Recaps

Zeng Mu and Yetos fought Qin Zihui, whose Second-Tier Wind Elemental Artifact initially gave him the advantage. Yetos destroyed his own artifact to unleash its power, defeating Qin Zihui and leaving Zeng Mu fascinated by the artifact’s strength.

• Zeng Mu endured Qin Zihui’s attack and concealed the blood from his mouth while Qin demanded to know who he was.
• Qin used his Second-Tier Wind Elemental Artifact to overpower Yetos, while Zeng Mu struggled to approach through the pressure of their attacks.
• Yetos revealed his damaged first-tier Wind Elemental Artifact and destroyed it, releasing a tremendous surge of elemental power.
• Yetos’s cyan energy overwhelmed Qin’s white light, and his greatsword knocked Qin’s sword down and wounded him.
• Qin fell to one knee, and Zeng Mu stared at the Wind Elemental Artifact with intense desire.

Ma Linya and Kanni fought through the fog as Ma Linya struggled with exhaustion and recalled the tragedy that had driven her to the battlefield. Qin Zihui’s strength finally failed against Yetos and Zeng Mu, and Zeng Mu’s Fish-Scale Sword pierced his side.

• Ma Linya continued fighting in the purplish-red fog while Kanni protected her and urged her to steady her breathing.
• Ma Linya reflected on her parents’ deaths and the two years she had spent saving people and killing enemies.
• Qin Zihui, badly wounded, insisted that Yetos could not defeat him as Yetos and Zeng Mu pressed their attack.
• Qin Zihui briefly unleashed his remaining strength and forced Yetos back, then fought both opponents as his elemental power dwindled.
• Qin Zihui lost his grip on his sword, and Zeng Mu pierced his flank with the Fish-Scale Sword.

Han Ling rescued the mortally wounded Qin Zihui from Yetos and Zeng Mu as the Seven Kingdoms Coalition was routed from Sand City. The surviving soldiers withdrew into Ten Thousand Forests, unaware that a concealed figure was waiting ahead.

• Han Ling emerged from hiding and blocked Yetos's attack on Qin Zihui, then fought off Zeng Mu while Qin urged him to escape.
• Soldiers rushed in to protect Qin Zihui, but Yetos shattered their weapons and killed them with a burst of green light.
• Qin Zihui and Han Ling disappeared during the confusion, and Yetos and Zeng Mu turned back toward the city gates.
• The Seven Kingdoms Coalition's retreat horn sounded, and its soldiers fled as the knights routed them from Sand City.
• Qin Zihui and Han Ling traveled with the remaining soldiers into Ten Thousand Forests, where an unknown figure waited in the treetops ahead.

Soxia ambushed Qin Zihui’s retreating army, killing its soldiers while Qin Zihui and Han Ling escaped with a Wind Elemental Artifact. At a meeting in Sand City, Yetos’s allies assessed the threat of the Vikings, and Soxia arrived to confirm that their approach meant negotiation.

• Soxia attacked Qin Zihui’s carriage, severed his arm, and killed the remnant army while Qin Zihui and Han Ling escaped using a Wind Elemental Artifact.
• After the battle, Yetos and his allies met in Sand City and learned that their forces had dwindled to eight hundred.
• Geju, Aikimu, and William warned that Idiveer’s two thousand Vikings might attack Sand City that afternoon.
• Zeng Mu said the Viking Legion’s arrival could be prevented and, after Yetos mentioned the stone token found on their captive, described the encounter as a negotiation.
• Soxia entered the meeting with blood on his fingers and agreed that the Vikings’ arrival meant negotiation.

After Sand City’s leaders discussed their need for more people and food and the need to root out spies, Ma Linya treated Zeng Mu’s wounds and he urged her to stay out of danger. They were interrupted by Cobert and White, who walked in on them together and left Zeng Mu embarrassed and furious.

