Chapter Summaries

Lin Feng repaid Li Wenwu’s debt and escorted him out of Qinghe County, learning that Li was returning to his family after receiving an important role. Four days later, Lin Feng prepared to go undercover and took Zhang Xiaoyu to hunt while deciding how to use his Breakthrough Points.

• Lin Feng found Li Wenwu being stopped at the east gate by Merchant Zhang and yamen officers over a debt of 9,821 taels.
• Lin Feng paid Merchant Zhang 10,000 taels and offered to help Li Wenwu rebuild his life, but Li said he had to return to his family.
• Li Wenwu revealed his true name and left with Lin Feng escorting his carriage out of the city.
• After Lin Feng returned, Li Wenwu’s Second Granduncle praised Lin Feng’s loyalty and martial potential but questioned whether he was worth supporting.
• Lin Feng bought Li Wenwu’s residence, then four days later prepared to go undercover using a Human Skin Mask and took Zhang Xiaoyu up the mountain to hunt.

Lin Feng improved his martial arts before setting out undercover among the Horse Bandits, leaving his family with a cover story about reporting to the prefectural city. He adopted the alias Zhang Dazui and joined a group of wandering martial artists headed for the Heavenly Serpent Gang, but their boastful antics made him doubt they could lead him to the Horse Bandits' headquarters.

• Lin Feng spent Breakthrough Points to raise Crimson Gold Glaze, Demonic Dragon Roar, and Flying Sword Cloud-Piercing Steps, then told Zhang Xiaoyu to watch Haitao and Huzi while he was away.
• Lin Feng told Zhou Chunlan and his family that he would be gone for work, and promised the children he would return early.
• Lin Feng met Zheng Tiejun outside the city, then changed his clothes and appearance in the mountains and took the alias Zhang Dazui.
• Lin Feng joined seven wandering martial artists who planned to enter the Heavenly Serpent Gang's territory, and listened as Old Master Shen bragged about defeating City Guards.
• Lin Feng grew uneasy about whether the boastful group could guide him to the Horse Bandits' headquarters.

Lin Feng entered a branch stronghold of the Heavenly Serpent Gang by defeating Zhao Dadan in a sparring test and posing as the wanted fugitive Zhang Dazui. At a banquet, Zhao Dadan tried to question him over wine, but Lin Feng claimed his skills were all in his mouth and was asked to demonstrate.

• Lin Feng and Old Master Shen reached a Heavenly Serpent Gang branch stronghold, where Zhao Dadan challenged the newcomers to last three moves against him.
• Lin Feng exchanged more than twenty moves with Zhao Dadan, earning permission to enter the stronghold, while Old Master Shen and the other recruits were defeated.
• Lin Feng promised Old Master Shen that he would send for the group later, while secretly planning to have Mayi Guard arrest them and send them to the iron mines.
• Lin Feng introduced himself as Zhang Dazui from Chenxi County and claimed he had fled after becoming wanted by the authorities.
• Zhao Dadan tried to get Lin Feng drunk and question him at a banquet, but Lin Feng said he could not drink because his skill was in his mouth.
• Skinny Monkey urged Lin Feng to demonstrate his mouth skills, and Zhao Dadan encouraged him to show everyone.

Lin Feng established his cover among the Horse Bandits and learned that the Heavenly Serpent Gang was gathering thousands of martial artists. After secretly sending his findings to the Mayi Guard, he prepared to travel with Zhao Dadan to the main stronghold, where a mysterious red-robed Second Boss awaited.

• Lin Feng used the Demonic Dragon Roar to impress Zhao Dadan and the Horse Bandits, then claimed Wuchang Dragon Shadow had taught him the art.
• Lin Feng spent half a month at the small stronghold, learning that the Heavenly Serpent Gang had fifteen branches and a main stronghold guarded by the Heavenly Serpent and its descendants.
• Zhao Dadan told Lin Feng that several thousand martial artists had gathered at the main stronghold for a tournament to choose seven bosses.
• Lin Feng encoded his intelligence, hid several copies in a tree, and used a special fragrance to guide Mayi Guard carrier pigeons to them.
• Zhao Dadan cleaned himself up before taking Lin Feng to meet the red-robed Second Boss, whom he described as beautiful and fond of clean men.

