Chapter Summaries

Jia Huan’s evidence confirmed that the Second Prince and Prince of Zhongshun had conspired with the White Lotus Cult, and Emperor Jingde ordered them to die by poisoned wine. Afterward, Jia Huan celebrated their deaths with Scholar and Twin Whips before inviting them to spar.

• At Rongxi Hall, Jia Zheng praised Jia Huan for exposing the rebellion, while Jia Mu rebuked Madam Wang for criticizing him.
• In the Court Deliberation Hall, Prince of Zhongshun implicated the Second Prince, and Jia Huan told Emperor Jingde that the evidence against Jiang Qi was conclusive.
• After officials examined the evidence and confessions, Emperor Jingde ordered poisoned wine for Prince of Zhongshun and the Second Prince.
• Prince of Zhongshun drank the poison, and palace experts forced the Second Prince to drink it; both men died as Jia Huan watched.
• Jia Huan left the Forbidden City and laughed with Scholar and Twin Whips before challenging them to spar.

Jia Huan carried out the Emperor’s order to execute the imprisoned traitors, then gained a major martial breakthrough and a powerful new blade technique. He left the prison near the peak of the Profound Insight Realm, while his hopes of promotion remained on hold during the imperial mourning.

• Commissioner Ouyang delivered the Imperial Edict ordering the traitors executed and warned Jia Huan that the grieving Empress might resent him.
• Jia Huan arrived at the Imperial Prison, where guards admired his growing prestige and imagined him someday leading the Embroidered Uniform Guard.
• Jia Huan gave Yang Fuqi poisoned wine after assuring him his family was safe, then killed Eight-Faced Genealogy and fifty-five other criminals.
• The executions triggered Jia Huan’s reward: he reached the tenth level of the Profound Insight Realm and mastered Thirty-Six Blades Ringing in Unison, which let him control thirty-six sabers at once.
• Jia Huan left the interrogation room confident in his new power, but postponed thoughts of promotion until the imperial mourning ended.

Jia Huan returned to Rongguo Mansion to a joyful welcome after saving the Jia Family from disaster, while Empress Yin’s hatred of the family remained fierce during the Second Prince’s funeral rites. A week later, Jia Huan received a promotion that fell far short of his merits, revealing a growing rift between him and the emperor.

• Jia Huan returned to Rongguo Mansion, where Jia Mu, Jia Zheng, Concubine Zhao, Wang Xifeng, Lin Daiyu, and Xue Baochai welcomed him with relief and affection.
• At the Second Prince’s funeral procession, Empress Yin confronted the kneeling Jia Family and bitterly vowed to make them pay for her son’s death.
• Jia Baoyu trembled and wept beneath Empress Yin’s accusation about being born with jade in his mouth, while Jia Zheng scolded him.
• After seven days of work, Jia Huan received a Purple Python Flying Fish Uniform bearing four kirin patterns, far fewer than the five additional patterns his achievement merited.
• Jia Huan calmly swore loyalty to the throne despite the slight, as Commissioner Ouyang and others recognized that a rift had opened between him and the emperor.
• Grand Secretary Gao continued the promotion announcements by calling for Yan Yan and Zhang Bian.

Jia Huan’s subordinates celebrated their promotions, while Yan Yan returned to Hongnong to confront the people who had humiliated him. Back in the capital, Jia Huan received an imperial summons from the Empress.

• Grand Secretary Gao and the Southern Office officials promoted Yan Yan, Zhang Bian, and other members of the Kirin Office, who thanked Jia Huan for their success.
• Jia Huan told his worried subordinates that he needed to seize power and become Commanding Commissioner to secure his position.
• Yan Yan confronted Yang Moshi and Chen Ranran at the Hongnong Yang clan residence, recounted their past humiliations, and ordered the guards to investigate the clan and detain the guilty.
• Yan Yan ordered his confidant to return to the capital that night so he could resume searching for the White Lotus Cult Leader and the Prince of Zhennan.
• At Rongguo Mansion, Jia Huan received an imperial summons from the Empress and went to the Forbidden City.

