianyu returned, found them in her room, and threatened to kill them.

• Li Chen and Zhuo Shishi reasoned that the Dragon Emperor’s immense hoard may have helped bring down the previous dynasty by leaving its successor with an empty treasury.
• Wu Nanzhi examined the treasury’s magic artifacts and ancient pills, and Li Chen decided the treasures belonged to him.
• Li Chen asked Consort Xiang where Qiu Xianyu lived, and Nangong Xiang led him and the others to her palace.
• Li Chen and his companions found Qiu Xianyu’s inner room empty, and Wu Nanzhi suggested Qiu Xianyu might have been the woman they saw at the tomb entrance.
• Qiu Xianyu returned after investigating signs that the tomb’s mechanisms had been triggered, found Li Chen and his companions in her room, and threatened Zhuo Shishi and Nangong Xiang with death unless they explained themselves.

Li Chen let Qiu Xianyu mistake him for the awakened Dragon Emperor and spent three days with her before she told him about the Great Yuan Dynasty’s fall. She then led him to the Dragon Cavalry, which he proved able to command, while Qiu Xianyu remained convinced he was the Dragon Emperor.

• Qiu Xianyu mistook Li Chen for the Dragon Emperor after he demonstrated the Emperor Dragon Sutra, and she embraced him.
• Li Chen sent Wu Nanzhi, Zhuo Shishi, and Nangong Xiang out, then spent three days with Qiu Xianyu while she believed he had awakened without his memories.
• Qiu Xianyu told Li Chen that the Great Yuan Dynasty had fallen a thousand years earlier and that its descendants were hunted remnants.
• Qiu Xianyu led Li Chen through a tunnel to the underground plaza where two thousand Dragon Cavalry puppets and their dragon mounts stood in slumber.
• Qiu Xianyu taught Li Chen how to control the Dragon Cavalry, and he successfully commanded them, strengthening her belief that he was the Dragon Emperor.

Li Chen brought Qiu Xianyu to the Dragon Emperor’s palace, where she discovered he was not the Dragon Emperor and learned he was the current emperor of the Heavenly Strategy Dynasty. After preparing elaborate formations, Li Chen destroyed the still-sleeping Dragon Emperor and sealed his ashes, leaving the tomb’s other dangers for later.

• Li Chen opened the palace doors by refining their lock and entered with Qiu Xianyu, who realized the sealed coffin still held the real Dragon Emperor.
• Qiu Xianyu confronted Li Chen, who explained that she had mistaken him for the Dragon Emperor and that Nangong Xiang called him Your Majesty because he ruled the Heavenly Strategy Dynasty.
• Li Chen knocked Qiu Xianyu unconscious as she prepared to awaken the Dragon Emperor, then summoned Wu Nanzhi, who warned that the coffin’s pressure was formidable.
• Li Chen and Wu Nanzhi agreed to kill the Dragon Emperor before he awakened, and Li Chen laid seven interlocking formations while refining nearby mechanisms and treasures.
• When the coffin opened, Li Chen’s formations suppressed and destroyed the Dragon Emperor before he could wake, and Li Chen sealed the remaining ashes in a bottle with eighty-one talismanic seals.

Li Chen thoroughly destroyed and refined everything connected to the Dragon Emperor, then stayed in the Tomb with the consorts while Lin Mo remained trapped in a secret chamber. On the seventeenth day, an unexpected Ministry of Works official opened Lin Mo’s door.

• Wu Nanzhi questioned whether the Dragon Emperor could still revive, and Li Chen explained how Saint Realm remnant souls could survive bodily destruction.
• Li Chen checked the sealed area for escaped energy, then refined the Dragon Emperor’s treasures, coffin, chains, furnishings, and every other trace of the palace over two days.
• Li Chen declared the second stage complete and planned to keep checking the Tomb while spending time with Qiu Xianyu, Orchid Fairy, and Xuan Ji.
• Lin Mo broke through to the heaven-viewing realm on his fifth day in the secret chamber but could not open its restricted door or leave when his seven-day stay ended.
• After seventeen days, a Ministry of Works official opened Lin Mo’s stone door and asked why he was locked inside.

