Recaps

Shen Fa met his childhood friend Xie Yu in secret on Mid-Autumn night as the two confronted the destruction of Xie Yu’s family over its treasonous collusion. Shen Fa promised to spare the women and children, and Xie Yu placed his men under Shen Fa’s command before they parted, expecting not to meet again.

• Xie Yu asked Shen Fa whether he had come to share farewell wine, and Shen Fa explained that Xie Yu’s family had betrayed the country and forced his hand.
• Xie Yu said he had known his family was being used as a weapon but could not abandon them, while Shen Fa urged him to flee with his men.
• Shen Fa offered to save Xie Yu’s family and promised to seek survival for the women and children, though he would not spare those who had colluded with the enemy or held office.
• Xie Yu summoned his armored men and ordered them to obey Shen Fa while he fought the Tartars, but to kill him and his family if he ever turned traitor.
• Shen Fa and Xie Yu exchanged their final words as friends, and Shen Fa left through the window while Xie Yu apologized to him alone.

On Mid-Autumn Festival, Yang Ge received mooncakes from Shopkeeper Liu and learned that Fu Yu’s marriage had been arranged. Yang Ge refused to join the Liu family in presenting the betrothal gifts, explaining that he wanted to keep his dangerous work separate from them, then shared a mooncake with Little Yellow.

• Yang Ge welcomed Shopkeeper Liu, who brought him mooncakes and invited him to visit the City God Temple fair.
• Shopkeeper Liu told Yang Ge that Fu Yu would marry Butcher Deng’s second daughter and asked him to attend the betrothal-gift visit the next day.
• Yang Ge explained that his martial arts school and dangerous ties to the Embroidered Uniform Guard could put the Liu family at risk, so he needed to keep some distance from them.
• Shopkeeper Liu left troubled, and Yang Ge opened the mooncakes and shared one with Little Yellow.
• Little Yellow eyed the remaining mooncakes, and Yang Ge ran off with the parcel as the dog chased him.

Yang Ge encountered a Gray-Clad Man from the Five Ghosts of Yan Yun outside his home, but a black-clad figure called the man away before they fought. He then confronted his Embroidered Uniform Guard recruits over their failure to track the Five Ghosts, ordering them to find out how the group entered the city.

• Yang Ge watched Shopkeeper Liu and Liu Mang deliver betrothal gifts to Butcher Deng, then walked home with Little Yellow.
• A Gray-Clad Man attacked Yang Ge near his home and identified revenge and testing him as his purposes, but a black-clad figure called him away.
• Yang Ge took Little Yellow to the recruits' dining hall, ate the meat dishes, and demanded reports on martial practitioners entering Luting County.
• Yang Ge questioned the five Junior Banner Officers about when the Five Ghosts of Yan Yun entered the city and reached his home, then threw chicken soup over them.
• After Yang Ge left, Fang Ke ordered the recruits to investigate the Five Ghosts' route into the city or face disciplinary punishment.

After discovering his home had been ransacked, Yang Ge vented his anger by breaking through to the Qi Sea Realm using his unusual control over Inner Force. Fang Ke then told him the men responsible were at the Welcome Inn, and Yang Ge set out to confront them.

• Yang Ge found his courtyard and inner room ransacked, cursed in anger, and shut Little Yellow inside.
• Yang Ge used his Lesser Grandmaster Physique and precise Inner Force control to force open his Dantian and break through to the Qi Sea Realm.
• Yang Ge tested his new Inner Qi by striking the pool and rockery, then considered whether Wild Wind Leg had a Qi Sea Realm cultivation method.
• Fang Ke told Yang Ge that the two Northeastern Tigers were at the Welcome Inn.
• Yang Ge ordered Fang Ke to gather the brothers and weapons so they could confront the two men.

Yang Ge surrounded the Welcome Inn with the Embroidered Uniform Guard and challenged the men inside over their unlawful entry and assault. He began a duel with a gray-clad fighter, both intending to fight to the death.

