Chapter Summaries

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.

Fang Ke returned to Road Pavilion with news of Yang Ge’s promotion and the court’s reluctance to act against the grain merchants, while quietly arranging resistance to the Wang Family. Yang Ge remained distressed over the hungry poor, and Fang Ke remembered that Yang Ge had once endured cold and hunger himself.

• Fang Ke saw Yang Ge handing out porridge at the vegetable market, then went to the Embroidered Uniform Guard station and learned the Wang Family had asked them to arrest grain-house robbers.
• Fang Ke told Gu Tong that Yang Ge would become a Probationary Hundred-Household Commander and hinted that they should curb the Wang Family’s influence without disturbing Yang Ge.
• Gu Tong gathered the brothers to visit the County Yamen after Fang Ke left to see Yang Ge.
• Fang Ke gave Yang Ge his new token and described his meeting with Shen Fa, leaving out how difficult the higher-ups thought it would be to stop the grain merchants.
• Yang Ge condemned the famine as a man-made calamity and lamented how hard it was for people to endure both cold and hunger.
• Fang Ke recalled that Yang Ge had once survived for days in the snow with thin, ragged clothes.

Yang Ge practiced his saber before defeating Yu Gang at the Abundant Prosperity Grain House and claiming eight thousand jin of millet for the people of Luting County. As he led the grain toward the market, he realized he could use his position in the Embroidered Uniform Guard to protect the county and take charge of the fight against the Three Great Grain Houses.

• Yang Ge completed three thousand saber swings, then left home in disguise while a woman in the neighboring courtyard asked Uncle Wu to follow and help him if needed.
• Yang Ge arrived at the Abundant Prosperity Grain House and challenged Yu Gang, who offered two thousand jin of millet if Yang Ge would spare him.
• Yang Ge broke Yu Gang's shin in their duel and forced him to provide eight thousand jin of millet.
• Yang Ge led the grain carts toward the vegetable market, where the equipment and cooks were ready for another porridge distribution.
• Yang Ge considered using his Embroidered Uniform Guard authority to protect Luting County and prevent the Three Great Grain Houses from interfering.

Yang Ge accepted the Three Great Grain Houses’ offer to hire the Embroidered Uniform Guard to keep Zhang Mazi occupied, then planned to use the payment to fund a final raid on their granaries. He left Fang Ke with a scheme to keep officials and the merchants’ guards away while Yang Ge and the common people seized the grain.

• Fang Ke brought Yang Ge a note for three thousand taels from the Three Great Grain Houses, who wanted the Embroidered Uniform Guard to keep Zhang Mazi busy for three days.
• Yang Ge explained that the grain merchants would target him regardless and proposed one last major job: taking grain from all three houses in Road Pavilion.
• Yang Ge told Fang Ke to demand six thousand taels and make the merchants believe they were begging the Embroidered Uniform Guard for help.
• Yang Ge planned to raid the Zhao Family of Rich Harvest’s granary that night, with Fang Ke disguised as him and staging a clash before withdrawing.
• Yang Ge instructed Fang Ke to gather the brothers, constables, and County Soldiers away from the granaries, then arrest him after the townspeople seized the grain.
• Yang Ge ordered Fang Ke to misdirect searches, lock down the town, detain the merchants’ household guards, and demand payment for their release.

Yang Ge planned to rally Luting's people to seize grain, then went to Rich Harvest Granary and fought Fang Ke's staged Embroidered Uniform Guard ambush. He drove the guards off and began calling the people to take the grain, leaving the granary raid underway.

• Yang Ge reasoned that his porridge handouts and reputation as Zhang Mazi would help gather Luting's people and prepare them to seize the Three Great Grain Merchants' grain.
• Yang Ge arrived at Rich Harvest Granary, where Zhao Yonggui offered him prepared millet and wine while secretly summoning Fang Ke and the Embroidered Uniform Guard.
• Fang Ke led the guards in surrounding Yang Ge, who challenged their service to the wealthy merchants and fought Fang Ke while holding the others back.
• Yang Ge broke Fang Ke's Ox-Tail Saber, and Fang Ke feigned defeat and retreated with the enforcers while Zhao Yonggui and the Zhao Family disappeared.
• Yang Ge summoned the people by shouting that there was a fire, then urged them to open the granary and save the people.

Yang Ge, posing as Zhang Mazi, opened the Rich Harvest and Everlasting Peace granaries so Luting County’s starving residents could take grain. After warning Ling Guan to keep the Wang Family from retaliating, he left to open the Abundant Prosperity Rice Shop.

• Yang Ge opened Rich Harvest’s granary and urged the hesitant residents to take grain for themselves and their neighbors.
• A starving man became the first resident to enter, and the crowd followed, carrying grain and spreading the call to open the granaries across Luting County.
• Yang Ge led residents to the Everlasting Peace granary and broke its gates open with his saber.
• Yang Ge told Ling Guan to keep the Wang Family from harming the people, warning that he would hold the family responsible and could destroy them if pushed.
• After the crowd took more than half the grain, Yang Ge led some residents toward the Abundant Prosperity Rice Shop.

