Chapter Summaries

Haihui Gelin summoned the Devouring Giant Serpent and overwhelmed Zeng Mu, whose six elemental powers could not withstand its attack. As Haihui Gelin prepared to kill him, a blue light rescued Zeng Mu, and Haihui Gelin angrily watched it vanish into the mountains.

• A blue light carried the unconscious Feng Gu away from the lake.
• Haihui Gelin appeared atop the Devouring Giant Serpent and offered Zeng Mu a choice between a quick death and prolonged torment.
• Zeng Mu mocked Haihui Gelin, who ordered the serpent to attack him.
• The Devouring Giant Serpent shattered Zeng Mu's elemental barrier and left him badly injured with his elemental power exhausted.
• Haihui Gelin fired black lightning at Zeng Mu, but a blue light enveloped him and carried him away before the attack landed.
• Haihui Gelin cursed the girl who had once again ruined his plans as the blue light disappeared into the mountains.

Okelo rescued Zeng Mu and explained Feng Gu’s death, then revealed the Elf Realm’s history and Haihui Gelin’s plan to gather power before returning there. She left Zeng Mu with knowledge of the Seven Elemental Gods, the Water God’s remnants, and the reason Haihui Gelin wanted his Blackstone Necklace.

• Okelo told Zeng Mu that the mark inside Feng Gu had been activated by Haihui Gelin, and Feng Gu died after entrusting him with the seventh Snake Scale for Xuan'er.
• Zeng Mu questioned Okelo about Haihui Gelin, Romendi, and the Peerless Grade Elemental Beast, and she revealed that it was formed from part of the Elffolk king’s soul and could awaken her sleeping uncle.
• Okelo told Zeng Mu that Haihui Gelin was her cousin, the Elffolk king’s eldest son, and had founded the Soul-Returning Cult after leaving the Elf Realm thirty years earlier.
• Okelo recounted the ancient war of the Seven Elemental Gods, the Water God’s fall, and how a rift between worlds brought Zeng Mu to the continent.
• Okelo explained that Haihui Gelin sought Zeng Mu’s Blackstone Necklace and used the Soul-Returning Cult and Devouring Serpent’s marks to gather enough power to return to the Elf Realm.

Okelo revealed that the Water God's Remnant Soul had chosen Zeng Mu and brought him into this world, and he agreed to visit the Elf Realm later. When he and Okelo returned to Fei City, they discovered Feng Gu had turned Xuan'er into a human gu, and she recovered her memories after eating the Gu Snake Scale.

• Zeng Mu learned that the Water God's Remnant Soul had chosen him and used the Blackstone Necklace to bring him into this world.
• Zeng Mu agreed to seek an audience with the Tribal King and god in the Elf Realm when his unfinished business was settled.
• Zeng Mu buried Feng Gu beneath a small pine tree and returned to Fei City with Okelo.
• Zeng Mu and Okelo found Xuan'er shivering in a dark corner, and she said Feng Gu's medicinal decoction had usually eased her recurring condition.
• Xuan'er ate the Gu Snake Scale, vomited a black-and-blue-green snake, and regained her awareness and memories.

Feng Gu remembered how merchants had introduced addictive silver mouse grass to his isolated village, destroying its people and killing his father. After Xuan'er became addicted, he took her away to treat her, but the chapter ended as the torment overwhelmed her again.

• Feng Gu recalled how his father had led the village into a new era before Fei City merchants spread silver mouse grass and turned the village into a plantation.
• Feng Gu's father died from the grass, and merchants arranged for a new chief who further enabled the village's decline.
• Feng Gu returned after his father's funeral and tried to rally the villagers against silver mouse grass, while Xuan'er stood by him.
• Xuan'er unknowingly ate grass mixed into porridge at her uncle's home and became addicted.
• Feng Gu carried Xuan'er out of the village and brought her to the nearby town, where his medical treatments briefly eased her withdrawal.
• Xuan'er was overwhelmed by the unbearable itching and pain of withdrawal despite Feng Gu's decoctions and acupuncture.

Feng Gu joined the Soul-Returning Cult to restore Xuan’er’s memories, but the Cult’s snake-scale bargain condemned her to a horrifying death. After learning Feng Gu was dead, Xuan’er asked Zeng Mu and Okelo to bury her beside him and died.

• After Xuan’er died, a black-robed Cult Envoy offered Feng Gu a snake egg that could revive her, and Feng Gu gave it to her; she woke the next morning without her memories.
• The Cult Envoy promised that seven snake scales would restore Xuan’er’s consciousness if Feng Gu joined the Soul-Returning Cult, and Feng Gu accepted the Cult Mark.
• Feng Gu became a Poison Master and spent years carrying out the Cult’s killings to earn the scales, while enduring the knowledge that a Soul-Returning Snake lived inside Xuan’er.
• Feng Gu discovered that gathering all seven scales would restore Xuan’er’s memories but make the snake tear through her body.
• As Xuan’er died, she asked Zeng Mu and Okelo where Little Gu was; after they told her Feng Gu had died, she asked them to bury her with him.