• Yang Ge led the Embroidered Uniform Guard to the Welcome Inn and had Fang Ke demand that the criminals surrender.
• Yang Ge provoked the men inside, declared the inn a victim, and offered to either arrest them or settle their dispute in a fight.
• A gray-clad man emerged from the inn and challenged Yang Ge after recognizing his Wild Wind Leg.
• Yang Ge handed his saber to Fang Ke and cleared space for the duel while the guards aimed their crossbows at the gray-clad man.
• The gray-clad man attacked with a flurry of kicks, but Yang Ge countered with a whipping kick that forced him back.
• Yang Ge charged through the gray-clad man's leg shadows and vowed to fight to kill him.

Yang Ge and the gray-clad man fought an exhausting battle of leg techniques, each expecting to outlast the other. Yang Ge unleashed a dangerous killing move without building momentum, and the chapter ended with both men claiming they had caught the other as Yang Ge grabbed his opponent’s arm.

• Yang Ge and the gray-clad man traded rapid kicks, while Fang Ke ordered the Embroidered Uniform Guards to prepare reinforcements and keep the Banner Commander safe.
• The fighters continued using their strongest Wild Wind Leg techniques, draining their inner qi as each tried to endure longer than the other.
• Yang Ge launched Wind Sweeps Away the Clouds without building momentum, shocking the gray-clad man, who abandoned his attack and used Buxian Mountain Stance to block it.
• The gray-clad man caught Yang Ge’s kick on his crossed arms, but Yang Ge seized the man’s right arm and declared that he had caught him.

Yang Ge defeated the gray-clad man with his brute strength, then was swiftly beaten by the curly-bearded man. The curly-bearded man left Yang Ge a book and a message for someone at home before taking his injured brother and departing.

• Yang Ge overpowered the gray-clad man, broke his leg, and slammed him to the ground until he went limp.
• Fang Ke arrived with bailiffs and soldiers, surrounding the inn as Yang Ge and the curly-bearded man agreed to fight.
• The curly-bearded man struck Yang Ge down, leaving him badly injured and struggling to breathe.
• The curly-bearded man placed a thread-bound book on Yang Ge's chest and asked him to tell someone that he understood and would wait at home.
• Yang Ge told Fang Ke to let the brothers go, and the curly-bearded man carried off the gray-clad man while Fang Ke helped Yang Ge up.

Five days after the attack, Shen Fa visited Yang Ge and explained how the surviving Five Ghosts of Yan Yun had been driven from Lu Mountain and why Lei Heng and Liu Meng might have come after Jiang Kui. The visit ended with Yang Ge showing Shen Fa the martial arts manual Lei Heng had left him, the Eighteen Routes of Snowfall Palm.

• Shen Fa obeyed Yang Ge's warning signs and knocked instead of climbing over the wall, then asked about Yang Ge's injuries.
• Yang Ge demanded to know why Shen Fa had failed to prevent the trouble, and Shen Fa explained the Five Ghosts' history and the destruction of Lu Mountain.
• Shen Fa said the border army had swept through Lu Mountain again, possibly leading Liu Meng to believe Jiang Kui had used the brothers to earn merit.
• Yang Ge complained that he had been caught in the brothers' feud, while Shen Fa blamed his weak martial arts and Yang Ge mocked Shen Fa for remaining in the Qi Sea Realm.
• Yang Ge showed Shen Fa the manual Lei Heng had left him, titled Eighteen Routes of Snowfall Palm.

Shen Fa explained why Yang Ge should not bypass the hardships of martial training, arguing that the struggle itself tempered a martial artist. Yang Ge rejected the idea of seeking hardship and insisted on avoiding trouble, leaving the two arguing over whether to dodge or confront anyone who threatened him.