Lin Feng visited the Heavenly Serpent Gang’s enormous headquarters and discovered that its patrols included members of the Demonic Sect, leaving him trapped inside as he considered how to expose the connection. The next morning, Zhao Dadan returned from a night with the Second Boss and said she wanted to meet Lin Feng, who began planning how to discourage her advances.

• Lin Feng and Zhao Dadan rode to the Heavenly Serpent Gang’s headquarters, where Lin Feng was astonished by its city-sized walls, busy streets, and strict defenses.
• Lin Feng checked a patrol captain’s status panel and found a Demonic Sect identity, then concealed his alarm from Zhao Dadan.
• Zhao Dadan showed Lin Feng the city and explained that captives were fed to Lord Heavenly Serpent and its descendants.
• After Zhao Dadan left to meet the Second Boss, Lin Feng decided to lie low until he could rise through the Horse Bandits’ ranks and gain more freedom.
• Zhao Dadan returned the next morning exhausted and told Lin Feng that the Second Boss wanted to meet him.
• Lin Feng worried that the Second Boss might drain his cultivation and devised a way to make her lose interest in him.

Lin Feng met Yun Mengwu, the Heavenly Serpent Gang’s Second Boss, and discovered that she was an inner disciple of the Joyful Union Sect. After driving her off with deliberate insults and bad breath, he began looking for a way to send the intelligence back.

• Zhao Dadan brought Lin Feng to meet Yun Mengwu, who praised him for recruiting the expert Brother Zhang and sent Zhao away.
• Lin Feng saw that Yun Mengwu belonged to the Joyful Union Sect and suspected the gang was a Demonic Sect operation targeting Qinghe County.
• Yun Mengwu tried to draw Lin Feng closer and drink with him, hoping to absorb his Muscle Refining cultivation.
• Lin Feng used chives on his teeth and pointed verses to disgust and insult Yun Mengwu without openly admitting it, so she ordered him escorted out.
• Lin Feng observed the city gate and planned to ask Zhao Dadan whether he could leave the city to hunt and pass along the intelligence.

Lin Feng secretly sent intelligence about the Horse Bandits to the Mayi Guard and planned to help destroy their stronghold before they attacked Qinghe County. That night, the Horse Bandits suddenly summoned everyone to the central plaza and threatened to treat latecomers as spies.

• Lin Feng learned he could not leave the city, so he coded intelligence and prepared mud-wrapped packets to attract carrier pigeons.
• Sun Yu and the others established mountain outposts, received Lin Feng's first report, and prompted Zheng Tiejun to seek resources to locate the Horse Bandits.
• Liu Rensong weighed betraying his sect and clansmen for the chance to earn enough merit to break through to the Innate realm.
• Lin Feng threw five intelligence packets beyond the city walls and planned to set fire to the Horse Bandits' headquarters in seven days as Zheng Tiejun led an attack.
• After Zhao Dadan returned exhausted from visiting the Second Boss, bells rang through the city and the Horse Bandits ordered everyone to gather in the plaza or be branded a spy.

The Horse Bandits discovered coded intelligence and questioned the visiting martial artists, while Lin Feng narrowly concealed his role. They captured two other suspected operatives and began torturing them for information, leaving their identities and accomplices under interrogation.

• The Great Boss displayed the coded paper and ordered the gathered martial artists to account for their whereabouts during the first watch.
• Lin Feng gave his prepared alibi, and the teahouse attendant could not clearly remember whether it was true.
• Horse Bandits with hunting dogs found a map in the martial artists’ dormitory, and its owner fled before the Second Boss shot him down and the bandits captured him.
• The Great Boss had two green snakes bite the captured operative until he revealed that Old Yang was another accomplice.
• The Great Boss shot Old Yang through both thighs as he tried to escape, and Horse Bandits captured him and used the snakes to torture him.
• The two captured men denied having other accomplices, and the Great Boss asked them who had sent them.

