Chapter Summaries

Li Xian learned about the stages of martial cultivation and decided to seek instruction from a master outside the Dingfeng Marquis Estate. When estate guards tried to stop him from leaving, he defeated them and walked out, leaving the household in uproar.

• Zhang Yao explained the nine stages of martial cultivation, but admitted she knew little about exchanging blood, cleansing marrow, and cultivating True Qi.
• After learning that the Marquis of Dingfeng was away, Li Xian decided to visit Zhou Juechen at Dragon Spring Martial Arts Hall for instruction.
• Li Xian recalled his previous life, where he reached the pinnacle of martial arts before a bullet killed him, and resolved to explore this world's martial arts himself.
• Li Xian left the estate with his identity document and told two guards they had no right to stop him.
• When a guard grabbed him, Li Xian broke the man's shoulder, then dodged Zhang Qing's punch and struck him down with a series of powerful blows.
• Li Xian left the estate, and its people raised the alarm that the live-in son-in-law had turned against his masters.

Li Xian visited the Dragon Spring Martial Arts Hall to seek Zhou Juechen’s instruction in advanced martial cultivation, but Zhou mistook his visit for an attempt to seek forgiveness over his marriage. The chapter ended with Zhou wagering that Li Xian would achieve nothing in three months and ordering Hongyu to begin his training.

• Li Xian crossed the bridge where the original Li Xian had been kicked into the river and vowed there would be a reckoning.
• At the Dragon Spring Martial Arts Hall, Hongyu recognized Li Xian as one of Lijiang’s Four Great Talents and brought him to Zhou Juechen.
• Zhou Juechen initially told Li Xian to leave, assuming he wanted help gaining forgiveness from Zhou’s third granduncle.
• Li Xian asked Zhou to teach him Blood Exchange and Marrow Washing, as well as the principles of later martial stages, and explained what he already understood.
• Zhou gave Li Xian a booklet of cultivation methods and set a three-month wager: if Li Xian achieved nothing, he had to break off his engagement, apologize, and return to studying.
• Li Xian accepted, and Zhou ordered Hongyu to feed him Eight-Treasure Soup and put him through intensive training.

Li Xian began training at Dragon Spring Martial Arts Hall and learned why its Azure Jade Fist required costly medicinal nourishment. After studying the Five Elements Art that evening, he noticed that the Impervious Body realm resembled the Embracing Qi and Forming a Core attainment from his previous life.

• Hongyu introduced Li Xian to the Azure Jade Fist, and he quickly memorized and practiced its routine.
• Li Xian claimed he was verifying higher realms, but Hongyu rebuked him for trying to advance without first building his body’s foundation.
• Li Xian accepted Hongyu’s advice and practiced the Azure Jade Fist alongside his Myriad Forms Limitless Art.
• Li Xian drank Eight-Treasure Soup and learned that its medicinal ingredients helped support martial training, though regular doses were costly.
• Li Xian returned to his rented courtyard, read Zhou Juechen’s Five Elements Art, and wondered whether Impervious Body’s primordial unity resembled Embracing Qi and Forming a Core.

Li Xian realized how the early cultivation realms fit together and began cultivating blood qi while attempting to advance through several foundational realms at once. At the Dragon Spring Martial Arts Hall, he defeated Hongyu in a spar and secured three bowls of Eight-Treasure Soup each day, while his possible role as an instructor awaited the master's return.

• Li Xian concluded that heaven and earth had prevented him from reaching the innate realm in his previous life, then began cultivating blood qi and planned to advance through four realms at once.
• Li Xian arrived at the martial arts hall, practiced while Hongyu taught the disciples, and asked to spar with her to demonstrate his ability.
• Li Xian caught Hongyu's punch, broke her grip, and nearly struck her neck, leaving her shocked by how decisively she had lost.
• Li Xian explained that he had extensive theoretical knowledge and asked to work as a temporary instructor in exchange for meals and Eight-Treasure Soup.
• Hongyu said she could not appoint him without her master's approval, but promised him three bowls of Eight-Treasure Soup daily and let him draw his food and living expenses from the hall.