Jia Huan defied Empress Yin’s attempt to revoke his mother’s honors, warning her that the harem must not interfere in politics. He then tried to settle the conflict with Imperial Uncle Yin, who rejected his invitation and left, leaving Jia Huan to face the widening feud.

• Empress Yin accused Jia Huan of causing Qi’er’s death and presented an edict seeking to revoke his mother’s Iron Certificate of Pardon and second-rank imperial mandate.
• Jia Huan rejected the edict’s authority, defended his mother’s honors, and warned Empress Yin that the harem must never meddle in politics before leaving Sweet Dew Hall.
• Jia Huan ordered Scholar to invite Imperial Uncle Yin to drink, then wrote Yin’s name in the Book of Impermanence.
• At the White Jade Capital Restaurant, Imperial Uncle Yin refused Jia Huan’s wine and left with the Five City Troops Command commissioners.
• Jia Huan poured three cups of wine and told Scholar Twin Whips to drink.

After Yin was brutally attacked and blamed Jia Huan, the Five City Troops Command surrounded Rongguo Mansion and officials across the capital condemned Jia as the supposed mastermind. Jia denied the accusation through his actions, ordered the Embroidered Uniform Guards to defend the estate, and went to the Forbidden City after receiving the emperor’s summons.

• A masked assassin invaded the Duke's Maternal Uncle's Estate, crippled Yin, and killed his concubine.
• Jia Zheng told Jia Huan that Yin accused him of ordering the attack after their argument the previous evening.
• Jia Huan confronted the West City Commanding Commissioner, struck him, and ordered Twin Whips to bring three thousand Embroidered Uniform Guards to Rongguo Mansion.
• Jia Huan left for the Forbidden City after an imperial decree summoned him, leaving Scholar and the guards to handle the standoff.
• Officials across the Imperial City blamed Jia Huan for Yin’s injuries and condemned him as a lawless official.

Jia Huan denied framing Yin Xuanli and was suspended from office while the court investigated evidence linking the Kirin Office to weapons found at Yin’s residence. He left the Imperial Study determined to retaliate against anyone who harmed him, while Empress Yin vowed to keep him from regaining power.

• Emperor Jingde questioned Jia Huan about threatening Yin Xuanli, and Jia denied making threats or arranging the attack.
• Commanding Commissioner Jiang presented evidence that armor and crossbows from the Jinzhou Arsenal had been hidden at Yin’s residence and that a servant identified Chen Yu of the Kirin Office.
• Jia Huan rejected the accusations as suspicion rather than conclusive proof, and Emperor Jingde suspended him and ordered him to remain in the capital during the investigation.
• Jia Huan left the Imperial Study resolved not to submit quietly to the blade of imperial power.
• Yin lamented his mutilated hand, while Empress Yin said Jia Huan had been suspended and vowed to keep him powerless until evidence could be found.

After Jia Huan was suspended and confined to the Capital amid suspicions that he had framed the emperor’s brother-in-law, he sought help from the Retired Emperor. He secured permission to leave the Capital with ten men for one month to bring down Yin, while vowing to take his own life if he failed.

• Jia Huan returned to the Kirin Office and learned that Chen Yu had lost his waist token, which later reappeared in his bedroom.
• Jia Huan surrendered his waist token, official seal, and uniform after receiving an indefinite suspension and an order not to leave the Capital.
• Jiang Wuyuan suspended Jia Huan’s trusted subordinates, prompting Jia Huan to tell them to stay with the Jia Family.
• Jia Huan went to the Eastern Palace and offered to bring down Yin openly and honorably.
• The Retired Emperor gave Jia Huan one month and permission to leave the Capital with ten men, warning that the law would take its course if evidence proved Jia Huan was the mastermind.

After Jia Huan was suspended, the Embroidered Uniform Guard’s crackdown on the Jianghu and his growing isolation threatened his position. He defended the Kirin Office against forced transfers and left vowing to stake his life against Commanding Commissioner Jiang.