After becoming the Ninth Boss of the Horse Bandits, Lin Feng attended a suspicious feast hosted by Yun Mengwu and avoided being exposed as a spy. The chapter ended with him wondering how many Demonic Sect experts were involved and whether Zheng Tiejun could counter them.

• Two captured spies died after biting poison sacs sewn into their clothes, and Lin Feng believed they would take the blame for leaked intelligence.
• Lin Feng won Arena Number Nine without using Demonic Dragon Roar and became the Ninth Boss of the Horse Bandits.
• Yun Mengwu invited Lin Feng and Zhao Dadan to drink, and Lin Feng received more than eight hundred subordinates before the gathering.
• At Yun Mengwu's feast, she tested Lin Feng by presenting Lu Zixuan as Wuchang Dragon Shadow, but Lin Feng refused to claim him as his master.
• Lu Zixuan praised Lin Feng, while Lin Feng worried that the Demonic Sect had sent more experts than Zheng Tiejun could handle.

Lin Feng trained his eight hundred men while planning to use a fire to signal the approaching forces and exploit the siege for merit and treasure. After the Eighth Boss accused him of being a sect spy, the two agreed to fight to the death, and the Great Boss allowed the duel to proceed.

• Zhang Xiaoyu decoded Lin Feng's intelligence about the Horse Bandits colluding with the Demonic Sect, and Zheng Tiejun decided to request reinforcements from the sects and the Iron Sword Army.
• Lin Feng drilled his eight hundred men in the square, while the Great Boss and Yun Mengwu watched and discussed whether he could be trusted.
• Lin Feng planned to use his men to gather wood for a signal fire, memorize the city's defenses, and seek treasure during the coming siege.
• The Eighth Boss accused Lin Feng of being a sect spy, and Lin Feng challenged him to a life-or-death fight.
• The Horse Bandits urged the two bosses to fight, and the Great Boss told Yun Mengwu to let them duel.

Lin Feng used the Demonic Dragon Roar to kill the Eighth Boss and devastate his followers, establishing his authority among the Heavenly Serpent Gang. After the Great Boss ended the day’s disputes, Lin Feng agreed to treat his men to drinks and prepared to lead them out for training.

• The Great Boss offered two thousand taels for a life-and-death duel between Lin Feng and the Eighth Boss.
• Lin Feng unleashed the Demonic Dragon Roar, killing the Eighth Boss and fifty-six others while leaving forty-seven of the Eighth Boss’s men mentally incapacitated.
• The Great Boss’s men threw the Eighth Boss, the dead, and the injured into a pit to feed the snakes.
• The Great Boss gave Lin Feng the silver and warned the gang that anyone who caused trouble after that day would be treated as a traitor.
• Lin Feng refused to let his men pay for drinks, ordered that he would treat them, and decided they were ready to follow him into training.

Lin Feng feasted with his men, secretly mapped the Horse Bandit city, and perfected Flying Sword Cloud-Piercing Steps while planning ways to prepare for the coming battle. After he returned to sleep, bronze gongs rang through the city in the dead of night, jolting him awake.

• Lin Feng treated several hundred of his men to a feast, and several of his centurions pledged their loyalty to him.
• Lin Feng mapped the city and considered secretly obtaining lamp oil for a fire.
• Lin Feng spent thirty-six Breakthrough Points and perfected Flying Sword Cloud-Piercing Steps while eating eight tables of banquet dishes.
• Lin Feng devised a possible way to save ordinary people from the coming battle and continued drilling his men.
• Bronze gongs sounded through the city at night, and Lin Feng woke, wondering whether the Horse Bandits were hunting for spies again.

The Great Boss announced that the Heavenly Serpent Gang would attack Qinghe County to aid the Demonic Sect, promising the Horse Bandits rewards and admission as outer disciples. Lin Feng warned his men that the promise was a lure to send them into a long war as cannon fodder, then told them to follow his orders and preserve their lives.

