Chapter Summaries

Zuo Changlu taught Zuo Xiaoduo and Zuo Xiaonian that martial arts in troubled times meant protecting humanity and defeating enemies without mercy. He left them with a stern warning to remember their purpose and abandon softheartedness on the battlefield.

• Zuo Changlu told Zuo Xiaoduo and Zuo Xiaonian that their inherited swordsmanship was meant for lethal combat, not sparring.
• Zuo Changlu condemned sword styles that spared enemies and recounted how a swordsman’s mercy toward a talented boy led to his own death and the destruction of his family.
• Zuo Changlu argued that martial artists who served only their own sects and made friends through sparring failed to protect their people and nation.
• Zuo Changlu insisted that martial arts and cultivation served a greater purpose of protection during troubled times.
• Zuo Xiaoduo and Zuo Xiaonian listened solemnly and committed Zuo Changlu’s guidance to memory.

Zuo Changlu gave Zuo Xiaoduo and Zuo Xiaonian instructions and techniques to help them develop their swordsmanship, hammer arts, and movement skills, then spoke with Wu Yuting about their son’s strength and their plans to travel. The chapter ended with the injured Teng Guangyuan waking in the hospital, overwhelmed with shame as he recalled the day’s events.

• Zuo Changlu warned Zuo Xiaoduo and Zuo Xiaonian to cultivate their inherited techniques gradually, rename their sword arts, and reserve the Thousand Souls Hammer’s final move for life-or-death fights.
• Zuo Changlu gave Zuo Xiaoduo a pair of five-thousand-jin practice hammers and handed Zuo Xiaonian a sword art, along with footwork and flight techniques that she would later teach Zuo Xiaoduo.
• Zuo Changlu cautioned Zuo Xiaoduo not to get carried away after his breakthrough, and Zuo Xiaonian laughed at his reaction.
• Zuo Changlu told Wu Yuting that Zuo Xiaoduo’s foundation was far stronger than expected and that he had given the siblings their techniques; they agreed to travel once the great hammers were forged.
• Teng Guangyuan woke in the hospital with severe injuries, learned that his wife and son were still unconscious, and wept with shame over the day’s upheavals.

Teng Guangyuan reported himself to Director Jiang and vowed to damage the Meng Group after Meng Tianyue humiliated him. Meanwhile, Mo Xuanyi felt an inexplicable pull toward Phoenix City and intervened when she found a man assaulting a young woman.

• Teng Guangyuan called Director Jiang, filed a report under his real name, and said he would wait at the hospital because he feared retaliation.
• Teng Guangyuan vowed to make the Meng Group suffer for the humiliation Meng Tianyue had inflicted on his family.
• Mo Xuanyi wandered Phoenix City, feeling a growing sense of familiarity, longing, and unease.
• Mo Xuanyi heard cries for help and discovered a man assaulting an unconscious young woman while her parents lay beaten nearby.
• Mo Xuanyi entered through the window with her sword drawn and ordered the lecher to stop.

Mo Xuanyi confronted Ning Family Sixth Young Master while he was assaulting a woman, but his bodyguards and reinforcements turned the fight into a citywide pursuit. She fled while hiding her Greedy Wolf identity and considered drawing her pursuers outside Phoenix City before striking back.

• Mo Xuanyi attacked the lecher after he revealed he belonged to the Ning Family, and he summoned four guards, including a Dan Origin Realm expert.
• Sixth Young Master Ning joined the fight and declared that he wanted to capture Mo Xuanyi, while she used ordinary sword techniques to avoid exposing herself as Greedy Wolf.
• Mo Xuanyi fled through a window and tried to lure her pursuers beyond the city before unleashing her full strength.
• Sixth Young Master Ning called for more people, and Ning Family members emerged across the roads to intercept Mo Xuanyi as she escaped.

Yun Jueying rescued Mo Xuanyi from Ning Family attackers, then Qin Fangyang, Sister Lan, and Qiu Yunshang arrived and punished the clan for preying on women. The Ning Family faced a threat of destruction if its prohibition remained lifted and its members continued targeting innocents.

• Yun Jueying arrived and used his sword to kill several attackers before reaching Mo Xuanyi.
• Mo Xuanyi told Yun Jueying how Sixth Young Master Ning had pursued her and summoned Ning Family members to attack her.
• Yun Jueying fought through the Ning Family reinforcements and took Mo Xuanyi away.
• Qin Fangyang appeared before the Ning Family Fourth Uncle and dropped more than thirty heads, while Sister Lan added more and threatened to wipe out the clan if Ning Suifeng kept the prohibition lifted.
• Qiu Yunshang arrived and warned the Ning Family not to target ordinary women and children again.