• After reading the Snowfall Palm manual, Shen Fa explained that Yang Ge's naturally open meridians might let him attempt advanced cultivation early, but warned that skipping the process could leave him untempered.
• Shen Fa compared slow martial training to forging a saber through repeated hammer blows and cautioned Yang Ge against trying to gain power without enduring hardship.
• Shen Fa advised Yang Ge that perseverance through setbacks mattered more than natural talent, and Yang Ge solemnly thanked him before saying he wanted no trials.
• Yang Ge said he would stay farther away from people in the martial world to protect himself, while Shen Fa argued that trouble might find him anyway.
• Yang Ge and Shen Fa quarreled over whether to avoid troublemakers or beat each one who caused trouble, ending with Shen Fa calling Yang Ge hopelessly foolish.

Yang Ge helped reopen the Welcome Inn while secretly receiving a warning that an enemy chief would pass through that night. He left to meet Fu Yu after ordering Fang Ke to investigate the city's soldiers and keep officials under surveillance.

• Shopkeeper Liu reopened the Welcome Inn, and Yang Ge served customers as Fang Ke and disguised Embroidered Uniform Guard enforcers arrived to show their support.
• Fang Ke discreetly passed Yang Ge a sealed message from Shen Fa warning that the enemy chief would pass through between the hours of the rooster and the dog, and Yang Ge burned the evidence.
• Wang Dali arrived with silver and demanded a meal, while Shopkeeper Liu mocked his apparent turn toward a crooked path.
• Yang Ge left the inn to check on Fu Yu, and Fang Ke followed him outside to ask what orders had come from home.
• Yang Ge told Fang Ke to investigate every soldier patrolling the city that night and place officials of every rank under surveillance until he heard further word.

Yang Ge refused to send his unit to support Shen Fa’s ambush, but responded when armed men attacked the county office and slaughtered its occupants. He led thirty guards into the compound, where the attackers launched an ambush.

• Yang Ge decided to keep his unit in Luting rather than join Shen Fa’s operation against the Tartar experts.
• A guard reported that armed men were killing people inside the county office, and Yang Ge ordered the town gates secured before heading there.
• Gu Tong told Yang Ge that masked attackers had slaughtered the county magistrate’s family and that three had escaped.
• Yang Ge ordered Gu Tong to maintain the cordon and led Fang Ke and thirty guards into the county office.
• As Yang Ge called on the attackers to surrender, one hurled a severed head at him and several others leaped from the eaves to attack.

Yang Ge captured the outlaws who had attacked him at the county offices, then confronted a one-eyed swordsman guarding a girl in a side room. The man killed himself after asking Yang Ge to protect her, leaving Yang Ge to face the consequences of his death.

• Yang Ge used Frost Slays a Hundred Grasses to defeat the attackers, and Fang Ke identified them as outlaws rather than death-sworn agents.
• Yang Ge ordered the guards to secure and search the county offices, concluding that the three who escaped were likely the leaders.
• Fang Ke advised Yang Ge that the escape of the leaders might not be a bad thing, and Yang Ge apologized for criticizing him.
• Yang Ge found a one-eyed man guarding a closed room and promised to protect the girl inside if she was innocent.
• The one-eyed man refused to surrender, said he deserved to die, and cut his own throat while telling Yang Ge to say he had acted alone.

Yang Ge investigated the magistrate’s residence after the raid and questioned a frightened servant girl who recognized the dead one-eyed man as Uncle Wang. He ordered her protected as the only witness and put the search for the escaped villains on hold until dawn.

• Fang Ke confirmed that the one-eyed man had died, and Yang Ge ordered the enforcers to keep searching the residence.
• Yang Ge entered the servants’ quarters and reassured a frightened girl who had just awakened.
• The girl identified the one-eyed man as Uncle Wang, a new stableman who had arrived shortly before the Mid-Autumn Festival.
• Yang Ge learned that the girl had once saved Uncle Wang two steamed buns because he had missed meals, and he reflected on the lives he had given to protect her.
• Yang Ge ordered Fang Ke to guard the girl and verify her identity with neighboring households.
• Fang Ke asked about the three escapees, but Yang Ge ordered him to restore order in the city first and wait until dawn to continue the investigation.