• A Misty Rain Tower leader told Jia Huan that the tower had been demolished and at least a thousand martial artists had been arrested, while rumors blamed him for their peril.
• A eunuch delivered the decree allowing Jia Huan to enter and leave the Capital, reminding him to bring Yin down within a month or die in atonement.
• At the Kirin Office training ground, its guards refused transfer orders, insisting that Jia Huan had only been suspended.
• Jia Huan beat Thousand-Household Commanders Dugu and Yue after they confronted the Kirin Office guards, and warned others not to harm his people.
• Commanding Commissioner Jiang accused Jia Huan of abusing his authority, but Jia Huan cited recorded insults and warned Jiang against issuing transfer orders.
• Jia Huan led his men away after declaring that he would stake his life against Jiang.

Jia Huan faced the first night of his suspension as palace experts, the Wang Family, and the court turned against him. Pacification Commissioner Xu Jingchun secretly gave him crime-scene evidence, hoping he would use it to clear his name.

• Jia Huan drove the Imperial Palace Experts from Rongguo Mansion, then comforted his worried family and trusted men.
• The Wang Family Elder led Aunt Xue, Jia Baoyu, and their party away from Rongguo Mansion, confident Jia Huan would fall without power.
• Jia Mu and Jia Zheng watched the Wang Family leave and feared the Jia Family was doomed, while Jia Mu mourned Huan's lost prospects.
• An Embroidered Uniform Guard commander summoned Jia Huan to the Imperial Prison, where Xu Jingchun questioned him about the assassination at the Duke's Estate.
• Xu Jingchun gave Jia Huan a letter detailing the victims' injuries and privately expressed hope that he would withstand the conspiracy.

Jia Huan received a lead linking the attack on his allies to Elder Fire Lotus of the Quanzhen Sect and prepared to investigate alone. Medicine King Valley reluctantly agreed to contact Misty Rain Tower, while Jia Huan left instructions to protect Rongguo Mansion before departing for Mount Zhongnan.

• Jia Huan read Pacification Commissioner Xu's report that the killer had used a powerful left-handed palm strike and peerless lightness skill.
• Medicine King Valley's elders initially refused to help Jia Huan, but An Xuan'er's master warned them about his supposedly protective master, and they agreed to write to Misty Rain Tower.
• An Xuan'er delivered Misty Rain Tower's letter identifying the Heart-Burning Palm and naming Elder Fire Lotus, a ninth-layer Profound Insight Realm expert residing at the Quanzhen Sect.
• Jia Huan burned the letter, gave An Xuan'er emergency instructions, and told his followers to seek Pacification Commissioner Xu's aid if Rongguo Mansion was surrounded.
• Jia Huan quietly departed for Mount Zhongnan alone with two carrier pigeons.

Jia Huan forced the Quanzhen Sect to reveal that Eunuch Xia had persuaded Elder Fire Lotus to leave Mount Zhongnan. He left with Fire Lotus’s portrait and growing suspicions about Xia Shouzhong and the emperor.

• Jia Huan reached Mount Zhongnan and made Yuan Zhonglou receive him by revealing his formidable cultivation.
• When Yuan Zhonglou refused to help, Jia Huan broke his arm with Buddha’s Palm and defeated the Seven Elders of Quanzhen.
• Jia Huan threatened to destroy the sect unless Yuan Zhonglou answered his questions, and Yuan Zhonglou surrendered.
• Yuan Zhonglou said Elder Fire Lotus had left Mount Zhongnan after repeated visits from a eunuch surnamed Xia.
• Jia Huan identified the eunuch as Xia Shouzhong, connected him to the confiscated weapons, and questioned whether the emperor was involved.
• Jia Huan ordered Yuan Zhonglou to draw Fire Lotus’s portrait, warned the Quanzhen elders to keep silent, and left with the portrait.

After Emperor Jingde refused to punish Jia Huan without evidence, Yin Xuanli took his silence as permission to seek revenge against the Jia Family. Empress Yin threatened the clan, but Jia Huan’s relatives escaped before palace officials could seize them, leaving the family’s fate in turmoil.