• Soxia joined Yetos and the others as they discussed Sand City’s defenses, concluding that they needed more people, more food, and to find the spies.
• Zeng Mu noticed the damage to Ma Linya’s armor, and she took him to her house to treat his wounds while Kanni hurried away without explaining why.
• As Ma Linya applied hot medicine to Zeng Mu, he asked her not to rush into battle again, but she said fighting was what she aspired to do.
• Zeng Mu offered to treat Ma Linya’s shoulder, and she loosened her clothes so he could apply the remaining medicine.
• Cobert and White entered the house and found Ma Linya and Zeng Mu on the bed, leaving Ma Linya flustered and Zeng Mu nearly undressed and resentful.

Zeng Mu reunited Bright with White and Bright’s four brothers, who celebrated their long-awaited family reunion. White thanked Ma Linya with a rare medicinal herb and offered Zeng Mu a gift from his shop, leaving Zeng Mu eager to see what he could choose.

• Zeng Mu used the Wood Elemental Artifact bead to bring Bright and the four brothers out, and Bright joyfully embraced White.
• White and Bright exchanged memories and tears before Bright and the four brothers reunited with White.
• Ma Linya credited Zeng Mu for bringing Bright back, while Zeng Mu and Cobert said Kanni had devised the plan.
• White gave Ma Linya a purple butterfly spirit herb, which she accepted after initially refusing.
• White offered Zeng Mu a gift from his shop, and Cobert hurriedly led him toward the door to collect it.

White showed Zeng Mu, Ma Linya, and the five brothers his smithy and its exceptional weapons, then gave Cobert a rare Pupil Spirit Stone as his promised gift. The group followed White toward a side room to see his finest forged treasures.

• White welcomed Zeng Mu and the others into his smithy and showed them racks of high-grade weapons.
• White recalled his late lover Betsy Rosalind urging him to follow his own desires.
• White brought out a Pupil Spirit Stone that Martin had left at Yenaier's door, and Cobert claimed it as his thank-you gift.
• Bright explained that the rare stone formed when a Night River Beaver's spirit attached itself to a Salei Flame Stone.
• Cobert dismissed the weapons as an inadequate gift for Nameless, so White led everyone into the side room to see his finest work.

Zeng Mu chose White’s Blue Marsh Armor as a gift for Ma Linya, and the group discovered he was an Elementalist. When Martin arrived, Zeng Mu noticed signs that tied him to the granary and suspected he was hiding something.

• White opened the locked annex and offered Zeng Mu one of its fourteen exceptional weapons and pieces of equipment.
• Zeng Mu chose the Blue Marsh Armor and gave it to Ma Linya, who accepted it after the others encouraged her.
• Bright and the other four realized Zeng Mu was an Elementalist and felt relieved that he had spared them earlier.
• Martin arrived at White’s shop, and Zeng Mu noticed his nervousness and pale gray wood ash grass on his shoe, linking him to the granary.

Zeng Mu and Yetos agreed to test a suspected spy before Idiveer’s forces arrived, while Martin left a drunken gathering and watched the guarded granary. An arrow bearing a message landed near Martin, suggesting that the sender—and the woman he longed for—was close by.

• Zeng Mu noticed Martin secretly wiping wood-ash grass from his foot and grew more suspicious of him.
• Ma Linya tried on the Blueze Inner Armor, and Cobert left after recalling someone named Sobeka Amanda.
• Zeng Mu and Yetos agreed to act against the suspected spy as Idiveer’s forces were expected to arrive within hours.
• White, Bright, and the others got drunk at dinner, and Martin went out to buy cigarettes for them.
• Martin passed the granary and considered how to sabotage the army’s provisions.
• An arrow landed near Martin with a message attached, and he realized its sender might be nearby.

Martin received a message promising him Yenaier if he burned Sand City's granary, and he waited for the guards to leave before approaching it. His memories of his mother's abuse and death revealed the revenge that had shaped him, as he stood poised to seize the opportunity.

• Martin read a letter promising him a thousand gold and Yenaier if he burned the granary, and he remembered falling in love with her after seeing her in the army camp.
• Martin watched the granary until Yetos led its guards away and figures followed them from the roof.
• Martin rushed toward the apparently empty granary, believing the opportunity could transform his life.
• Martin remembered his mother's decline and death, then recalled discovering that his stepfather Swenburne Tunny had abused her.
• Martin carried his mother's body back to the house and watched it burn, with Swenburne Tunny's severed body lying at her feet.

