Recaps

Zeng Mu and Yenaier bribed their way into the Spring Peach House’s sleeping quarters and saw the miserable conditions where Dieyi lived. They arranged to meet her that evening, then spent the afternoon investigating Ying Zheng’s recent activities as night approached.

• Zeng Mu paid the attendant to take him and Yenaier to the sleeping quarters, and the attendant described how the brothel’s women were classified and housed.
• Zeng Mu and Yenaier saw the overcrowded, filthy quarters and found the exhausted Dieyi lying on an upper bunk.
• The attendant identified the girl as Dieyi and estimated that she was about nineteen.
• Zeng Mu and Yenaier paid the madam to ensure Dieyi would not serve anyone else that night and that they could meet her privately.
• Zeng Mu and Yenaier left the brothel and spent the afternoon gathering news about Ying Zheng before the brothel opened at seven in the evening.

Zeng Mu and Yenaier found Dieyi after she tried to hang herself in the Spring Peach House, rescued her, and promised to buy her freedom. They left her in an attendant’s care and headed downstairs, where Zhou Xiao Jia was forcing a merchant to drink while his daughter begged him to stop.

• Zeng Mu and Yenaier reached the Spring Peach House’s fifth floor and found Dieyi hanging from a ceiling beam.
• Zeng Mu cut Dieyi down, and Yenaier revived her with elemental power and an awakening spirit herb pill.
• Dieyi told them she wished they had let her die, and they found her covered in injuries from abuse.
• Zeng Mu and Yenaier promised to buy Dieyi’s freedom, then left her with the attendant while they went downstairs.
• Zeng Mu warned the attendant not to move Dieyi, and his display of thunder power frightened the man.
• Zhou Xiao Jia forced a tobacco merchant to drink Fierce Horse Liquor while the merchant’s daughter pleaded for him to stop.

Zhou Xiao Jia tortured a merchant and his daughter until Yenaier and Zeng Mu intervened. After Zeng Mu attacked Zhou Xiao Jia, Yenaier began fighting the Zhou Family’s men as the fourth floor became a battlefield.

• Zhou Xiao Jia forced the merchant to drink wine and threatened his daughter, tearing away much of her clothing as the guests watched.
• Purple light flashed through the building, and Zeng Mu struck Zhou Xiao Jia twice, sending him crashing into a table and then into a wall.
• Zhou Xiao Jia ordered his servants and armed thugs to kill Zeng Mu and Yenaier, and they surrounded the pair.
• Two servants rushed Yenaier, but she dodged their punches, kicked them down, and struck them with lethal force.

Yenaier and Zeng Mu killed Zhou Xiao Jia and took Miss Dieyi from the brothel, prompting the Zhou Family to lock down Guan City and search for them. Unaware of the manhunt, the five companions openly headed toward the heavily guarded south gate.

• Yenaier swiftly crippled the brothel’s servants and thugs while Zeng Mu shattered the guards’ blades with his fingers.
• Zeng Mu confronted Zhou Xiao Jia about the women he had violated and crushed his jaw, killing him.
• Zeng Mu and Yenaier returned upstairs, took Miss Dieyi, and left the brothel in less than five minutes.
• The Zhou Residence learned of Zhou Xiao Jia’s death, and Guan City closed its gates as soldiers searched for the killers and the girl.
• Zeng Mu and his companions wore bamboo hats and walked through the city toward the south gate, where onlookers recognized Miss Dieyi and saw the large force of guards ahead.

Zeng Mu, Pitman, Yenaier, and Okelo fought their way through the South City Gate and escaped by river with Dieyi. After parting from her, they used their elemental powers to speed their boat toward Big Bird City, reaching it before dawn.

• Zeng Mu, Pitman, Yenaier, and Okelo attacked the soldiers guarding the South City Gate, using arrows, living trees, lightning, and blue light to defeat their enemies and witnesses.
• The group killed three men who ran toward them, rented a boat, and traveled downriver with Dieyi.
• At dawn, the four parted ways with Dieyi, giving her clothes, a hat, advice, and five hundred taels of gold as she set off alone.
• The group continued by boat, and when strong winds arose, Pitman steadied the vessel while Zeng Mu used an Elemental Artifact to speed it onward.
• Zeng Mu, Pitman, Yenaier, and Okelo reached Big Bird City before dawn.

Zeng Mu and his companions heard Big Bird City’s legend of a divine bird and learned that Okelo had seen the same bird five years earlier in the Somme Territory. Zeng Mu realized the rare beast could be the prey the King of Qin would hunt when he left the palace.