• Emperor Jingde told Yin Xuanli he would remain commander of the Five City Troops Command but would not act against Jia Huan without evidence, and Yin resolved to destroy the Jia Family.
• Empress Yin summoned Concubine Zhao and the other women to Fengyi Palace, but Wang Xifeng claimed Concubine Zhao was too ill to travel, so the eunuchs withdrew.
• Empress Yin summoned Jia Mu, threatened the Jia Family with extermination, and kept her kneeling for half an hour before sending her home.
• At dawn, the palace eunuchs found Jia Huan’s household missing from Rongguo Mansion, with a breach in the rear wall and the palace guards gone.
• Jia Mu said she did not know where the fugitives were, while an eunuch reported that Jia Zheng had also disappeared; the Python-Robe Eunuch rushed to report the escape to the Central Court.

Jia Huan enlisted Qin Geng and Commissioner Ouyang to uncover Elder Fire Lotus’s hiding place while his family remained concealed outside the Capital. After receiving Ouyang’s intelligence, Jia Huan found the likely residence and approached it, where Elder Fire Lotus sensed an oppressive presence.

• Jia Huan sent Qin Geng to deliver a secret letter to Commissioner Ouyang asking him to investigate Xia Shouzhong’s residences and haunts.
• Commissioner Ouyang weighed the danger of defying Jiang Wuyuan, then chose to investigate Xia Shouzhong’s records at the Experiences Office.
• Qin Geng returned with Ouyang’s secret letter listing three addresses and a rough military map, and Jia Huan praised his loyalty.
• Jia Huan ruled out two locations and watched the likely hiding place of Elder Fire Lotus as Embroidered Uniform Guards and city troops searched the Capital.
• Elder Fire Lotus sensed approaching footsteps in his hidden chamber, felt an unprecedented oppression, and stepped out to confront the unknown visitor.

Jia Huan defeated Elder Fire Lotus and forced him to reveal that Xia Shouzhong and Qiu Jiujie had helped frame the Kirin Office. Disguised in black, Jia Huan then headed to the Duke's Maternal Uncle's Estate, determined to kill the imperial maternal uncle.

• Jia Huan overwhelmed Elder Fire Lotus with the Three Buddha-Light Palms, leaving the Western Regions martial artist crippled and his martial will shattered.
• Jia Huan found five young men from the Ancient Mandala Church at the estate and knocked them unconscious with Formless Kalpa Finger strikes.
• Elder Fire Lotus confessed that Xia Shouzhong had ordered the attack and that Qiu Jiujie supplied weapons and armor; he also admitted stealing Chen Yu's Waist Token to frame the Kirin Office.
• Jia Huan threatened Elder Fire Lotus with the lives of the five young men and gave them poison before leaving.
• Jia Huan changed into black clothes, put on a Human-Skin Mask, and set out to kill the imperial maternal uncle at the Duke's Maternal Uncle's Estate.

Jia Huan attacked the Duke's Maternal Uncle's Estate and killed the Imperial Uncle, Yin Xuanli, despite the court's guards and experts. He left Yin Xuanli's severed head beneath the estate's plaque, setting the stage for a crisis across Great Qian.

• Jia Huan killed the stooped Old Eunuch with one punch, then slaughtered the Imperial Palace Experts and Martial World Elders guarding the estate.
• Jia Huan entered the rear residence, killed another Old Eunuch, and revealed his identity to Yin Xuanli after unsealing Yin's acupoints.
• Jia Huan rejected Yin Xuanli's pleas and killed him, then cut off his head and erased his traces as he left.
• A Yin Family Retainer returned to the estate and discovered Yin Xuanli's severed head hanging beneath the Gilded Plaque.

After Empress Yin learned that her brother Yin Xuanli had been murdered and publicly humiliated, the Retired Emperor ordered the Capital sealed and Jia Huan arrested. The authorities began seizing the Jia family and searching for Jia Huan’s relatives, while a dark figure left Qiu Jiujie’s estate with a sheaf of letters.