Martin tried to burn the dwindling grain stores but was caught by Zeng Mu and Yetos, who exposed his betrayal and imprisoned him. Yetos then met Idiveer at Sand City’s gate, where Idiveer demanded O'Connor’s release and asked for terms.

• Martin recalled how White had taken him in, then used keys and alloy wire to break into the granary and prepare to burn its supplies.
• Zeng Mu and Yetos confronted Martin, revealed that Zeng Mu had written the letter that lured him there, and stopped him from killing himself.
• Yetos ordered Martin bound and sent to the Camp Dungeon, then told William to bring out Nameless’s prisoner.
• Idiveer arrived outside Sand City with more than a hundred warriors, and Soxia and Xibizete challenged his impatience from the wall.
• Yetos met Idiveer, who demanded O'Connor’s release and told Yetos to name his terms.

Yetos discovered that O'Connor was the adopted son of Dawnlight Warrior Olni and used the captive to negotiate with Idiveer. Idiveer accepted a seven-day truce and other conditions, while a bloody gathering began in Xuan City.

• Idiveer revealed that O'Connor was Olni's adopted son and only son, then threatened Yetos with Olni's vengeance after believing O'Connor had been burned alive.
• Yetos brought O'Connor to the wall alive, and Idiveer recognized him and demanded his return.
• Zeng Mu advised Yetos on his demands, and Yetos required six shi of provisions, seven days without attacks or spies near Sand City, and no contact with the Seven Kingdoms Coalition.
• Idiveer negotiated the provisions down to three shi and agreed to the other terms; Yetos accepted the deal and promised to return O'Connor safely before the seventh day.
• Idiveer warned O'Connor to stay alive and departed with his men, while an unprecedented bloody gathering began in Xuan City's military camp.

After his failed assault on Sand City, Qin Zihui returned to Xuan City wounded and learned that Chu Zilian had arrived with reinforcements. Qin Zihui began a war council with the assembled generals, leaving their next moves undecided.

• Qin Zihui and Han Ling reached Xuan City after their army suffered a crushing defeat, and Qin Zihui woke later with his wounded arm bandaged.
• Chu Zilian arrived with 3,647 reinforcements and mocked Qin Zihui for losing his army.
• Qin Zihui admitted to Han Ling that he had attacked early to avoid sharing credit or fighting alongside Chu Zilian.
• Qin Zihui summoned the generals to a war council, where several treated him dismissively while the assembled officers showed Chu Zilian respect.
• Qin Zihui rose with Han Ling’s help and opened the war council.

Qin Zihui urged the generals to launch an immediate attack on Sand City before the coming rains, but Chu Zilian rejected his plan and challenged him to kill him rather than demand his agreement. Qin Zihui struck as Chu Zilian approached the door, leaving a figure collapsed and bleeding there.

• Qin Zihui showed the generals his map and proposed committing their forces to a surprise assault on Sand City before the rainy season made travel impossible.
• Qin Zihui explained that heavy rain would begin in three days and argued that they had to attack immediately while Yetos and his troops were celebrating their victory.
• Chu Zilian questioned Qin Zihui's assumptions, blamed his earlier defeat on arrogance, and refused to support the new expedition.
• Chu Zilian threw down his short blade and told Qin Zihui he would never agree unless Qin Zihui killed him.
• Qin Zihui made a sudden move near the door, and a figure collapsed there with blood spreading across the floor.

Qin Zihui killed Chu Zilian and ordered the Allied Army to prepare to capture Sand City, while the other generals feared the Qin Kingdom’s growing power. Zeng Mu visited the Horse Camp and met Yenaier, whose striking appearance left him captivated.

• Qin Zihui defended killing Chu Zilian as punishment for disobeying military orders and ordered the army to mobilize the morning after tomorrow for an attack on Sand City.
• The five generals carried away Chu Zilian’s body and head, and some vowed to report Qin Zihui’s actions to their kings.
• Zeng Mu went to the Horse Camp to check on his thousand-mile horse after Yetos told him to take a day off from military affairs.
• A groom told Zeng Mu that the horse remained wild but behaved more gently when Yenaier visited, and explained that she was Lord Xibizete’s niece and Sand City’s only female knight.
• Zeng Mu found Yenaier beside the horse and became captivated by her appearance and blue eyes.