Yang Ge and Fang Ke discussed how to keep the Luting County murders from being pinned on the Embroidered Uniform Guard. Yang Ge ordered Fang Ke to pursue the escaped ringleader and link the county case to the ambush of the Tartar experts, leaving the Guard with the initiative.

• Fang Ke reported that seventy-six people in the county compound had been killed and that Geng Rong was among the dead.
• Fang Ke suggested blaming Geng Rong for consorting with bandits and issuing warrants for the escaped attackers to contain the scandal.
• Fang Ke warned Yang Ge that powerful officials could erase them if they pursued the truth, and revealed that his father, Fang Xiaotang, had died under suspicious circumstances.
• Yang Ge agreed they needed to protect themselves but refused to accept blame on behalf of the Embroidered Uniform Guard.
• Yang Ge ordered Fang Ke to take two squads through the west gate in pursuit of the escaped ringleader and connect the case to the ambush of the Tartar experts.

Yang Ge defended the girl in the county court against three black-clad attackers who demanded he hand her over. He quickly overwhelmed them, but after one bit him, his bottled-up anger erupted as he pursued the last man trying to crawl away.

• Yang Ge refused the attackers’ demand to surrender the girl and challenged them to fight.
• Three black-clad men attacked Yang Ge, who used a sandalwood desk to knock two of them aside and injure them.
• Yang Ge drew his saber and forced the remaining attacker to his knees, while another man grabbed and bit his waist.
• Yang Ge hurled the man clinging to him into the floor and broke both knees of the fallen attacker beneath him.
• Yang Ge saw the last man crawling toward the doors and strode after him, intent on punishing the attackers.

Yang Ge endured the aftermath of torturing three black-clad attackers until Shen Fa intervened and took charge. Shen Fa revealed he had let some jianghu experts escape as bait for a later operation in the Upper Capital, while Yang Ge rejected the prospect of a promotion and ran off.

• Shen Fa arrived at the county court hall and found Yang Ge standing over three tortured men in black.
• Shen Fa tried to take Yang Ge's knife, and one of the men in black begged to confess everything.
• Yang Ge insisted on learning why the attackers had targeted an innocent little girl, but Shen Fa struck one man unconscious before Yang Ge could act.
• Shen Fa ordered enforcers to take the three men away, and Yang Ge thanked him as his hostility began to fade.
• Shen Fa told Yang Ge he had released some Divine Land jianghu experts to serve as bait and expected the next clash to take place in the Upper Capital.
• Yang Ge rejected Shen Fa's suggestion of a promotion and ran away.

Yang Ge settled into life in Luting County while improving the Iron Fist Martial Hall and rigorously training the guardsmen under his command. As his cultivation and combat skills advanced, reports from the Upper Capital brought news of arrests, executions, and military changes.

• Yang Ge continued working at the Welcome Inn while Liu Mang gradually established the Iron Fist Martial Hall and gained a reputation in Luting County.
• Yang Ge began nightly lessons and practical drills to train his guardsmen in disguise, infiltration, investigation, and coordinated combat.
• The guardsmen improved through Yang Ge's demanding exercises, while repeated sparring helped him sharpen his own combat skills and steadily cultivate his inner qi.
• Shen Fa remained absent from Luting County as Yang Ge received reports that 107 martial fighters had been captured after storming the imperial prison and 36 more had been issued arrest warrants.
• The Xie Clan of Marquis Zhaowu was executed outside the Upper Capital's Vermilion Bird Gate, and the imperial troops of the Three Metropolitan Commands underwent a major redeployment.

Yang Ge served Jiang Kui copper-pot mutton and heard the truth about the brothers’ tragedy at Lu Mountain. Jiang Kui explained why the surviving brothers had parted ways, leaving Yang Ge with his grim understanding of their choices.