Qin Fangyang and Sister Lan killed dozens of Ning Family members after the family lifted its ban, leaving Ning Suifeng too weakened to retaliate against them or Qiu Yunshang. He ordered his people to find the two unfamiliar outsiders who had provoked the family, and they soon located them at the Cloudglow Hotel.

• Qin Fangyang revealed his identity and vanished, while Sister Lan killed Sixth Young Master Ning before leaving.
• Fourth Uncle Ning saw the Ning Family’s losses and realized powerful enemies had been waiting for the family to act.
• Ning Suifeng learned that sixty-five descendants had died, rejected retaliation against Qin Fangyang and Sister Lan, and noted that Qiu Yunshang had sided against the family.
• Ning Suifeng ordered an investigation into the black-clad woman and her senior brother, then demanded that the two be brought back to him.
• The Ning Family found the senior brother and junior sister at the Cloudglow Hotel, where they had checked in that day with a middle-aged man.

Ning Suifeng revealed to Ning Qingcheng how he and Meng Tianyue had obstructed He Yuanyue’s efforts to help the Phoenix Vein, believing their selfishness had brought the Ning Family to ruin. He explained that the ancestral graves’ collapse convinced him the family was finished, and that he had lifted the prohibition in hopes of preserving its bloodline.

• Ning Suifeng sent all four of the Ning Family’s Infant Transformation experts and more than thirty Core Origin Realm cultivators to capture their enemies.
• Ning Suifeng led Ning Qingcheng into a hidden study beneath his own and told her the Ning Family was facing disaster.
• Ning Suifeng confessed that he and Meng Tianyue had secretly prevented He Yuanyue from spreading news about the Phoenix Vein and had helped suppress the Phoenix’s rise.
• Ning Suifeng admitted that he had sought to secure the Phoenix Vein for his own Lineage, and warned Ning Qingcheng that an apparent opportunity could be a trap.
• Ning Suifeng told Ning Qingcheng that the ancestral graves’ collapse had convinced him the Ning Family was finished, and that he had lifted the prohibition to try to leave behind an heir.

Ning Suifeng explained that the Ning Family’s feng shui protections had collapsed and that their plan to kill the Spirit Thought Heavenly Maiden was doomed. He revealed that he had sent the family’s forces on a near-suicidal mission to distract their enemies and give him and Ning Qingcheng a chance to talk.

• Ning Suifeng told Ning Qingcheng that the Ning Family’s ancestral graveyard had pinned down the Phoenix Vein’s left foot, but its collapse had freed it.
• Ning Suifeng said the Meng Group’s coming collapse would free the Phoenix Vein’s right foot, while Blind Hong’s death left them unable to repair the formation.
• Ning Suifeng warned that Mu Yanyan, Qin Fangyang, the Kunlun Dao Sect, and Witch Alliance experts made attacking the Spirit Thought Heavenly Maiden a deadly trap.
• Ning Suifeng suspected Meng Chentian was the real power behind Meng Tianyue and was tied to the Witch Alliance.
• Ning Suifeng concluded that the Ning Family’s forces were unlikely to return after confronting a powerful sect, whose elder was probably at least in the early stage of Cloud Transformation.
• Ning Suifeng explained that he had sent the family’s core fighters to distract everyone watching the Ning residence, creating an opportunity for him and Ning Qingcheng to speak.

Ning Suifeng revealed that Ning Qingcheng was not his biological daughter and urged her to escape the doomed Ning Family. She fled through his secret passage with money and supplies, while he prepared to destroy the route behind her.

• Ning Suifeng told Ning Qingcheng that her mother, Yu Danqing, had been pregnant when he took her in, and that he had murdered her to keep Ning Qingcheng, whose star soul was exceptionally strong.
• Ning Suifeng explained that Ning Qingcheng was not part of the Ning Family and gave her money, treasures, a new identity, and directions to escape through secret passages.
• Ning Qingcheng refused to leave, so Ning Suifeng stabbed himself and threatened to die unless she went immediately.
• Ning Qingcheng took the card and Space Rings, kowtowed to Ning Suifeng, and escaped through the opening behind the bookcase.
• Ning Suifeng watched her go and said he would activate the mechanism to blow up the passage's middle section in ten minutes.

Ning Qingcheng escaped the Ning Family as Ning Suifeng sealed the passage and accepted the family’s defeat. In Phoenix City, a mysterious Cloud Transformation expert rescued two fighters from the Ning Family, then evaded pursuit, leaving Jiang Changbin worried that the newcomers were after the Phoenix Vein Soul Impact.

• Ning Qingcheng left the Ning Family residence, and Ning Suifeng sealed the passage behind her before pulling the sword from his chest.
• The Ning Family attacked a man and a woman at the Cloudglow Hotel, but the battle destroyed the hotel and left thirty-nine of the family’s fifty elite fighters dead.
• A middle-aged Cloud Transformation expert joined the battle, rescued the man and woman, and fled with them on his sword.
• Han Song and another Cloud Transformation expert pursued the middle-aged man but lost his trail after only a few turns.
• Jiang Changbin suspected the newcomers had come for the Phoenix Vein Soul Impact and decided to investigate their origins.