Zeng Mu met Yenaier, learned about the Thousand-Mile Horse and the monster-filled Northern Forest, and rode north with her. The horse accepted him as its master, and Yenaier suggested naming it Abyss.

• Yenaier recognized Zeng Mu as Nameless and explained that she had been caring for the Thousand-Mile Horse, which O'Connor had neglected.
• Yenaier revealed the horse's distinctive coat and warhorse qualities, then led it with Zeng Mu out through Sand City's northern gate.
• Yenaier told Zeng Mu that the fertile Northern Forest was uninhabited because it was filled with monsters.
• Yenaier and Zeng Mu rode the Thousand-Mile Horse north at great speed, and she said it had held back so he would not fall.
• Yenaier confirmed that the horse had accepted Zeng Mu as its master and proposed naming it Abyss.

Zeng Mu learned about Yenaier’s history in Sand City and told her that Martin had been exposed as a spy. Martin was executed by burning, and Yenaier watched before saying she would kill him sooner if it happened again.

• Zeng Mu named his horse Abyss and promised Yenaier he would keep him safe; she said she could become Abyss’s next rider after he died of old age.
• Zeng Mu told Yenaier that Martin was a spy who had been tested by Lord Yetos and imprisoned, and she asked when he would be executed.
• Martin was brought to the west square and faced White Miles, Bright, and the gathered knights before Xibizete ordered the execution.
• As the knights burned Martin at the stake, he cried “Goodbye!” and White collapsed into Bright’s arms.
• After the crowd left, Zeng Mu asked Yenaier how she felt, and she said she would cut Martin down sooner if it happened again.

Zeng Mu and the Holy Temple knights prepared to launch a decisive attack and marched from Sand City toward Xuan City under the stars. As the army rode through the night, Bright kept the purpose of the war drums secret, while he silently vowed to prove himself to Lingya.

• After dinner, Zeng Mu led Abyss from the Stable and told the groom that the army was moving out to fight for the land’s survival.
• Yetos gathered Kanni, Xibizete, Aikimu, William, Zeng Mu, and the others, then ordered the army to depart with 969 men and only 40 left to operate Sand City’s gates.
• More than a thousand warhorses carried the army northeast beneath the stars, while Yetos studied a map of Xuan City and warned Zeng Mu that the battle would be dangerous.
• Zeng Mu asked Bright why the army had brought dozens of war drums, but Bright called the plan a secret and went back to dozing.
• As the column continued its night march, Bright thought of Lingya and vowed to prove that he was no worse than the man she cared about.

Zeng Mu and Bright positioned the Knight Army on a hill overlooking Xuan City, using an oversized camp to make their strength appear greater and deter an attack. Qin Zihui discovered their presence and put his Allied Army on alert, leaving both sides poised for a confrontation.

• Zeng Mu woke at the Knight Army’s hilltop camp and learned from Yetos that Xuan City’s reinforcements appeared ready to march on Sand City at dawn.
• Bright explained that the army would reveal itself on the hill and strike when night fell, using its many tents to make its force seem larger.
• Xibizete reported there was not enough room for all the tents on the hilltop, and Bright ordered them pitched on the hillside so the enemy could see them.
• Qin Zihui urged the Allied Army to prepare for its march until Han Ling reported that the Holy Temple’s Knights’ Order had arrived near Xuan City.
• Qin Zihui saw the fires on the hill, rejected an immediate attack, and ordered his entire army to stay alert with horses ready and swords at hand.

As the five-nation generals waited behind Xuan City’s defenses, Zeng Mu learned that his black-and-white fruit was a rare, dangerous cultivation aid. After resting, he found Kanni helping prepare leaves as part of Yetos’s plan, whose purpose remained unclear.

• The five-nation generals decided to wait for the enemy to run short of provisions and for the coming rains rather than attack.
• Zeng Mu asked Kanni about the extra war drums, but Kanni deferred the explanation until that night.
• Zeng Mu showed Bright the black-and-white fruit, and Bright identified it as a poisonous Life-and-Death Fruit that could help an Elementalist advance at great risk.
• Zeng Mu returned to his tent, slept until noon, and then went looking for Kanni.
• Zeng Mu found Kanni and other knights stripping leaves from camphor branches, and Kanni said the work was part of Yetos’s plan.

