Chapter Summaries

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.

Yetos’s elemental giant battered down Qin Zihui’s wind wall, allowing the Knights’ Order to reach Xuan City and attack its gates. As the siege and fighting intensified, Zeng Mu and Yetos climbed onto the wall and advanced toward Qin Zihui, who sent his death-sworn soldiers against them.

• Yetos formed a towering green elemental giant that collided with Qin Zihui’s wind wall, knocking down defenders and damaging Xuan City’s walls.
• Qin Zihui steadied himself with Han Ling’s help and ordered the defenders to hold the gates until their allies arrived.
• The Knights’ Order brought battering rams to Xuan City’s gates while soldiers raised siege ladders and attacked the parapet.
• Zeng Mu controlled fallen weapons to strike the defenders, then leapt up the wall using the embedded weapons as footholds.
• Zeng Mu and Yetos reached the wall and pushed back surrounding soldiers, then walked toward Qin Zihui as his death-sworn soldiers charged them.

Yetos and Zeng Mu helped the Knights' Order break into Xuan City and rout the Seven Kingdoms Coalition. Yetos weakened Qin Zihui in a duel, and Zeng Mu joined him to finish the fight as reinforcements approached too late.

• Yetos killed Qin Zihui's death soldiers and began fighting the wounded, one-armed Qin Zihui while Zeng Mu defended the gate.
• Zeng Mu bent the gate's iron bars and shifted its barricades as the battering ram broke through, allowing the Knights' Order to charge into Xuan City.
• The Knights' Order scattered the Allied Army, while the returning generals of Wei and Yan sounded a horn outside the city but could not break through the blockade.
• Xibizete, William, and Aikimu fought across the battlefield as Yenaier cut down enemies and Kanni moved to fight beside her.
• Yetos urged Qin Zihui to surrender, but Qin Zihui refused and prepared to stake his life on the duel.
• Zeng Mu blocked Qin Zihui's strike from behind and joined Yetos, who proposed defeating Qin Zihui within ten moves.

Han Ling intervened as Yetos and Zeng Mu defeated Qin Zihui, then revealed that he had been ordered to kill the general and stabbed him. After naming himself, Han Ling escaped by jumping from the tower into the Ice River.

• Yetos and Zeng Mu drove Qin Zihui into the tower room and exhausted him, causing his damaged Wind Elemental Artifact to lose its power.
• Han Ling emerged from hiding and blocked Yetos's attack, giving Qin Zihui a chance to offer his Tiger-Pattern Token in exchange for Han Ling's freedom.
• Qin Zihui prepared to take his own life, but Han Ling stabbed him and confessed that his king had secretly ordered his assassination.
• Han Ling told Yetos and Zeng Mu his name, then broke through the window and plunged into the Ice River.

Han Ling escaped after killing Qin Zihui, while Yetos and Zeng Mu joined the desperate defense of Xuan City. After Zeng Mu rescued Kanni and Yenaier, Yetos used Qin Zihui’s command token and the threat of the Elementalists to force the surviving coalition army to withdraw.

• Han Ling vanished beneath the dark water, and Yetos and Zeng Mu left the pavilion to reach the fighting.
• The exhausted Kanni and badly wounded Yenaier were overwhelmed until Zeng Mu restrained their attackers and saved them.
• Yetos announced Qin Zihui’s death and displayed the Tiger-Pattern Army Command Token, convincing the coalition generals that Qin had fallen.
• Zeng Mu killed the Yan State general, and Yetos warned the surviving Wei State general that the coalition would eventually lose.
• The Wei State general accepted Yetos’s terms and ordered the surviving coalition soldiers to leave Xuan City.

After the battle for Xuan City, Yetos honored the fallen and led most of the surviving troops back toward Sand City, leaving Zeng Mu and Xibizete to guard the city. Zeng Mu learned about Xibizete’s tragic past, then waited for the full moon and entered inner vision to attempt something he had been considering.

• Yetos and his men paid tribute to the fallen knights, then declared that Qin Zihui’s grave would keep his spirit trapped as repayment for his deeds.
• Zeng Mu chose to stay in Xuan City with Xibizete while Yetos and Bright departed with most of the remaining soldiers.
• Zeng Mu and Xibizete drank liquor and ate Dragon Che Fruit, and Xibizete told him how war had killed his family and left him to raise Yenaier.
• Xibizete fell asleep, and Zeng Mu dozed until evening before waking alone in the cemetery.
• Zeng Mu sat in inner vision and opened his eyes beneath the bright full moon and stars.