• Shopkeeper Liu warned Yang Ge that Jiang Kui had returned, and Yang Ge prepared mutton and wine to serve him.
• Jiang Kui thanked Yang Ge for helping his brothers and heard the messages Lei Heng and Liu Meng had left for him.
• Jiang Kui explained that Lei Heng and Liu Meng had spared Yang Ge after recognizing the Wild Wind Leg, their dead fourth brother’s signature skill.
• Jiang Kui recalled how ten or twenty thousand followers died at Lu Mountain while the Five Ghosts escaped, leaving him burdened by guilt and loss.
• Yang Ge asked why Jiang Kui had dissolved the brotherhood, and Jiang Kui said he had realized that escaping their old life required finding a different way to die.

Yang Ge visited the old man in the snowy countryside and shared a meal with him, while carrying the saber manual Shen Fa had left behind. The old man reminded Yang Ge that a year had passed and urged him to start making plans for himself.

• Yang Ge woke at Shopkeeper Liu’s inn, found Shen Fa’s copy of the Eighteen Routes Frost-Defying Saber, and learned Jiang Kui had left.
• Yang Ge took the day off to visit the old man, and Shopkeeper Liu offered him an ox cart for the snowy journey.
• Yang Ge brought mutton to the old man’s home, fetched fish, and cooked a fish-and-mutton stew for the old man and Little Yellow.
• The old man teased Yang Ge about finding a wife, and Yang Ge said he still hoped to repay him for saving his life.
• The old man noted that a year had passed and told Yang Ge it was time to make plans for himself.

As grain prices soared in Luting County, Yang Ge worried about the hardship facing ordinary people and shared some of his stored grain with Zhang Erniu. Fang Ke then brought Yang Ge silver from the three grain firms, leaving Yang Ge shocked to learn that the families driving the price hikes were paying him off.

• Yang Ge reflected on his uneven progress with the Wild Wind Leg, Snowfall Palm, and Frost-Defying Saber, whose training had produced a puzzlingly powerful strike.
• Zhang Erniu told Yang Ge that grain prices had risen again and that only the three major firms still had grain to sell.
• Yang Ge gave Zhang Erniu fifty jin of grain at the price he had paid for it.
• Yang Ge returned home, greeted his neighbor, and played with Little Yellow before Fang Ke arrived with his monthly pay.
• Yang Ge questioned the unexpectedly large sum Fang Ke brought and learned it came from the Wang, Li, and Zhao families, owners of Everlasting Peace, Abundant Prosperity, and Rich Harvest.

Yang Ge learned that powerful grain firms were using the court’s wartime stockpiling to drive up prices and enrich themselves, then rejected their silver tribute. He ordered messenger pigeons brought so he could act, and Fang Ke left to ride to the capital and report Yang Ge’s intentions to Lord Shen.

• Fang Ke told Yang Ge that three major grain firms were controlling grain shipments, stockpiling supplies, and paying off officials across several circuits.
• Fang Ke explained how merchants profited from shortages by selling grain at inflated prices and buying desperate people’s property cheaply, while powerful backers avoided punishment.
• Yang Ge realized his unit had received tribute money and ordered Fang Ke to return his share and bring him three messenger pigeons.
• Fang Ke warned Yang Ge that refusing the payoff could endanger the whole unit, but Yang Ge insisted he would not become an accomplice to actions that would leave people starving.
• Fang Ke swept the silver off the table and decided to ride to the capital overnight to report Yang Ge’s intentions to Lord Shen.

Yang Ge resolved to resist the cruelty behind rising grain prices, while Shen Fa learned of the grain merchants’ scheme and weighed how to report it without endangering Yang Ge. Shen Fa rewarded Yang Ge with a promotion, ordered Fang Ke to relay his instructions, and went to the palace to see the emperor.