• Pitman recovered from seasickness after reaching Big Bird City and asked his companions to buy him candied hawthorn.
• At a candy shop, the shopkeeper told the group how a divine bird’s appearance brought vast flocks of birds to Little Bird Village, which grew into Big Bird City.
• Okelo said she had seen the golden-winged bird and its flock in the Somme Territory five years earlier.
• Okelo identified the bird as a Superior Grade Three-Element Beast.
• Zeng Mu said the beast was exactly the prey the King of Qin would hunt when he left the palace, and declared they could kill two birds with one stone.

Ying Zheng and his guards planned to capture a Divine Bird, using its flight pattern and local legends to predict where it would roost. Meanwhile, four travelers headed into the Big Bird Mountains to find him, and both groups spotted the golden bird at dusk.

• Ying Zheng told Qin Zhongyi and Qin Mu that capturing the Divine Bird would help him grow stronger and prepare to face Malena and Orphdo.
• Qin Zhongyi mapped the bird's regular flight route, and Qin Mu predicted it would roost in the Water-Curtain Cave behind a waterfall during the dark moon.
• After investigating a disguised hunting party in Big Bird City, the four travelers concluded that Ying Zheng and his subordinates were in the mountains.
• The four crossed the river and reed beds into the Big Bird Mountains, where a golden streak suddenly flew between mountaintops at dusk.

Ying Zheng and his men pursued the Divine Bird into the mountains while Zeng Mu, Pitman, and Yenaier hid nearby to observe them. After Zeng Mu discovered Ying Zheng was a Return to Truth Realm Elementalist, he approached the party under Okelo’s concealment and pretended to be an ordinary traveler.

• Yenaier, Okelo, Pitman, and Zeng Mu spotted the Divine Bird’s golden streak and hurried toward where it had vanished, hoping to find Ying Zheng.
• Ying Zheng and his men saw the same streak, identified the Divine Bird, and silently advanced toward its suspected landing place.
• Pitman, Zeng Mu, and Yenaier reached the waterfall area and hid in the trees while Okelo concealed herself and warned them she would not intervene unless their lives were at risk.
• Ying Zheng arrived with Qin Zhongyi, Qin Mu, and fifty guards; Zeng Mu used Pitman’s White Pearl to identify Ying Zheng as a Return to Truth Realm Elementalist.
• Zeng Mu approached the party with Okelo’s concealment, then let his presence become noticeable and begged Qin Zhongyi for mercy when he challenged him.

Zeng Mu talked his way into Ying Zheng’s hunting party, which searched Flower-Fruit Mountain for a Superior-Grade Elemental Beast but found no trace of it behind the waterfall. As the group prepared to search the mountain, Qin Zhongyi grew suspicious of Zeng Mu’s story and began questioning him.

• Zeng Mu claimed a black leopard had driven him from his hunting camp, and Qin Zhongyi initially let him go before ordering him to remain with the party until the hunt ended.
• Ying Zheng led the troops to the waterfall and passed through it to investigate, but found nothing behind it and no sign of the flying beast.
• Ying Zheng said he could sense the creature somewhere within half a kilometer, so Qin Mu sent the fifty soldiers to search the mountain.
• Qin Zhongyi’s heightened awareness made him suspect that Zeng Mu had appeared too conveniently, and he questioned him about the weapons he and his father had taken hunting.

Ying Zheng and Qin Mu and Qin Zhongyi battled the superior grade three-element flying bird at the waterfall while Zeng Mu watched and Yenaier and Pitman waited in hiding. As the bird’s charge met Ying Zheng’s attack, Ying Zheng revealed the Sixfold Wheel, leaving the fight unresolved.

• Qin Zhongyi questioned Zeng Mu about his family until Qin Mu told him to stop.
• A divine bird swooped down from the mountaintop, and Ying Zheng attacked it with a golden wheel.
• Qin Mu and Qin Zhongyi joined Ying Zheng, using elemental materialization to empower their weapons and attacks.
• The bird turned its feathers fiery red and fired volleys of elemental feathers, but Ying Zheng blocked them with a golden shield.
• Ying Zheng, Qin Mu, and Qin Zhongyi launched a coordinated assault, while Yenaier and Pitman waited for the fighters to exhaust themselves.
• The bird’s crystal defense resisted their attacks, and Ying Zheng answered its charge by bringing out the Sixfold Wheel.

Ying Zheng used the Sixfold Wheel to weaken the Divine Bird and defeat it, leaving it wounded in the lake. Before he could finish it off, a masked man calling himself the Beast Claw Collector arrived and demanded the bird’s claws.