Lin Mo discovered that Li Chen had taken control of the Dragon Emperor’s Tomb and ordered its treasures and Dragon Cavalry secured. When Lin Mo returned to Shanghe City, Wei Manying accused him of betraying her and held a sword to his neck.

• Lin Mo learned from a Ministry of Works official that Li Chen had discovered the tomb, taken its consorts, and sent the court departments to explore it.
• Lin Mo suspected Li Chen’s actions explained Qiu Xianyu’s absence and decided to ask Wei Manying what had happened.
• Lin Mo helped open a chamber of scriptures, then left the tomb as the Ministry of Revenue, Ministry of Works, and Ministry of War catalogued and transported its treasures.
• Lin Mo greeted the Minister of Works, who praised his efforts and told him to rest before he returned to Shanghe City.
• Wei Manying confronted Lin Mo at the Wei Family estate, accusing him of betraying her and pressing a sword against his neck.

Wei Manying confronted Lin Mo over the Heavenly Strategy Dynasty excavating the Dragon Emperor's Tomb, and Lin Mo convinced her that Xiao Ming had uncovered the Yuan's secrets. In the Imperial Capital, Fang Qian blocked the registration of Xiao Ming's new subordinates, leaving their appointments in his hands.

• Wei Manying found Heavenly Strategy Dynasty forces excavating the Dragon Emperor's Tomb and suspected Lin Mo had exposed it.
• Lin Mo denied betraying Wei Manying and persuaded her that Xiao Ming had discovered the tomb and exposed the Yuan.
• Wei Manying agreed with Lin Mo's plan to return to the Imperial Capital and use a banquet to test Xiao Ming's intentions.
• Xiao Ming brought more than ten carefully vetted subordinates to register with the Ministry of Personnel and discovered Fang Qian was handling their files.
• Fang Qian declared the subordinates' backgrounds unclear and delayed their registrations pending his personal investigation.

Fang Qian blocked the Ministry of Justice officials’ appointments, prompting a confrontation between Pang Jin and Luo Hui that stirred the Imperial Court. Lin Mo and Wei Manying arrived in the Imperial Capital, where Wei Manying met Xiao Ming to probe him about rumors.

• Fang Qian refused to approve Xiao Ming’s subordinates, and Xiao Ming left to complain to Pang Jin.
• Pang Jin confronted Luo Hui, but Luo Hui defended Fang Qian’s actions and challenged Pang Jin to appeal to the emperor.
• News of the ministers’ dispute spread through the Imperial Court as Lin Mo and Wei Manying arrived in the Imperial Capital.
• Lin Mo returned to the Ministry of Works and left Wei Manying to set a trap for Xiao Ming.
• Wei Manying met Xiao Ming at a teahouse and asked whether he had heard any rumors, but Xiao Ming looked puzzled.

Wei Manying confronted Xiao Ming, believing he had exposed the Dragon Emperor's Tomb and learned she was one of the Former Dynasty Remnants. Xiao Ming convinced her he was innocent and blamed Lin Mo, and the two resumed speaking more warmly as Wei Manying sought to use him for information.

• Wei Manying hinted at the Former Dynasty Remnants, but Xiao Ming said he had failed to find them and asked whether she knew anything.
• Wei Manying revealed that she belonged to the Former Dynasty Remnants and accused Xiao Ming of using her to locate the Dragon Emperor's Tomb.
• Xiao Ming denied knowing her identity or reporting the tomb, then said Lin Mo was likely responsible for its discovery.
• Wei Manying accepted that she had wrongly accused Xiao Ming, and they agreed to call each other by their names as their relationship warmed.
• Wei Manying asked what had upset Xiao Ming, and he told her how Fang Qian had mistreated him while insulting Fang Qian's appearance.