• Eunuch Zhong told Empress Yin that her brother had been murdered and his head hung above his estate gates, and she accused Jia Huan before fainting.
• The Retired Emperor and Emperor Jingde ordered the Capital sealed and commanded the Grand Secretariat and Embroidered Uniform Guard to arrest Jia Huan.
• A Wang Family Elder took Jia Baoyu and Madam Wang to the Capital Camp, warning that Jia Huan’s actions threatened the whole Jia family.
• Pacification Commissioner Xuanyuan’s forces arrested Jia Zhen, Jia Rong, Jia She, Jia Mu, and other members of the Jia family at Ningrong Street.
• After learning that Jia Huan’s birth parents might be hiding in Anyi Ward, Xuanyuan ordered his men to search for them.
• A dark figure emerged from Qiu Jiujie’s estate carrying a sheaf of letters and entered a deserted alley.

Jia Huan reached the Capital after fighting through the troops, surrendered to demand an audience with the Retired Emperor, and insisted his men be left unharmed. As the court’s forces escorted him toward the city, he concealed his true strength while onlookers believed he was doomed to execution and disgrace.

• Commissioner Ouyang learned that over thirteen hundred Embroidered Uniform Guards had fought their way out of the Capital and that Yan and Zhang were battling the White Tiger Office in Anyi Ward.
• Jia Huan fought through five li of road to the Capital gates, leaving bodies behind as his loyal followers gathered around him.
• Jia Huan mocked the authorities’ accusations, then surrendered to Pacification Commissioner Xu Jingchun on the condition that he meet the Retired Emperor and his men remain untouched.
• An Inner Court expert sealed Jia Huan’s acupoints, dantian, and meridians, but Jia Huan secretly believed the attempt could not restrain him.
• The Embroidered Uniform Guards escorted Jia Huan through the Capital as residents and scholars watched, convinced that he would die disgraced.

Jia Huan stood trial before the Retired Emperor for assassinating the imperial uncle and claimed he had accepted the blame to protect Great Qian. He named the true killer by fixing his gaze on Xia Shouzhong, whose shock revealed that Jia Huan had struck a nerve.

• After Jia Huan surrendered, Scholar Twin Whips urged the martial elders to protect his family and hurried toward the Imperial City.
• Jiang Wuyuan ordered Xuanyuan to massacre Jia Huan’s family, associates, and connected Jianghu factions after the execution.
• Jia Huan entered the Grand Secretariat’s yamen under guard as the Retired Emperor and high ministers prepared to judge him.
• When accused of fleeing punishment, Jia Huan admitted he had been afraid and said he feared failing the Retired Emperor.
• Jia Huan said he knew the killer from the beginning and had accepted the infamy to preserve Great Qian’s reputation.
• Jia Huan identified Xia Shouzhong with his gaze, and Xia Shouzhong trembled in shock.

Jia Huan exposed Xia Shouzhong’s role in framing him, and the Retired Emperor ordered the real culprits arrested. An investigation confirmed the plot and Xia confessed to framing Jia Huan, but he continued to deny murdering the Imperial Uncle and accused Jia Huan instead.

• Jia Huan named Elder Fire Lotus and Qiu Jiujie, unsettling Xia Shouzhong, then gave the Retired Emperor a secret letter urging him to arrest the criminals.
• The Retired Emperor dispatched trusted officials to investigate, and they arrested suspects connected to the missing weapons and Elder Fire Lotus’s attack on the Duke’s Maternal Uncle’s Estate.
• Grand Secretary Gao reported that the Ministry of War officials had confessed and that arrested eunuchs implicated Xia Shouzhong in framing Jia Huan.
• The Retired Emperor confronted Xia Shouzhong and asked whether someone had ordered him to frame Jia Huan, while Emperor Jingde watched in silence.
• Xia Shouzhong confessed to framing Jia Huan and unlawfully torturing the Imperial Uncle, but denied killing him and accused Jia Huan of murder.
• Jia Huan declared that he had sworn to avenge the Imperial Uncle and ensure he could rest in peace.