• Ying Zheng summoned the Sixfold Wheel, which weakened the Divine Bird’s senses and restored his energy.
• Ying Zheng, Qin Zhongyi, and Qin Mu relentlessly attacked the Divine Bird until Ying Zheng knocked it off the cliff into the lake.
• Ying Zheng descended to the lake and prepared to kill the wounded bird while Qin Zhongyi and Qin Mu approached to support him.
• A man in a bark mask landed before them and claimed he had wanted the Divine Bird first.
• Qin Mu attacked the intruder with rising stone pillars, but the man evaded them and introduced himself as the Beast Claw Collector, saying he only wanted the bird’s claws.

Romendi stole the fallen Divine Bird’s talons from Ying Zheng, who finished the hunt and refused to break the old pact by invading the Northern Forest. When Ying Zheng’s men threatened Zeng Mu for overhearing their secret, Zeng Mu revealed that his supposed assassination had never been meant to kill the king and offered to discuss hidden dangers in private; Ying Zheng ordered him taken back alive.

• Romendi broke through Ying Zheng’s defense, took the Divine Bird’s talons, and escaped despite Ying Zheng’s pursuit.
• Ying Zheng killed the wounded Divine Bird and stored its body, then rejected Qin Mu and Qin Zhongyi’s calls to attack the Elf Race while the continent remained unstable.
• Ying Zheng ordered Qin Zhongyi to cripple Zeng Mu so he could not reveal what he had heard, but Zeng Mu declared that the assassination had been doomed to fail.
• Zeng Mu appeared behind Ying Zheng and explained that he served the Holy Temple and could not kill the king before his great undertaking was complete.
• Zeng Mu said he had followed Ying Zheng to help eliminate hidden dangers, and Ying Zheng ordered his men to take Zeng Mu back alive.

Ying Zheng returned to the Qin palace while Zeng Mu was escorted toward the capital as a prisoner. Near Jade City, the guards found Miss Dieyi drowned, and Zeng Mu buried her beneath a ginkgo tree.

• Okelo stopped Yenaier from attacking Ying Zheng, and Pitman explained that their group could not defeat him or violate the Elf Race's pact.
• Okelo knocked Yenaier unconscious and followed the guards escorting Zeng Mu, while Pitman carried Yenaier away.
• Ying Zheng reached the palace and shut himself away to refine the Divine Bird's elemental power as Zeng Mu's escort continued toward the capital.
• Near Jade City, the guards found a woman's corpse floating in a lake, and Zeng Mu recognized her as Miss Dieyi.
• Qin Mu allowed Zeng Mu to bury Miss Dieyi, and Zeng Mu laid her beneath a ginkgo tree with a leaf on her chest and quartzite for a headstone.

After Dieyi drowned herself, Qin Mu learned that his nephew Zhou Xiao Jia had died and blamed Zeng Mu, beating him before ordering him imprisoned. Zeng Mu arrived at the Great Qin Prison determined to speak only with Ying Zheng.

• Zeng Mu said farewell to Dieyi’s grave as Qin Mu’s party left the lake, and the narration recounted how Dieyi had drowned herself.
• Qin Mu suggested that Zeng Mu could become a counterspy, but a messenger named Xiao Xiaoxiao arrived with a letter for him.
• After reading the letter about Zhou Xiao Jia, Qin Mu attacked Zeng Mu in fury and had to be restrained by his soldiers.
• Qin Mu ordered Zeng Mu taken to the Great Qin Prison, where prisoners recognized his black uniform as a sign that he would certainly die.
• The jail warden locked Zeng Mu in the Sixth Prison Zone, and Zeng Mu said he would speak only to Ying Zheng.

Zeng Mu endured the freezing Qin Kingdom underground prison while waiting for Ying Zheng to finish refining elemental energy. After two days of sleep, he broke Ying Zheng’s seal, freed himself from his restraints, and restored the Phantom Spirit Beast Hide to its bruised disguise.

• Zeng Mu reflected on the brutal conditions of the Third Level and waited for Ying Zheng to finish refining elemental energy so he could be released.
• Three guards brought Zeng Mu a meager meal, but he refused it and gave the bowl to the prisoner in the neighboring cell.
• Zeng Mu slept for two days and two nights as his elemental energy gradually broke Ying Zheng’s seal.
• Zeng Mu freed himself from his restraints, removed the Phantom Spirit Beast Hide, and saw that Qin Mu’s blows had only marked the disguise.
• Zeng Mu put the Phantom Spirit Beast Hide back on, making the bruises reappear on his face.