After burying Xuan'er and Feng Gu, Zeng Mu read his final secret order: he was to assassinate Zhao Zheng, the young king of Qin. He and Okelo reached Qin, where Zeng Mu saw the kingdom’s orderly streets and disciplined border defenses.

• Zeng Mu and Okelo buried Xuan'er and Feng Gu together, then discussed Okelo’s hunt for Haihui Gelin and her brother Romendi.
• Zeng Mu opened the final secret letter, which ordered him to kill Zhao Zheng and said two other agents would meet him at the Qin border pass.
• Zeng Mu concealed the order from Okelo, and they set out for Qin while discussing their past and Okelo’s lost love.
• After three days and nights of travel, Zeng Mu and Okelo reached the Qin border pass and entered the kingdom using disguises.
• Zeng Mu observed Qin’s disciplined soldiers, prosperous countryside, and orderly streets governed by Qin Law.

Zeng Mu and Okelo traveled through a border city, where Zeng Mu witnessed cruel tax enforcement before learning that a couple had clashed with the Zhou Family. At their nighttime rendezvous, he discovered their helpers were his old acquaintances Pitman and Yenaier, whom he greeted with an ill-judged joke.

• Zeng Mu saw officials and soldiers punish residents who could not pay their taxes, and he lamented the law’s lack of compassion to Okelo.
• Zeng Mu and Okelo overheard teahouse patrons describe a skilled couple who had fought Zhou Xiao Jia and angered the powerful Zhou Family.
• Zeng Mu and Okelo went to the Sky-Rigid Nine-Layer Earth-Fiend Demon-God Tower to meet their helpers and searched among the gathered couples.
• Zeng Mu followed a veiled, masked pair away from the tower, and Okelo joined him as they approached the pair on a deserted street.
• The masked man revealed himself as Pitman, and the veiled woman revealed herself as Yenaier, both old acquaintances of Zeng Mu.
• Zeng Mu recognized Yenaier and joked that she looked almost like a man, causing her smile to turn cold.

Zeng Mu reunited with Yenaier, Pitman, and Okelo, discussed their plan to assassinate Ying Zheng during his upcoming hunt, and learned Yenaier had awakened the lightning element. The chapter ended with Pitman revealing that he had condensed an Elemental Artifact, leading Zeng Mu to identify him as an Innate Elemental Artifact Master.

• Okelo reunited with Zeng Mu and Yenaier, and they discussed the continent's tense political situation before moving to an inn.
• Zeng Mu questioned Yenaier and Pitman about their clash with the Zhou Family and reminded them to investigate the young woman they had rescued.
• Yenaier revealed her lightning element had awakened after she drank Earth Spirit Essence elemental medicinal soup.
• Zeng Mu, Yenaier, Pitman, and Okelo planned to intercept Ying Zheng during his hunt near Big Bird City in three days.
• Pitman visited Zeng Mu privately and revealed a colorless Elemental Artifact he had condensed, prompting Zeng Mu to call him an Innate Elemental Artifact Master.

Pitman revealed that his Innate Elemental Artifact Master ability came from a curse tied to the Green Mist that destroyed his village, and he asked Zeng Mu to take him to the Elf Realm. Zeng Mu kept Pitman's Wind Element Bead and ended the night worrying about what would happen if others learned he did not belong to this world.

• Pitman showed Zeng Mu the Wind Element Bead and used it to reveal that Zeng Mu possessed metal, lightning, and fire Elemental Power.
• Pitman asked whether Okelo came from the Elf Realm, then explained that Uncle Kiddon had told him his innate curse originated there.
• Pitman recounted his childhood in the Fog Jungle, the Green Mist that destroyed his village, and his rescue by Lord Soxia.
• Pitman asked Zeng Mu to take him to the Elf Realm, and Zeng Mu agreed while keeping the Wind Element Bead as a secret between them.
• After Pitman left, Zeng Mu lay awake worrying that others might discover he did not belong to this world and wondering what Ma Linya would think.

Zeng Mu and Yenaier learned that the young woman they sought had been sold to the Spring Peach House after Zhou Xiao Jia abused her. They entered the brothel and discovered that she had been made a “white whore,” leaving Yenaier furious as they learned how cruelly she was being treated.

• Zeng Mu and Yenaier overheard two men reveal that the Zhou Family had sold the young woman to the Spring Peach House.
• Zeng Mu and Yenaier hurried to the brothel, where Zeng Mu warned Yenaier to keep a low profile.
• Zeng Mu paid an attendant, who confirmed that the Zhou Family had delivered the young woman to the brothel.
• The attendant said Zhou Xiao Jia had abused the girl before she was sold and explained that white whores were forced to serve customers constantly for little pay.
• Yenaier grew angry as she heard what had happened to the young woman.

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.