Chapter Summaries

Hoolay resumed his escape attempt on the Luofu but chose not to attack Jiaoqiu before Moze arrived, while March 7th and Yunli boarded the Contest of Blades Ship for the Wardance. March remained nervous about competing as Yanqing’s substitute, but followed Yunli toward the Competitors’ Hall.

• Tir Anders reminded Hoolay that his escape was doomed, and Hoolay felt exhausted as he reconsidered biting Jiaoqiu and obeyed his instincts not to act.
• Hoolay confronted Moze, declared his intention to lead the Wolf Soldiers through the Luofu, and rallied them as cannon fire sounded from the Contest of Blades Ship.
• March 7th boarded the ship with Yunli and worried that she was unprepared to defend Yanqing’s title in the Wardance.
• Yunli encouraged March to compete, warning that she had promised General Huaiyan and telling her to rely on a jumping slash.
• Xikui welcomed March and Yunli, told them March’s substitute entry had been announced, and directed them toward the Competitors’ Hall.

Yunli coached March 7th to study opponents' weapons and fighting styles before the Wardance. A reporter interviewed March 7th, whose words were mysteriously hijacked, leaving her to make a startling claim about Yanqing and publicly challenge General Feixiao.

• Yunli taught March 7th to assess opponents by examining their weapons and choosing tactics suited to their weaknesses.
• March 7th approached a reporter in formalwear, who recognized her as Yanqing's replacement in the Wardance.
• The reporter asked whether Yanqing was seriously injured, and March 7th blurted out that Little Fish had beaten him up.
• March 7th named General Feixiao as the opponent she wanted to face, and the reporter announced that she had challenged the Yaoqing general.
• March 7th told Yunli that she had lost control of her mouth and forgotten what she meant to say.

March 7th tried to size up the Wardance competitors and ended up rattling one by bragging about her teachers, then eased into the event before getting nervous again at the arena. Yunli left to inspect the ship while March 7th prepared for the opening match and worried about Yanqing and Little Fish.

• March 7th accidentally directed a Yaoqing competitor toward Little Fish, then identified herself and intimidated him by listing her three Swordsmanship teachers.
• March 7th asked a Cloud Knights guard about weaknesses and unusual activity, and invited him aboard the Astral Express to talk with their 'Shut Up.'
• March 7th told Yunli that seeing the gathered competitors had calmed her nerves, and the two went to view the arena.
• March 7th became nervous again as the bells rang and the first match approached, while Yunli left to inspect the ship on Grandpa's orders.

Feixiao and her companions rescued Moze from a Borisin trap and learned that Hoolay planned to attack the Luofu’s bustling districts. Jiang Yu eliminated Borisin forces across the Luofu and concluded that Hoolay would try to seize the Contest of Blades Ship.

• Feixiao led Yanqing, Stelle, and Jiang Yu to find Moze, who warned that Hoolay had left him in a trap and planned to declare war on Feixiao.
• Jiang Yu quickly defeated the disguised Borisin surrounding them, and Moze revealed that Hoolay intended to attack the Luofu’s bustling districts.
• Jiang Yu used wind ropes to kill Borisin Soldiers across the Luofu, and Feixiao issued orders to keep the Cloud Knights calm.
• Jiang Yu reasoned that Hoolay’s only escape route was to seize the Contest of Blades Ship, and Feixiao and the others understood his likely target.

Stelle and Moze searched Aurum Alley for Jiaoqiu and found the wounded Borisin Modu, whom Stelle tortured for information. Hoolay appeared as a projection to condemn her methods, but Stelle challenged his claim to dignity, leaving him speechless.

• Stelle and Moze arrived in Aurum Alley and found the Borisin slaughtered by Jiang Yu, with no obvious survivors to question.
• Stelle told Moze about Jiang Yu's destructive past, and they agreed to search the remains for someone still alive.
• Modu, badly wounded by Jiang Yu's attacks, refused to reveal where Hoolay and Jiaoqiu had gone and proclaimed his loyalty to Hoolay.
• Stelle used a whip on Modu and threatened him with tortures at Aha's Fragmentum Factory.
• Hoolay's projection appeared and called Stelle cruel, but Stelle rebuked him for expecting mercy as an invader, leaving him with nothing to say.

Feixiao accepted Hoolay’s challenge to meet aboard the Contest of Blades Ship, where she was confident he would be trapped. As the Wardance began, Yunli investigated an unscheduled Starskiff and found Yanqing arriving with steamed buns.