Zeng Mu woke in prison, entered the Willful Realm with his fire element, and wondered whether Divine Artifacts explained the continent’s highest powers. A huge prisoner named Reisado was placed in the neighboring cell, where he recognized the dying man who had been speaking with Zeng Mu.

• Zeng Mu woke after two days and learned the dying man in the next cell had eaten the six meals he missed.
• Zeng Mu meditated through the night and advanced his fire element into the Willful Realm, crediting the refined energy Ying Zheng had left in his body.
• Zeng Mu considered how bloodline inheritance and Divine Artifacts might allow people to surpass the continent’s limits, and wondered what the Three Great Powers were fighting over.
• The prison warden brought a gigantic, heavily restrained Viking prisoner into the cell beside Zeng Mu, where the man crushed the bed beneath him.
• The dying man called the prisoner Reisado, and Reisado recognized him as the man who had just regained consciousness.

Zeng Mu agreed to free Reisado, a fellow prisoner who had spent over a year trying to break his ankle ring, after learning that Reisado and the dying man in the next cell were former Qin soldiers and comrades. Zeng Mu shattered Reisado’s Elemental Artifact seal, and Reisado burst out of his cell.

• A dying prisoner whispered with Reisado, who had killed two jailers to reach him before his execution.
• Reisado asked Zeng Mu to help him escape, but Zeng Mu initially refused and listened to the dying man’s failing heartbeat.
• Zeng Mu agreed to help after Reisado explained that he and the dying man were comrades who had fled the Qin army and been captured by Qin Mu.
• Zeng Mu revealed that he was imprisoned for allegedly assassinating Ying Zheng, though he had actually killed Qin Mu’s nephew.
• Zeng Mu used elemental spirit qi to break the Metal Elemental Artifact around Reisado’s ankle and release his suppressed strength.
• Reisado burst his remaining shackles, knocked down the iron bars, and stepped out of his cell.

Reisado escaped the Underground Prison carrying the dying Mo Yuxing and fought his way through the guards and soldiers surrounding the exit. The warden attacked him with earth elemental power, and Reisado charged through the encirclement as the warden pursued.

• Reisado broke out of his cell with the unconscious Mo Yuxing and killed or incapacitated all nine guards who tried to stop him.
• Zeng Mu watched Reisado leave, shattered his own shackles, and followed him out of the prison.
• Reisado faced the warden and more than four hundred elite soldiers, then used lightning to bring down over a hundred armored troops.
• The warden ordered the soldiers to remove their armor and attacked Reisado with fissures that split and pursued him across the ground.
• Reisado charged into the soldiers beyond the fissures and stunned them with lightning, while the warden overtook him and continued the pursuit.

Reisado tried to escape with his comrade while the Jail Warden pursued, but he stopped to break through to the Willful Realm. Qin Mu arrived and attacked, yet Reisado completed his advancement and gained a brief period of invincibility.

• The Jail Warden pursued Reisado, who fought him off with lightning and warned him to stop chasing them.
• Reisado halted and began breaking through to the Willful Realm, and Zeng Mu watched from hiding.
• The Jail Warden attacked Reisado during the breakthrough, but a golden disc appeared and blocked him, revealing a hidden Willful Realm expert.
• Qin Mu arrived, learned that someone was intervening from the shadows, and attacked Reisado as he continued advancing.
• Reisado completed his breakthrough in a pillar of purple lightning while protecting his comrade, and the gathered Elementalists recognized the special energy of his brief invincible period.

Qin Mu and the Prison Warden attacked Reisado, whose newly advanced invincibility let him withstand their strongest blows while protecting a dying man. Reisado escaped when five Elementalists from the Royal Palace approached, leaving Qin Mu and the others facing their arrival.

• Qin Mu recognized Reisado and ordered the Prison Warden to capture him alive if possible.
• Reisado endured Qin Mu’s punches and shattered the Prison Warden’s Mountain Hammer with his bare hand while shielding the dying man.
• Qin Mu and the Prison Warden attacked Reisado together for more than five minutes, trying to outlast his period of invincibility.
• Reisado sensed approaching forces, used Ball Lightning to drive back his attackers, and escaped into the distance.
• Qin Mu, the Prison Warden, and Zeng Mu saw five Elementalists from the Royal Palace approaching.

Zeng Mu left the Underground Prison and tried to find a way into the heavily guarded Qin Kingdom's Royal City so he could speak with Ying Zheng. He spotted Qin Zhongyi near the gate and prepared to take him hostage as a way inside.