• The Great Boss told the Horse Bandits that they would train to attack Qinghe County and help the Demonic Sect break through the righteous path.
• The Great Boss promised that the Horse Bandits would become Demonic Sect outer disciples and could loot Qinghe County after taking it.
• The Great Boss revealed that insiders in Qinghe County would open the gates, and Lin Feng led his men in shouting support for the attack.
• Lin Feng's centurions celebrated the prospect of joining the Demonic Sect, but Lin Feng warned that many would die in a prolonged war.
• Lin Feng told his centurions to fight well, keep their lives, and follow his orders for safety.

Lin Feng led his Horse Bandit unit in a staged siege drill while preparing for a chance to set the city ablaze. Meanwhile, the Sword Sect sent ten thousand Iron Sword Army soldiers into Big Black Mountain, and General Hong Baichuan waited for Lin Feng to signal them to the Horse Bandits' headquarters.

• Lin Feng led his unit outside the Horse Bandit city, made rope ladders and a burning battering ram, and staged a mock assault that pleased the Great Boss and Second Boss.
• After Zheng Tiejun reported Lin Feng's intelligence, the Sword Sect confirmed the Horse Bandits' presence and their ties to the Demonic Sect, then sent ten thousand Iron Sword Army soldiers into Big Black Mountain.
• Zheng Tiejun brought Zhang Xiaoyu, Sun Yu, Zhou Haitao, Lin Hu, and Zhao Youcai to join the Iron Sword Army, while assigning Zhao Youcai to lead the intelligence department.
• Zheng Tiejun told General Hong Baichuan that Lin Feng was undercover among the Horse Bandits and expressed confidence in his abilities.
• Hong Baichuan warned that the vast mountains would make the headquarters difficult to find unless Lin Feng sent the agreed signal, and he privately recognized Lin Feng's credit despite Zheng Tiejun's claims.

Lin Feng prepared to escape the Horse Bandits and led their men outside despite the storm, waiting for a chance to signal the Mayi Guard. After lunch, he began building a fire as planned and killed the ten men assigned to watch him, openly rebelling against the Great Boss.

• Lin Feng encouraged Zhao Dadan to work hard, and Zhao Dadan admitted he admired Lin Feng and asked him for help if they both survived.
• Lin Feng urged the Great Boss and Second Boss to continue training despite the fierce wind, winning their approval and leading the Horse Bandits outside the city.
• Zheng Tiejun and Hong Baichuan waited anxiously for Lin Feng's signal while scouts watched from treetops in the gusts.
• Lin Feng led the main force five li from the city, cut down trees, and had his men douse them with fire oil to prepare the signal fire.
• When the Great Boss's ten men tried to stop him, Lin Feng shot and killed them, shocking the assembled Horse Bandits.

Lin Feng lit a signal fire, persuaded the Horse Bandits under his command to defect, and led them toward Qinghe County as the Iron Sword Army advanced. The Great Boss and Second Boss discovered the fire and the dead men, and the Second Boss followed Lin Feng’s trail.

• Lin Feng identified himself as a Mayi Guard general, lit the signal fire, and convinced the Horse Bandits to follow him toward Qinghe County.
• Hong Baichuan spotted the smoke and ordered the Iron Sword Army’s twenty battalions to converge on the fire.
• Lin Feng shot two Horse Bandit spies who tried to flee, and his men learned he was the Mad Blade Man of Qinghe County.
• The Great Boss sent a squad to investigate the fire, while the Second Boss pursued Lin Feng after finding the men he had killed.

Lin Feng led the Horse Bandits who had defected from the Great Boss to meet the Sword Sect army, where he shared intelligence and a map of the Horse Bandits’ main city. Hong Baichuan accepted the defectors into the campaign, and Lin Feng planned to enter the city with his companions and seize loot.