Wei Manying plotted to use Xiao Ming, Lin Mo, and Fang Qian while she and Lin Mo tried to identify who had uncovered the Dragon Emperor's Tomb. At court, ministries fought over the tomb's wealth, and Li Chen watched as tensions between the Minister of Justice and the Minister of Personnel threatened to escalate.

• Wei Manying recruited Xiao Ming to help eliminate disobedient Former Dynasty Remnants and then secretly visited Lin Mo to tell him about their meeting.
• Lin Mo denied discovering the Dragon Emperor's Tomb and suggested they find Consort Qiu, whom he believed was still alive in the palace.
• Li Chen restored Qiu Xianyu's consciousness, while she continued to remain loyal to the Dragon Emperor in her heart.
• At Morning Court, the Minister of Works, the Minister of War, and the Minister of Rites petitioned Li Chen for funds from the tomb's wealth.
• Liu Minghan rejected the requests and insulted the Ministers of War and Rites, while Li Chen watched their quarrels and noted that the Minister of Justice and the Minister of Personnel were the officials truly poised to impeach each other.

Officials in the Imperial Court argued over how to divide the dynasty’s newfound wealth, and Li Chen approved Zhao Wenyuan’s proposal to review funding requests by their costs and expected benefits. Minister of Justice Pang Jin then accused senior Ministry of Personnel officials of bribery and selling appointments, leaving Li Chen to consider his detailed impeachment memorial.

• Zhang Dehai rebuked the Ministries of Rites, Works, and War as they disputed the Ministry of Revenue’s control of funds, and Ma Wenzhong apologized after his remarks seemed to criticize Li Chen’s decree.
• The Minister of Works requested funding to finish a water conservancy project, but Liu Minghan challenged him over the project’s past spending and abandonment.
• Li Chen asked Zhao Wenyuan to resolve the dispute, and Zhao proposed that ministries submit itemized budgets and expected results for review by the Government Affairs Hall and the Ministry of Revenue.
• Li Chen accepted Zhao Wenyuan’s proposal and demanded tangible achievements rather than empty promises.
• Pang Jin presented a memorial accusing Minister of Personnel Luo Hui of tolerating corruption and alleging that Qiu Xinghuai, Shi Ruifeng, and Ge Haoran had taken bribes or sold official positions and noble titles.

Li Chen learned that a feud between Luo Hui and Pang Jin had begun with a dispute between their subordinates, Xiao Ming and Fang Qian, over Wei Manying. After hearing how the rivalry escalated into a fight, Li Chen decided to investigate the matter personally.

• Luo Hui and Pang Jin accused each other of using improper methods while investigating corruption, and Li Chen took their findings for personal review before dismissing court.
• Li Chen asked Guo Poyun what had sparked the ministers' feud, and Guo explained that Xiao Ming and Fang Qian had clashed over a woman.
• Wei Manying arranged to meet Fang Qian, who took her to the Drunken Immortal Tower after becoming captivated by her.
• Xiao Ming arrived at the Drunken Immortal Tower with Xu Zifeng, saw Fang Qian with Wei Manying, and ordered Fang Qian to leave.
• Xiao Ming and Fang Qian traded insults and fought, leaving Xu Zifeng to struggle to hold them back.

At the Drunken Immortal Tower, Fang Qian and Xiao Ming fought over Wei Manying while Xu Zifeng tried to keep them apart. Lin Yue'e arrived and stopped the fight, initially mistaking Xu Zifeng for the troublemaker.

• Xiao Ming confronted Fang Qian for pestering Wei Manying, and the two began exchanging blows.
• Xu Zifeng stepped between them and tried to break up the fight, but neither man would stop for long.
• Constables from the County Yamen arrived but did not dare intervene because Fang Qian and Xiao Ming held powerful official positions.
• Lin Yue'e entered the Drunken Immortal Tower with the emperor's Insignia Plaque and accused Xu Zifeng of causing trouble.
• Xu Zifeng explained that he had only been breaking up the fight, and Lin Yue'e eventually believed him; Fang Qian and Xiao Ming then stopped fighting.