Fang Yinuo confronted Yun Jueying and Mo Xuanyi after their actions drew the Ning Family’s attention, then ordered them to disguise themselves. The next morning, Meng Tianyue questioned why Ning Suifeng had caused such a public scandal, while Meng Chentian struggled to understand the Ning Family’s motives.

• Fang Yinuo berated Yun Jueying and Mo Xuanyi for provoking the Ning Family while they were supposed to remain unnoticed.
• Mo Xuanyi explained that she had intervened to stop women from being abused, and Yun Jueying defended her actions.
• Fang Yinuo revealed that two Cloud Transformation cultivators had pursued them and warned that the Phoenix Vein could draw powerful forces to the city.
• Fang Yinuo ordered Yun Jueying and Mo Xuanyi to disguise themselves so thoroughly that even their own mothers would not recognize them.
• Meng Tianyue angrily questioned Ning Suifeng’s reason for causing a public scandal, while Meng Chentian could not work out the Ning Family’s intent.

Meng Tianyue faced a sweeping official investigation of the Meng Group after a real-name report accused it of thirty-five offenses. Meanwhile, a mysterious underground opening drained lakes and rivers, including the Meng Group’s private lake.

• Meng Tianyue learned that two Meng family members had died suddenly, then received word that multiple government bureaus had arrived to investigate the Meng Group.
• Officials led by Han Song searched the headquarters, and Meng Chentian asked them not to disrupt the company’s normal business.
• Meng Tianyue contacted his connections for help, but they backed away after learning Star Shield Headquarters was leading the operation.
• Water around the collapsed Ning Lineage graves rapidly drained underground, leaving a dark hole in the bed of the Ning Lineage’s artificial lake.
• The Wenshui River poured into the hole, and the Meng Group’s private artificial lake also drained away.

The underground collapse flooded the former Ning Clan Ancestral Tombs and threatened the surrounding area, forcing an evacuation as the Meng Group headquarters began to tilt. Meanwhile, Fang Yinuo was exposed to his sect, and He Yuanyue sent Sister Lan and Zuo Xiaoduo to inspect Phoenix Looking Back as events seemed close to a turning point.

• Water from the Wenshui River filled the underground void, turning the former Ning Clan Ancestral Tombs into a lake and prompting the Governor's Residence to order an evacuation.
• Experts confirmed that the Meng Group headquarters was tilting toward the evacuation zone and would likely collapse into the Meng Family Artificial Lake, so residents and employees fled.
• The Greedy Wolf Sect envoy contacted Fang Yinuo, revealing that his concealment had failed, while Mo Xuanyi wondered how to meet Master Zuo without her Martial Uncle noticing.
• He Yuanyue told Sister Lan to bring Zuo Xiaoduo to Phoenix Looking Back that night to check the situation, believing the developments meant something was about to take flight.
• Zuo Xiaoduo focused on consolidating his cultivation and practicing his new sword technique, while Wan Lixiu told him her birthday banquet was the following evening.

Zuo Xiaoduo visited Zuo Xiaonian to read her face amid Phoenix City’s upheavals, while the planned grand birthday banquet for Wan Lixiu was reduced to a private gathering. The chapter left Zuo Xiaoduo increasingly bold in teasing Zuo Xiaonian, who had grown used to his new nickname and frequent visits.

• The upheavals in Phoenix City led Wan Lixiu’s family to cancel the public birthday banquet and hold only a small gathering.
• Zuo Xiaoduo felt relieved that his birthday performance would have a smaller audience.
• Zuo Xiaoduo began calling Zuo Xiaonian “Nian Nian Cat” after his breakthrough, and she gradually stopped resisting the nickname.
• Zuo Xiaoduo went to Zuo Xiaonian’s room and asked to read her face to check how things stood.
• Zuo Xiaonian dragged Zuo Xiaoduo inside and listened as he explained his visit, while he continued his frequent face readings of her.

Zuo Xiaoduo read Zuo Xiaonian’s fortune and found that her situation had improved greatly, though the calamity had not fully passed. He told her that a clear chance of survival was emerging and that hope could no longer be stopped.

• Zuo Xiaoduo stared at Zuo Xiaonian while pretending to study her fortune, and she caught him checking her from every angle.
• Zuo Xiaonian beat Zuo Xiaoduo for making excuses, then demanded to know what he had seen.
• Zuo Xiaoduo said the situation had improved enormously and held Zuo Xiaonian’s hand as he explained.
• Zuo Xiaoduo described dark clouds remaining over Zuo Xiaonian’s fate but said a strong chance of survival and sunlight had broken through.