• After Fang Ke left, Yang Ge reflected on the suffering caused by soaring grain prices and entered the Way with a stroke of his Frost-Defying Blade.
• Four days later, Fang Ke reported the grain merchants’ price manipulation and bribery of the Embroidered Uniform Guard to Shen Fa in Luoyang.
• Shen Fa recognized that the emperor had likely tacitly approved the scheme for the coming northern campaign, but promised to protect Yang Ge and handle the merchants himself.
• Shen Fa gave Fang Ke a Probationary Hundred-Household Commander token for Yang Ge and appointed Fang Ke as Road Pavilion’s Banner Commander.
• Shen Fa told Fang Ke to warn Yang Ge not to interfere further, promised him New Year’s provisions, and prepared to visit the emperor.

As grain prices soared in Luting County, Yang Ge and Shopkeeper Liu gave away the inn’s dwindling food to beggars and neighbors in need. The chapter left Yang Ge fearing that the poorest families would be the first to succumb, and that continued price hikes could threaten even the Liu family.

• Beggars crowded Luting County after barley prices passed a hundred copper coins per dou, and the Welcome Inn stopped receiving paying customers.
• Shopkeeper Liu gave beggars porridge and lent grain to neighbors, while Yang Ge realized the inn’s supplies and the grain he had brought from home were nearly gone.
• When Wang Dezhu asked to borrow ten jin of grain, Yang Ge admitted that the inn had run out and his own hundred jin had already been lent away.
• Shopkeeper Liu took Wang Dezhu home and lent his family three dou of grain, enough to last six people only until the end of the year.
• Yang Ge welcomed a starving mother and daughter into the inn and served them millet porridge as Shopkeeper Liu comforted the girl.
• Yang Ge worried that rising grain prices would break the poorest families first and might eventually endanger the Liu family as well.

Yang Ge disguised himself as Nine of Coins and confronted the Everlasting Peace Grain Company’s Road Pavilion steward, Ling Guan, demanding grain as payment for the company’s exploitative lending. He left with five carts of millet and warned Ling Guan to pass his challenge on to the Wang Family, revealing that he would also collect from the Abundant Prosperity and Rich Harvest companies.

• Yang Ge reviewed files on grain companies and Luting County, then warned Gu Tong that the Embroidered Uniform Guard served the sovereign rather than powerful nobles.
• Yang Ge disguised himself and entered the Everlasting Peace Grain Company’s Road Pavilion warehouse, where Ling Guan and his men confronted him.
• Yang Ge defeated Ling Guan in a brief sword exchange and calculated the grain owed from three months of interest on a five-hundred-tael pledge.
• Yang Ge demanded 3,808 jin, 8 liang, and 6 qian of millet every three days for three months, and Ling Guan ordered his men to load five carts.
• Yang Ge warned Ling Guan to relay his challenge to the Wang Family and said he would also collect grain from Abundant Prosperity and Rich Harvest.
• When Ling Guan asked his name, Yang Ge introduced himself as Zhang Mazi.

Yang Ge distributed millet porridge in Road Pavilion in exchange for firewood, using a show of strength to control the crowd and organizing townspeople to help. As county bailiffs were turned away and the people protected his anonymity, he stayed nearby to practice martial arts and wait for the Three Great Grain Houses to investigate.

• Yang Ge unloaded more than thirty-eight hundred jin of millet, sent the cart drivers away, and began cooking porridge in the market square.
• Hungry townspeople gathered, and Yang Ge posted rules requiring firewood in exchange for porridge while excluding the strong, wealthy, officials, and martial artists.
• When the crowd grew restless, Yang Ge split a thick tree stump with his Willow-Leaf Saber, then recruited poor, unhealthy women to cook.
• Road Pavilion residents formed a long queue, brought more pots, firewood, and water, and helped keep the porridge operation running.
• Townspeople blocked county bailiffs from reaching Yang Ge, while rumors spread that he was a masked hero who robbed the rich to help the poor.
• Yang Ge practiced the Drifting Snow Art nearby and waited for investigators from the Three Great Grain Houses.