Chapter Summaries

The Tang Family attacked the Four Seas Gang headquarters after Chen Dao and Liu Jing prepared to use their alliance to destroy them. The Tang Family’s overwhelming force wiped out most of the defenders, while Uncle Mo pressed Chen Dao in combat.

• Chen Dao and Liu Jing agreed that the Liu Family’s hidden fighters would help the Four Seas Gang defeat the Tang Family, and Chen Dao expected a share of the Tang Family’s holdings.
• A scout reported that Uncle Mo was approaching with twenty guards, so Chen Dao assembled more than a hundred fighters, including Liu Family men.
• Uncle Mo confronted Chen Dao at the headquarters and demanded an explanation for the Four Seas Gang’s attack on the Liu Family.
• Chen Dao discovered that more than a hundred Tang Family Guards had arrived in several groups, and Uncle Mo ordered the attack.
• Uncle Mo’s stronger cultivation forced Chen Dao to call for Liu Jing’s help as the Tang Family Guards overwhelmed the Four Seas Gang and Liu Family fighters.
• Within fifteen minutes, more than half the defenders had been killed, and the Tang Family Guards cut down the remaining Four Seas Gang members.

The Tang Family destroyed the Four Seas Gang, seized its wealth, and revealed a force of more than a hundred and thirty Yellow Tier experts. As the Mid-Autumn Gathering began, the Liu Family plotted to damage the Tang Family’s reputation or cripple Tang Yan, while two new rumors spread through Cloud City.

• Liu Jing fled the Four Seas Gang’s headquarters, and Chen Dao cursed the Liu Family before killing himself as Uncle Mo’s forces defeated the gang.
• Uncle Mo ordered the Tang Family Guards to collect the gang’s treasures, and Tang Yan promised each fighter an extra five hundred taels of silver.
• News of the Tang Family’s victory reassured its allies and alarmed the Liu Family, whose elders discussed avoiding a bloody conflict while targeting Tang Yan at the Mid-Autumn Gathering.
• Liu Wuhui proposed spreading rumors about the Tang Family’s younger generation if it skipped the gathering, or crippling Tang Yan if it attended.
• The Mid-Autumn Gathering began at Bright Moon Lake as the crowd waited to see what the four great families would do, and two rumors spread through Cloud City.

Old Master Tang brought the Tang Family to the Mid-Autumn Gathering, where the Wonderful Elixir Workshop’s choice to join them surprised the other families. After the City Lord arrived, Zhou Ying announced the literary competition’s rules and called participants to the platform.

• The Tang Family arrived at the gathering with Old Master Tang, Zi Yun, and Tang Yan, ending three years without all four great families attending together.
• Wu Xuan declined Liu Zhi’s invitation and led the Wonderful Elixir Workshop to sit with the Tang Family, prompting speculation about their relationship.
• Wu Xuan recognized Zi Yun as a member of Tingxiang’s foremost Zi family and wondered why she was with Tang Yan.
• The Heavenly Treasure Auction House arrived, followed by City Lord Lin Xiao, who had Zhou Ying explain the gathering’s rules.
• Zhou Ying announced a three-round literary competition for Cloud City residents aged thirty-five or under, and aspiring participants rushed to the platform.

Tang Yan joined Cloud City's Literary Contest after Zi Yun kicked him from his seat, surprising the crowd with his presence and a poetic line. The first round began with Tang Yan seated at the same table as Liu Hailian, and he ended the chapter by contributing a striking verse.

• Old Master Tang considered sending Tang Yan to represent the Tang Family, but Tang Yan showed no interest in the contest.
• Wu Xuan recited Tang Yan's love poem for Lin Dongxue, stirring Zi Yun's jealousy and prompting her to kick him off his chair.
• Tang Yan accepted the crowd's attention, defended the Tang Family's decision to compete, and stepped onto the literary stage.
• Zhou Ying announced the contest rules and divided the 130 contestants into groups for a chain-poetry round.
• Tang Yan sat at a table with Liu Hailian, traded insults with him, then surprised the contestants by supplying the line, “Cold dew dampened osmanthus blooms.”

Tang Yan astonished Cloud City by advancing through the first two rounds of the literary competition and winning the love-themed round with a lyric verse. He joined four other contestants in the third round, which began with a demanding length limit and a theme focused on Cloud City's young men.

• Tang Yan matched Liu Hailian's lines in the first round and advanced among the twenty remaining contestants.
• Lin Xiao set the second-round theme as love, while Tang Yan waited as other contestants presented their poems.
• Tang Yan recited a lyric verse about longing for a beloved, silencing the crowd and earning the City Lord's praise.
• Zhou Ying announced Tang Yan in first place, followed by Liu Hailian, Wu Jin, Liu Zhi, and Qin An, all advancing to the third round.
• Zhou Ying announced that the third-round works had to be at least one hundred characters long and focus on the young men of Cloud City.