• The Second Boss caught up with Lin Feng’s group, but Lin Feng drove her back with his Crimson Gold Glazes and warned her that the Sword Sect army was approaching.
• Lin Feng’s group met Hong Baichuan’s battalion, including Zheng Tiejun and Zhang Xiaoyu, and Lin Feng asked that the defected Horse Bandits be spared.
• Hong Baichuan reduced the defectors’ punishment and assigned them to squads to guide the army and fight against the Horse Bandits.
• Lin Feng gave Hong Baichuan a map of the main city and warned him about its venomous snakes and the giant snake; he also proposed using a Demonic Dragon Roar to guide civilians to safety.
• As Hong Baichuan’s force advanced, Zheng Tiejun cautioned Lin Feng and his companions against reckless fighting, and Lin Feng privately suggested they enter the city to loot valuables.

The Sword Sect's Iron Sword Army surrounded the Horse Bandits' mountain city and launched an assault after the bandits refused to surrender. Lin Feng and his companions entered the city amid the one-sided battle and began looting its shops.

• The Second Boss told the Great Boss that the Ninth Boss had led the Sword Sect's army to the city, and the Great Boss assigned the other bosses to defend its walls.
• Scouts reported that Sword Sect forces had surrounded the city, while the Great Boss and Second Boss privately discussed fleeing and destroying records.
• Lin Feng called on the commoners to gather in the small square, and Hong Baichuan demanded the Horse Bandits surrender before ordering the Iron Sword Army to attack.
• The Iron Sword Army overwhelmed the defenders, climbed the walls, opened the gates, and poured into the city.
• Lin Feng led Zhang Xiaoyu and others through the streets, killed Horse Bandits, collected money from a tavern, and looted shops.

Lin Feng and his companions fought through the trapped horse bandit city while Zhang Xiaoyu was separated from them and encountered the bandits’ Second Boss. After Lin Feng reunited with Sun Yu, Zhou Haitao, and Lin Hu, they continued searching for Zhang Xiaoyu as Hong Baichuan confronted Tao Xingye.

• Lin Feng warned his group away from a tunnel trap, then entered the tunnels and killed more than a dozen horse bandits.
• Horse bandits scattered Sun Yu, Zhang Xiaoyu, Zhou Haitao, and Lin Hu, and Zhang Xiaoyu fled into a residence with a woman in red.
• Zhang Xiaoyu fought off four horse bandits while badly wounded, then drank one bandit’s blood and learned the woman in red was the horse bandits’ Second Boss.
• The Second Boss recognized Zhang Xiaoyu’s Bloodthirsty Demonic Art, drank his blood, bandaged his wound, and vanished after sparing him.
• Lin Feng emerged from the tunnel, found his companions separated, and reunited with Zhou Haitao, Lin Hu, and the lightly injured Sun Yu while searching for Zhang Xiaoyu.
• Hong Baichuan appeared and challenged Tao Xingye, whom he identified as the Great Boss of the Heavenly Serpent Gang.

Lin Feng found Zhang Xiaoyu and then went alone to pursue more merit and search Tao Xingye’s residence. After killing two of Tao Xingye’s disciples and taking their fortune and martial arts manuals, Lin Feng stayed to help Hong Baichuan fight Tao Xingye.

• Lin Feng and his companions found Zhang Xiaoyu wounded, but Zhang Xiaoyu refused to leave and urged them to earn more merit.
• Sun Yu, Zhou Haitao, and Lin Hu encouraged Lin Feng to act alone, warning that Zheng Tiejun appeared to favor Zhao Youcai for advancement.
• Lin Feng killed more than a hundred Horse Bandits and reached the Great Boss’s residence while Hong Baichuan and Tao Xingye fought nearby.
• Lin Feng entered the residence through an underground passage, killed two of Tao Xingye’s disciples, and took their bundles of banknotes and secret manuals.
• Tao Xingye confronted Lin Feng, but Hong Baichuan intervened and resumed their fight, so Lin Feng prepared to attack Tao Xingye with steel balls.