• Moze and Stelle taunted Hoolay before Feixiao arrived and confronted him.
• Hoolay invited Feixiao to the Contest of Blades Ship and declared his plan to slaughter its guests and escape with the ship.
• Stelle, Moze, and Feixiao laughed at Hoolay, and Feixiao accepted his challenge, warning that the ship would be his dead end.
• Yunli questioned a Cloud Knight about suspicious activity and learned that an unscheduled Starskiff had received clearance to dock.
• Yunli threatened to smash the silent Starskiff, but Yanqing emerged carrying two bags of steamed buns and said he had come to reinforce the ship.

Jiang Yu, Yunli, and Yanqing found injured Cloud Knights and disguised Borisin in the Contest of Blades Ship’s Engine Room, then joined the Cloud Knights at the Wardance arena. Hoolay seized the ring, but discovered the ship’s occupants had gathered to trap him as the Cloud Knights prepared to fight.

• Yunli told Yanqing that March 7th would defend the ring in his place, and the Contest of Blades Ship suddenly began to slow and shake.
• Jiang Yu, Yunli, and Yanqing found injured Cloud Knights in the Engine Room, where disguised Borisin confronted them.
• The wounded Cloud Knights recovered, defeated the Borisin, and then dispersed to carry out their duties.
• Jiang Yu, Yunli, and Yanqing arrived at the arena as Hoolay dropped into the ring and claimed the ship.
• Jiang Yu revealed that the spectators were all there for Hoolay, and the Cloud Knights surrounded the arena and prepared to battle.

Jing Yuan’s trap turned the Contest of Blades Ship into a battlefield, where Jiang Yu, Yanqing, Yunli, and March 7th attacked Hoolay. The chapter left Hoolay gravely wounded and pinned to the arena wall.

• Jing Yuan explained how the generals used the Wardance ship, Cloud Knight soldiers, and Feixiao’s pursuit to lure Hoolay into a prepared ambush.
• March 7th left the contestants’ lounge and joined Jiang Yu, Yanqing, and Yunli after the Cloud Knights overwhelmed the Borisin aboard the ship.
• Jiang Yu opened the fight by summoning Black Cleave, forcing Hoolay to dodge its devastating strike.
• Yanqing and March 7th attacked Hoolay from behind, and March 7th cut off his tail before Yunli deflected his counterattack.
• Jiang Yu severed Hoolay’s sword hand, struck his waist, and pinned him to the wall with his own blade.

Hoolay’s attempted escape from the Prison of Deep Seclusion failed after Tir Anders trapped him in countless parallel dreamscapes where every effort ended in defeat. When the dreams ended, Hoolay’s mind was torn apart, and Jiang Yu explained the severe risks of his condition to the gathered Xianzhou leaders.

• Hoolay repeatedly failed to escape in dreamscapes, suffering deaths and captures at the hands of Xianzhou fighters and other factions.
• Tir Anders told Hoolay that he had never left the Prison of Deep Seclusion and ended the parallel dreamscapes, forcing Hoolay to endure depersonalization.
• Hoolay’s Borisin kin were flattened into a picture, and Tir Anders emerged from the prison walls to notify the knights and Jiang Yu.
• Feixiao, Jing Yuan, Huaiyan, and the others found Hoolay writhing in agony, while Jiang Yu described his mind as forcibly torn into countless pieces.
• Jiang Yu explained that Hoolay might recover, remain mentally incapacitated, or suffer irreversible brain death, then directed Jiaoqiu’s attention elsewhere.

Jiang Yu and Jiaoqiu used Hoolay’s Scarlet Moon heart to treat Feixiao’s moon madness, then led a group to Scalegorge Waterscape to confront Dragon Master Taoran over the prison break and Bailu’s abduction. Jiang Yu rescued Bailu and beat Taoran, who was sent to the Factory with Hoolay’s corpse while the group prepared for a victory banquet and the Wardance.

• Jiaoqiu prepared Hoolay’s Scarlet Moon heart as a dish, and Feixiao ate it in hopes of curing her moon madness.
• Jiang Yu learned from Qingque that Bailu was at Scalegorge Waterscape and gathered allies to find her.
• At Scalegorge Waterscape, Jiang Yu presented Taoran with evidence linking him to the Prison of Deep Seclusion break, and Taoran admitted organizing it.
• Taoran revealed that he had abducted Bailu and invoked the Vidyadhara Oath of Alliance to protect himself.
• Jiang Yu beat Taoran, a former Sword Champion killed the mara-struck soldiers holding Bailu, and Taoran was sent to the Factory with Hoolay’s corpse.
• Jiang Yu’s group went to prepare another victory banquet before the Wardance, while Jiang Yu planned to visit the other Xianzhou ships afterward.