Tang Yan won the literary competition with his fierce poem, “Man's Way,” and earned a Third-Grade Beast Core. As the Mid-Autumn Gathering’s martial competition began, the Liu Family plotted to cripple or kill him, while Old Master Tang warned him to avoid Liu Zhi.

• Tang Yan recited “Man's Way,” stunning the crowd and leaving Liu Zhi and the other contestants unable to respond.
• Liu Zhi and the other contestants left the stage, conceding the literary championship to Tang Yan.
• Tang Yan received the literary competition’s honors, silver, and a Third-Grade Beast Core.
• Liu Wuhui ordered the Liu Family to get Tang Yan into the martial competition and ensure his opponent showed no mercy.
• Old Master Tang warned Tang Yan about the Liu Family’s intentions and urged him to avoid facing Liu Zhi.
• The City Lord announced the start of the Mid-Autumn Gathering’s martial competition.

At the Mid-Autumn Gathering martial competition, Tang Yan and his grandfather Tang Ling bait the Liu Family into a wager and arrange for Tang Yan to face Liu Xing. The match begins with Cloud City expecting Tang Yan to lose quickly.

• Lin Xiao announced the martial competition rules and opened the qualifying round and challenges to the previous top eight.
• Liu Wuhui mocked the Tang Family, and Tang Ling and Tang Yan traded insults with the Liu Family until Lin Xiao stopped the quarrel.
• Liu He wagered three Third-Tier Beast Cores that Tang Yan would lose to a Liu Family yellow tier first grade fighter, and Tang Ling accepted after pretending to hesitate.
• Liu Wuhui asked Lin Xiao to allow Liu Xing and Tang Yan to spar, and Lin Xiao agreed under rules against deliberate injury.
• Liu He sent Liu Xing to fight and privately urged him not to let Tang Yan concede; after the crowd doubted Tang Yan, Lin Xiao started the match.

Tang Yan defeated Liu Xing, revealed that he had reached Yellow Tier Sixth Grade, and challenged the Liu Family’s standing in Cloud City. Liu Zhi then offered to concede if Tang Yan survived twenty moves against him, and Tang Yan considered the challenge.

• Tang Yan blocked Liu Xing’s spear strike, overwhelmed him with an enhanced Cloudflow Sword technique, and kicked him unconscious, injuring his dantian.
• Liu He treated Liu Xing and threatened Tang Yan, but Tang Yan demanded the three third-tier beast cores and returned to the Tang Family’s seats.
• Tang Yan declared that the Tang Family would not be bullied, then challenged Liu Changyu and revealed his strength had risen to Yellow Tier Sixth Grade.
• Liu Zhi stepped forward and offered to concede defeat if Tang Yan lasted twenty moves against him.
• Tang Yan calmly weighed the challenge and judged that he could fight even if Liu Zhi had reached Yellow Tier Ninth Grade.

Tang Yan fought Liu Zhi to demonstrate his strength and test his abilities, surviving the Yellow Tier Ninth Grade fighter’s full-power attack with his Heaven-Earth Creation Flame. After twenty moves, Tang Yan remained standing, while Lin Xiao’s warning glance stopped Liu Zhi from acting on his murderous intent.

• Tang Yan accepted Liu Zhi’s challenge, and Zi Yun reassured Old Master Tang that Tang Yan could handle the fight.
• Liu Zhi struck first and forced Tang Yan back, but Tang Yan dodged his next attack with Phantom Shadow Steps and countered with Cloudflow Sword.
• Tang Yan and Liu Zhi exchanged nineteen moves, with Tang Yan’s evasive footwork and attacks on Liu Zhi’s openings keeping him in the fight.
• Liu Zhi revealed his Yellow Tier Ninth Grade strength and launched a full-power spear thrust at Tang Yan.
• Tang Yan unleashed the Heaven-Earth Creation Flame and withstood Liu Zhi’s strike, then pointed out that twenty moves had passed.
• Liu Zhi felt murderous toward Tang Yan, but Lin Xiao’s warning glance made him back down.

After Tang Yan's clash with Liu Zhi, Tang Ling revealed the history of Tang Yan's parents and the family's flight to Cloud City. He then gave Tang Yan a powerful martial technique left by his mother, and Tang Yan studied it with growing interest.

• Tang Yan left the Mid-Autumn Gathering after his battle with Liu Zhi and cultivated through the night.
• Tang Ling summoned Tang Yan to the ancestral hall and told him that his mother came from a powerful, mysterious family and had been taken away after her marriage to Tang Yan's father.
• Tang Ling revealed that Tang Yan's father had left to search for his mother and that the Tang Family had fled the Northern Spirit Realm to hide in Cloud City.
• Tang Ling opened a secret chamber and gave Tang Yan the jade slip containing the Flame Burst Palm technique left by his mother.
• Tang Yan studied the technique's three forms, while Tang Ling asked whether he had understood it.