Zeng Mu and Kanni stripped camphor leaves while the army prepared for a nighttime operation, and Qin Zihui sent a squad to spy on the enemy camp. The scouts reached the hilltop and saw soldiers moving about in a way that suggested the enemy felt certain of victory.

• Zeng Mu and Kanni stripped camphor leaves, and Kanni told him that Bright had predicted rain and that Yenaier had joined the campaign.
• Zeng Mu showed Kanni that the unusual porridge contained tender camphor leaves.
• Qin Zihui considered the enemy’s lack of movement and ordered a Han Kingdom general to inspect their camp after dark.
• The general and five soldiers crossed the dark, thorny ground without weapons or armor and climbed the hill.
• The six scouts hid beneath a rock and saw people moving back and forth throughout the enemy camp.

A Han Kingdom general infiltrated the Knights' Order camp and discovered that five thousand troops planned to attack Xuan City from two directions at midnight. After he escaped back to the city and warned Qin Zihui, Qin Zihui decided to turn the enemy's plan against them.

• Zeng Mu and Kanni danced by the bonfires while the general and his men moved closer to inspect the camp tents.
• The general overheard Xibizete describe a midnight attack on Xuan City by five thousand troops divided into two columns.
• The Knights' Order discovered the spies and killed the general's companions, but the general escaped toward Xuan City.
• Han Ling helped the bloodied general through the gates, where he reported the enemy's numbers and attack plan to Qin Zihui and the other generals.
• Qin Zihui dismissed the other generals' panic and resolved to turn the enemy's plan against them.

Qin Zihui’s forces waited in ambush around the Ice River while Yetos and Zeng Mu watched from the darkness, and Bright prepared a deception. The shadow ships drew the soldiers away from their positions, and war drums then sent them charging toward Xuan City.

• Qin Zihui sent four detachments to ambush the Knights' Order near the Ice River while he remained in Xuan City.
• Yetos and Zeng Mu watched the middle detachment, and Bright revealed he had prepared gifts and asked about the drums.
• A scout reported log boats drifting downriver, and the veteran Wei State general led his five hundred soldiers to pursue them.
• Knights slipped from the shadow ships into the river while wooden figures aboard the boats fooled the soldiers into firing arrows at them.
• After realizing the boats were a decoy, the Wei State and Yan State generals heard war drums and led their thousand soldiers upstream toward Xuan City.

Yetos led the Knights' Order in two night charges, destroying the Zhao and Qi forces while suffering losses. With the diversion ended, the survivors raced toward Xuan City to breach its gates before the enemy army could return.

• Kanni and Yetos led more than nine hundred knights in a charge against the Zhao ambush, and a thrown halberd killed General Zhao.
• Zeng Mu used Elemental Power while Kanni, Yetos, and the other knights routed the Zhao soldiers, leaving 856 knights alive.
• Yetos ordered the Knights' Order north against the Qi army, which they defeated in less than four minutes.
• Kanni and the others counted 768 surviving knights after the second battle, while Zeng Mu realized the distant diversion had ended.
• Yetos ordered everyone to attack Xuan City before the returning thousand-man army could trap them between two forces.

Qin Zihui sensed that Xuan City faced disaster as Yetos and the Knights' Order charged its defenses. Qin Zihui's Black Fiend Arrows inflicted heavy losses, but Yetos strengthened his shield and pressed on as the battle escalated.

• Qin Zihui warned Han Ling that his powerful premonition suggested the coming battle would end badly, then told him to prepare for the danger.
• Yetos led the Knights' Order toward Xuan City, where Qin Zihui ordered the archers to fire.
• Kanni and the other knights raised their Arrow-Deflecting Shields against the Black Fiend Arrows, while Zeng Mu reinforced his shield with Elemental Power.
• The Black Fiend Arrows cracked and shattered many shields, killing knights and disrupting the cavalry formation.
• Yetos's expression hardened with resolve, and the green glow around his shield flared into a blazing light.