Zuo Xiaoduo told Zuo Xiaonian that their odds had reached fifty percent, though he still needed to find the source of help predicted by her physiognomy. That night, a motorcade arrived at the Governor’s Residence, and a veiled woman stepped out.

• Zuo Xiaoduo examined Zuo Xiaonian’s physiognomy and resolved to find the help that could improve her chances of survival.
• Zuo Xiaonian reflected on the schemes Zuo Xiaoduo had carried out to protect her and quietly thanked him, but struck him after he called her his wife.
• Sister Lan called Zuo Xiaoduo and instructed him to meet Teacher Qin at Phoenix Looking Back at midnight, bringing Zuo Xiaonian and, if possible, Teacher Mu.
• A motorcade entered Phoenix City and arrived at the Governor’s Residence, where Wan Pingyuan welcomed a veiled woman who stepped out of the second car.

Gu Luoyan arrived in Phoenix City to visit Wan Pingyuan, his wife, and Wan Lixiu despite the danger there, and said she wanted to meet the Spirit Thought Heavenly Maiden. Wan Pingyuan urged her to leave and began explaining the troubles that had plagued him since he came to the city.

• Gu Luoyan arrived with a large entourage and greeted Wan Pingyuan, joking about being his seventy-third niece by marriage.
• Wan Lixiu rushed out to welcome Gu Luoyan, and the cousins embraced before going inside with the family.
• Wan Pingyuan warned Gu Luoyan that Phoenix City was dangerous and urged her to leave the next day, but she insisted on staying for Wan Lixiu's birthday.
• Gu Luoyan revealed that she had contacted Martial Uncle Mu because she wanted to meet the Spirit Thought Heavenly Maiden.
• Wan Pingyuan began recounting how he had come to Phoenix City to lie low and had nearly died during a wolf-bandit outbreak in his first year.

Wan Pingyuan told Gu Luoyan how Witch Alliance schemes, Phoenix City family upheavals, and the approaching Phoenix Vein Soul Impact had plunged the city into crisis. He urged her to leave while he gathered the Governor's Residence experts for the coming battle.

• Wan Pingyuan recounted how Witch Alliance infiltrators and Star Shield Headquarters involvement had turned Phoenix City into a dangerous gathering place for powerful cultivators.
• Wan Pingyuan explained that the rumored Phoenix Vein Soul Impact was expected within days and would primarily target the Spirit Thought Heavenly Maiden, whom Gu Luoyan wanted to meet.
• Wan Pingyuan showed Gu Luoyan the Meng Group Headquarters Building, which had tilted nearly thirty degrees, and said evidence of the Meng Group's crimes had surfaced.
• Wan Pingyuan warned that the Meng Family and Phoenix City could be destroyed when the Witch Alliance and Star Soul Continent experts fought over the Phoenix Vein.
• Wan Pingyuan urged Gu Luoyan to leave Phoenix City and said he had confined the Governor's Residence experts as they prepared for the battle.

Wan Pingyuan joined Gu Luoyan and two aura-reading masters to inspect Phoenix City’s Feng Shui formation, while He Yuanyue showed Zuo Xiaoduo and the others how the Phoenix Vein was breaking free. The chapter left the Phoenix Vein poised to rise as He Yuanyue’s life neared its end.

• Gu Luoyan told Wan Pingyuan that her two aura-reading experts had detected chaos and fierce baleful intent in Phoenix City’s Feng Shui formation.
• Gao Wencheng and Wang Shiyu advised Wan Pingyuan to observe the city from a high point north of it, and he agreed to go with Gu Luoyan.
• Qin Fangyang realized that He Yuanyue was near death after exhausting her origin and suffering the backlash of forbidden medicine.
• He Yuanyue told Zuo Xiaoduo that the Phoenix Vein was breaking free and gathering momentum to soar.
• Zuo Xiaoduo saw the Phoenix taking shape in the rising mist, with one claw free and the other nearly released.

He Yuanyue explained the Phoenix Vein’s dangers and compared its situation with the unusually dormant Dragon Vein. After examining the tangled forces surrounding the Phoenix Vein, Zuo Xiaoduo realized that the Phoenix Mansion was hidden in the Phoenix Dance Garden Residential Community, where his family lived.

• He Yuanyue explained that the Phoenix Vein faced danger from both enemies seeking its fortune and allies driven by selfish desires.
• Zuo Xiaonian asked about the Dragon Vein that had risen without obstruction, and He Yuanyue described it as an exceptionally dormant and miserly anomaly.
• Zuo Xiaoduo looked again at the Phoenix Vein and saw that friend and foe were intricately entangled, though the overall situation had improved.
• He Yuanyue said the Phoenix Mansion’s location remained unknown, and Zuo Xiaoduo realized it was the Phoenix Dance Garden Residential Community.