Tang Yan deciphered and learned the first move of the Flame Burst Palm, but its enormous cost in true qi left him unconscious. After recovering and training for three days, he met Ge Ming at the Tang Family home and learned that he owed the Wonderful Elixir Workshop 3.3 million taels of silver, shocking Old Master Tang.

• Tang Yan studied the Flame Burst Palm and realized its first move required making space vibrate through the release of true qi.
• After many failed attempts, Tang Yan broke a thick tree with the palm strike, exhausted his true qi, and collapsed.
• Guards brought Tang Yan back to his room, where he recovered and doubled Xiao Cui's monthly wages.
• Tang Yan spent three days training and then went to meet Ge Ming, who had come to settle the Tang Family's account.
• Ge Ming revealed that the Tang Family owed the Wonderful Elixir Workshop 3.3 million taels of silver, and Old Master Tang demanded to know what Tang Yan had bought.

The Tang Family received its first monthly payment from the Wonderful Elixir Workshop for Meridian Tempering Powder, and Old Master Tang urged Tang Yan to focus on cultivation and attend an auction. Tang Yan and Zi Yun arrived at the Heavenly Treasure Auction House, where all four great lineages of Cloud City had gathered.

• Ge Ming delivered the Tang Family 3.3 million taels of silver and said its monthly earnings from Meridian Tempering Powder would rise to at least five million taels.
• Tang Yan told Old Master Tang that his master had supplied the pill formula and that a jade-slip cultivation method required Profound Tier strength to use effectively.
• Old Master Tang gave Tang Yan the money and suggested he attend the Heavenly Treasure auction that night.
• Tang Yan and Zi Yun headed to the auction, and Zi Yun said she expected to reach Earth Tier in two days and might soon leave Cloud City.
• Tang Yan teased Zi Yun about living at the Tang Family home, and she kicked him as they continued to the auction house.
• Tang Yan and Zi Yun took the Tang Family seats at the packed auction, where Tang Yan saw all four great lineages and resolved to outbid them.

Tang Yan recognized a Three-Leaf Blood-Activating Herb as a valuable Spirit-Refining Herb and bought it for fifty thousand taels, then acquired three more spirit herbs during the auction. The auction’s final item, the incomplete yellow tier middle grade Thousand Mountains Fist, drew intense interest as bidding began.

• Xie Zhang opened the auction and presented a Three-Leaf Blood-Activating Herb, which Tang Yan recognized as a herb that could temper mental power.
• Tang Yan bid fifty thousand taels for the herb, startling the crowd and prompting Zi Yun to question his spending.
• Tang Yan bought three more spirit herbs as the auction continued, while Zi Yun made no bids.
• Xie Zhang introduced the incomplete Thousand Mountains Fist, explained that its first two punches could be practiced, and announced that it was yellow tier middle grade.
• Bidding for the Thousand Mountains Fist began at one hundred thousand taels, and the first bidder offered two hundred thousand.

Tang Yan provoked Qin He into bidding two million taels for a martial technique, then stopped when he saw Qin He could not afford it. Xie Zhang demanded payment or compensation from the Qin Family, leaving Qin He unable to pay on the spot.

• The Wu and Qin Families competed for a martial technique until Tang Yan repeatedly outbid Qin He by a thousand taels.
• Qin He accused Tang Yan of bidding without enough money, but Xie Zhang defended the auction’s rules and continued the bidding.
• Tang Yan kept raising the price until Qin He bid two million taels, then revealed he had only brought three thousand taels and let Qin He win.
• Qin He admitted that the Qin Family could not produce the money and argued that Tang Yan had also violated the rules.
• Xie Zhang rejected Qin He’s request for one day to pay and demanded five hundred thousand taels in compensation if he could not pay.

Tang Yan paid for the Thousand Mountains Fist scroll and escaped Zi Yun’s pursuit only to be beaten when she caught up with him. Back at the Tang Family, he studied the technique, realized its forms might connect into a chain of punches, and began testing a third punch.

• The Qin Family paid Heavenly Treasure Auction House five hundred thousand taels, and Tang Yan produced enough banknotes to pay for the Thousand Mountains Fist scroll.
• Tang Yan left the auction house with Zi Yun following him, then fled when she tried to kick him; she caught up and beat him before they reached the Tang Family.
• Tang Yan took a healing pill and studied the Thousand Mountains Fist, noticing that its second form built on the first and might lead to further punches.
• Tang Yan went into the courtyard and practiced the first two forms in succession before launching a third punch.