Yang Ge discovered that the Abundant Prosperity Rice Shop had burned its grain to deprive Road Pavilion’s people of food, and he resolved to retaliate against the Li Family. He ordered Fang Ke to build a case tying the family to Zhang Mazi and the riot, while Gu Tong was assigned to restore order.

• Yang Ge saw the Abundant Prosperity Granary ablaze and concluded that the Abundant Prosperity Rice Shop had burned its grain to stop the people from seizing it.
• Yang Ge returned to Gong and Drum Lane, where Fang Ke reported that the County Yamen and the Three Great Grain Merchants were demanding action against Zhang Mazi.
• Yang Ge gave Fang Ke the Nine of Diamonds mask and ordered him to arrest the Li Family members in Luting County and find Yu Gang, the family guards’ leader.
• Yang Ge instructed Fang Ke to link Yu Gang to Zhang Mazi and establish the Li Family as organizers of the riot, while making the Three Great Grain Merchants suspect one another.
• Yang Ge told Fang Ke to focus on the Li Family and assigned Gu Tong to restore order.

After reading about Zhang Mazi’s actions in Luting County, Shen Fa regained the resolve he had lost and decided to strike at the officials backing the Three Great Grain Merchants. He ordered their arrests and hurried to bring the case before the emperor and Imperial Court.

• Shen Fa read the dispatch about Zhang Mazi and reflected on how his own failed campaign and years in the Embroidered Uniform Guard had worn down his courage.
• Shen Fa concluded that even limited actions could help the people and resolved to act against the Three Great Grain Merchants’ corrupt allies.
• Shen Fa ordered Feng Sheng and Duan Lin to arrest Sun Zhaoming, Liu Yuquan, Wu Youzhang, and the other implicated Ministry of Revenue officials and confine them in the Imperial Prison.
• Shen Fa set out to present the case to the emperor, intending to blame the Luting County riots on the Li Family of Abundant Prosperity and pressure the corrupt officials.

Yang Ge trained his guards and received the Floating Shadow Blade from the Li Family, whose men were trying to influence an unresolved case. After refusing to alter the investigation, he went to test the new saber with Fang Ke.

• Yang Ge drilled two teams of guards in coordinated attacks and corrected their shield and crossbow tactics.
• Fang Ke arrived with a sandalwood box containing a tribute from the Li Family, while Gu Tong worried that the prisoners had gone hungry for four days.
• Yang Ge drove his staff into a wall near Gu Tong and called him over to loosen his muscles, but Fang Ke interrupted with a report.
• Yang Ge examined the Floating Shadow Blade and asked who had come to plead for the prisoners.
• Fang Ke said Pei Yu, a Banner Commander of the Southern Pacification Office, had introduced himself on the Li Family's behalf, and that the family had invited him to drink at Spring Splendor House.
• Yang Ge reminded Fang Ke not to help the Li Family and then invited him outside to test the blade.

Yang Ge spent a peaceful New Year holiday cooking and hosting Fang Ke, while the unresolved Luting County affair remained untouched. His meal was interrupted by a visit from his neighbor Yunzhi’s brother, Wang Dashi, whose arrival left Fang Ke visibly shaken and prompted Yang Ge to consider investigating the family next door.

• Yang Ge accepted that the court might punish him for the Luting County affair and welcomed the New Year in his own home.
• Fang Ke visited Yang Ge with gifts and chickens from his father, and Yang Ge served him glutinous rice balls.
• Wang Dashi arrived with pastries, introduced himself as Yunzhi’s elder brother, and entered Yang Ge’s courtyard despite Fang Ke’s alarm.
• Wang Dashi chatted with Yang Ge before leaving when Yunzhi called him home for a meal.
• Yang Ge questioned Fang Ke about his reaction, then said they should look into the peculiar family next door.

Wang Dashi tried to comfort his younger sister by explaining the Xie Family’s crimes and sacrifices, insisting that they had not betrayed their country. He also defended Yang Ge as a possible husband for her, but she remained silent and grief-stricken.

• Wang Dashi crossed into the neighboring courtyard and told his younger sister that Yang Ge lacked ambition but could still be a suitable husband for her.
• Wang Dashi rejected his sister’s accusation that the Xie Family had betrayed the country, explaining that his relatives had acted to protect their family amid the court’s struggles for power.
• Wang Dashi showed his sister the scars from years of fighting alongside their family and said the Xie Family had done wrong but had also fulfilled its duty to the frontier.
• Wang Dashi told his sister that the family owed its debt to the frontier soldiers, not the Zhao Family, and promised to keep repaying it.
• Wang Dashi said Yang Ge’s character was decent and warned that the Huainan Li Family’s bounty on Zhang Mazi could bring trouble, but his sister did not respond.