• Zeng Mu slipped away while the Prison Warden kept the five Elementalists focused on finding the powerful fighter who had helped Reisado escape.
• Zeng Mu reached the Royal City and saw that its walls and disciplined garrison made both a direct assault and an ordinary approach impossible.
• Zeng Mu decided he would need to sneak into the city, but the constant patrols made that plan seem unlikely to work.
• Zeng Mu recognized Qin Zhongyi near the gate and realized he could use him to gain entry to the Palace.
• Qin Zhongyi sensed that someone was watching him, but dismissed the feeling and walked toward the sentries as Zeng Mu waited to capture him.

Zeng Mu entered the Qin palace with Qin Zhongyi held hostage, determined to meet Ying Zheng. He reached the king’s secluded cultivation chamber and waited outside until seven people arrived.

• Zeng Mu ambushed Qin Zhongyi, restrained him, and told him he wanted to speak with Ying Zheng.
• The Imperial Guards surrounded Zeng Mu, but he used his Metal Elemental power to make them clear a path.
• At the palace entrance, Zeng Mu sent Xuanzi to distract the Royal Palace Imperial Guards Corps and used a Wind Elemental Artifact to locate Ying Zheng.
• Zeng Mu slipped into the palace and found Ying Zheng cultivating in seclusion, avoiding the four other Elementalists he had sensed.
• Zeng Mu released Qin Zhongyi’s restraints and waited with him outside Ying Zheng’s chamber, where seven people soon appeared.

After a violent surge of power marked the end of Ying Zheng’s cultivation, Zeng Mu met the king and faced accusations of five crimes. Ying Zheng set aside the charges for the moment and took Zeng Mu to his study to hear him out over tea.

• At dawn, a golden storm erupted in the residence, shattering its furnishings while the nine Elementalists protected themselves.
• Ying Zheng emerged with greatly improved strength, demonstrating that he could attack in nine directions, and the others bowed before him while Zeng Mu remained standing.
• Qin Mu accused Zeng Mu of five crimes, but Ying Zheng noted that Zeng Mu had shown restraint and postponed judgment on the killing until the matter was investigated.
• Zeng Mu gave his name as Mu Zeng and followed Ying Zheng to the study, where Ying Zheng dismissed the others and prepared tea for them.

Zeng Mu presented Ying Zheng with three counsels for governing a future united realm, but Ying Zheng rejected lenient laws and gradual policies as incompatible with his ambitions. The chapter ended with Ying Zheng defending the statecraft that controls and keeps the people ignorant as necessary to build a great nation and unify the continent.

• After discussing the continent’s balance of power, Zeng Mu identified Ying Zheng’s ambition to annex the other six kingdoms and offered three counsels for governing afterward.
• Zeng Mu advised Ying Zheng to replace harsh laws with lenient ones and govern according to the people’s wishes, but Ying Zheng argued that strict laws and discipline were essential to Qin’s strength.
• Zeng Mu urged gradual policies and patience, but Ying Zheng said his extraordinary goals required relentless effort and methods unlike those of other rulers.
• Zeng Mu’s third counsel was to prohibit statecraft that controlled the people and kept them ignorant, which he said would ultimately damage the country’s foundations.
• Ying Zheng said he had already considered the matter and concluded that such statecraft was necessary for a great nation and the strength to unify the continent.

Zeng Mu warned Ying Zheng about three future dangers to his reputation, life, and dynasty, beginning with Queen Dowager Zhao Ji’s affair with Lao Ai and cautioning him against pursuing immortality. Ying Zheng promised to investigate the affair and listened as Zeng Mu prepared to reveal the final warning about the succession.

• Ying Zheng ended their debate about governing, but Zeng Mu persuaded him to hear three warnings about his reputation, life, and dynasty.
• Zeng Mu warned that Queen Dowager Zhao Ji would disgrace Ying Zheng through her affair with Lao Ai and would bear Lao Ai two sons.
• Ying Zheng smashed his teacup and table, ordered Qin Mu, Qin Zhongyi, and the others out, then sealed the door against sound and probing senses.
• Zeng Mu explained that Ying Zheng would learn of the affair too late to avoid damage to his reputation, and Ying Zheng promised to investigate it.
• Zeng Mu warned Ying Zheng not to become obsessed with immortality, but Ying Zheng defended the pursuit as natural for a person who sought to rise ever higher.
• Zeng Mu began his third warning, concerning the succession of the Qin dynasty, and Ying Zheng listened intently.