Tang Yan mastered the Thousand Mountains Fist by repeatedly practicing its opening moves until he discovered that the complete technique allowed him to chain increasingly powerful punches. After refining four third-tier beast cores in the Heaven-Earth Creation Cauldron, he broke through to Yellow Tier Seventh Grade and strengthened his flame, though the cost of beast cores limited how often he could use them.

• Tang Yan practiced the first two moves of the Thousand Mountains Fist repeatedly, and after three days he extended the technique with a third punch more powerful than the first two combined.
• After two more days of practice, Tang Yan added a fourth punch, then explained to Zi Yun that the complete technique could continue as long as the practitioner had the strength to keep punching.
• Zi Yun realized the technique was not an incomplete fragment and warned Tang Yan to keep it secret because it could attract covetous attention.
• Xiao Cui delivered Tang Yan a wooden box containing four third-tier beast cores, which he placed inside the Heaven-Earth Creation Cauldron.
• The cauldron refined the beast cores into spiritual liquid and energy, growing the Spirit Whirlpool Fruit seedling and helping Tang Yan cultivate to Yellow Tier Seventh Grade while strengthening his flame.
• Tang Yan concluded that spiritual treasures could nourish the cauldron and aid his cultivation, but he dismissed relying on beast cores because they were too expensive.

Tang Yan decided to temper himself in Cangyun Mountain and prepared to leave before the Eastern Region Tournament. After gaining Old Master Tang's permission and packing pills and poisons, he stepped out of the Pill Room and found Zi Yun waiting outside.

• Tang Yan considered the Tang Family's vulnerability and decided to train in Cangyun Mountain to strengthen himself.
• Old Master Tang told Tang Yan about the Eastern Region Tournament and its three places for Cloud City, including a chance to qualify for the Azure Dragon Academy.
• Tang Yan agreed to compete and told Old Master Tang he planned to train in Cangyun Mountain for two months, relying on his fictitious master to scout the routes.
• Tang Ling approved Tang Yan's plan, and Tang Yan said he would leave that night to avoid watchful eyes.
• Tang Yan prepared Hemostasis Pills, Poison-Expelling Pills, High Spirit Pills, Meridian Tempering Pills, and poisons, then found Zi Yun waiting outside the Pill Room.

Tang Yan said farewell to Zi Yun and the Tang Family before heading to Cangyun Mountain to train. On his first night in the mountains, a huge wolf pack trapped him in a tree, and he discovered that one of the wolves was a second-tier spirit beast.

• Tang Yan gave Zi Yun thirty Qi-Restoring Pills, and she gave him a Purple Bamboo Token before leaving for Purple Bamboo City.
• Tang Yan promised to meet Zi Yun at the Azure Dragon Academy, then distributed pills to his grandfather, Uncle Mo, and Mo Yanjun before leaving the Tang Family estate.
• Tang Yan slipped out of Cloud City and traveled toward Cangyun Mountain, where he rested in a tree after finding no spirit beasts.
• A pack of hundreds of wolves surrounded Tang Yan's tree and formed a wolf ladder to reach him.
• Tang Yan knocked away several wolves, then struck a larger gray-black wolf with Thousand Mountains Fist and realized it was a second-tier spirit beast.

Tang Yan fought the wolf pack until his injuries and exhaustion forced him to flee, but the battle sharpened his close-combat skills. After recovering overnight, he discovered a powerful waterfall and decided it would be an ideal place to train.

• Tang Yan was wounded while battling waves of wolves, then escaped the pack using Phantom Shadow Steps as the silver-coated wolf king howled after him.
• Tang Yan outran the pursuing wolves, treated his wounds beside a river, and resolved to keep training against the pack to improve his fighting.
• Tang Yan recovered overnight, caught and roasted a rabbit, then followed the sound of rushing water.
• Tang Yan found a towering waterfall and recognized its force as an ideal resource for his training.

Tang Yan trained beneath a waterfall and fought the wolf pack until he advanced to yellow tier eighth grade and mastered the pack’s attack pattern. After half a month of practicing the Thousand Mountains Fist under the waterfall, he began a breakthrough and unleashed a powerful fifth punch.

• Tang Yan endured the waterfall’s pressure and repeatedly trained there, growing stronger as he fought the wolves at night.
• Over seven days, Tang Yan advanced from yellow tier seventh grade to yellow tier eighth grade and began practicing the Thousand Mountains Fist beneath the waterfall.
• Tang Yan learned the Wolf King’s tactics and weakened the pack through repeated battles, deciding that further fights would only be worthwhile if the Wolf King joined in.
• Tang Yan spent half a month trying to land the fifth punch beneath the waterfall, then felt his dantian fill with true qi after throwing the fourth punch.
• Tang Yan shouted and swung his fist, unleashing a formidable surge of force beneath the waterfall.