Li Xian returned to his lodgings and found guards from the Dingfeng Marquis Estate had ransacked his home while waiting for him. He killed three guards in a sudden counterattack, then disarmed and killed their captain Liu Feng, leaving the rest of the group facing him.

• Li Xian returned to Green Ink Alley and heard guards from the Dingfeng Marquis Estate waiting inside his courtyard.
• Li Xian found that the guards had overturned his rooms and trampled his belongings, so he refused to let them leave.
• Liu Feng ordered three bone-tempering guards to attack Li Xian, who killed all three in a rapid counterattack.
• Liu Feng charged Li Xian with his saber, but Li Xian used Listening to the Blade to break the weapon and cut Liu Feng's throat.

Li Xian killed Liu Feng and defeated the marquis’s guards after they broke into his courtyard, then demanded compensation for his losses. When the remaining guards could not pay in full, he decided to accompany them to the Dingfeng Marquis Estate and confront the trouble there.

• Li Xian killed Liu Feng, leaving the eight surviving guards frightened and unwilling to fight.
• Li Xian persuaded the guards to admit their fault and pay ten taels each in compensation.
• Li Xian found forty-three taels and a fist technique manual on Liu Feng and the other bodies, then sent four guards to take the corpses to the government office.
• Tan Zhang tried to dissuade Li Xian from visiting the estate, but Li Xian said he intended to resolve the trouble there.
• Tan Zhang and the guards escorted Li Xian toward the Dingfeng Marquis Estate, four li away.

Li Xian confronted Mo Caiying and the Dingfeng Marquis Estate, warning that his martial strength made him a deadly threat. He broke through the guards’ formation and closed in on Mo Caiying, but Liu Fu launched a perfectly timed attack as Li Xian emerged from the encirclement.

• A guard warned Mo Caiying that Li Xian had killed Liu Feng and was heading to the estate, prompting her to summon the guards and prepare for a fight.
• Li Xian arrived at the estate, rejected Mo Caiying’s accusations, and told Tan Zhang to close the gates, but Tan Zhang did not move.
• Li Xian explained that his strength let him reach and kill Mo Caiying, frightening her despite Liu Fu’s assurance that he could defeat him.
• Fang Xin led the guards in an attack, but Li Xian charged through their formation, knocking guards aside and advancing to within ten meters of Mo Caiying.
• Liu Fu sprang at Li Xian with a clawing strike aimed at his head as Li Xian broke out of the guards’ encirclement.

Li Xian defeated Liu Fu and held Mo Caiying at saberpoint while demanding that the Marquis's Residence leave him alone. He secured her promise and collected the eighty taels owed before leaving.

• Li Xian unleashed his Origin Core, broke Liu Fu's hand with a punch, and killed him with a swift saber strike.
• Li Xian rushed at Mo Caiying and held his saber to her neck, stopping short of killing her after Zhang Yao cried out.
• Li Xian rejected Fang Xin and Tan Zhang's threats, and Tan Zhang recognized that the Residence could not easily intimidate him.
• At Zhang Yao's urging, Mo Caiying promised that the Residence would not trouble Li Xian again and would treat him with respect.
• Li Xian withdrew his saber, took the eighty taels from Mo Caiying's maid, returned twenty taels as change, and said farewell.

Li Xian left the Dingfeng Marquis Estate after defeating its guards, while Mo Caiying resolved to investigate his sudden martial progress and summon Martial Master Zhao. Outside, Li Xian relished the pain of being wounded by an expert and embraced the prospect of a world filled with powerful martial artists.

• Li Xian walked out of the Marquis's Residence unopposed, leaving Mo Caiying and the others stunned.
• Mo Caiying ordered Fang Xin to summon Martial Master Zhao and secretly investigate Li Xian's martial arts, warning everyone to keep the incident quiet.
• Mo Caiying rewarded Zhang Yao for speaking up, then questioned her about when Li Xian began practicing and what he had studied.
• Zhang Yao told Mo Caiying that Li Xian began practicing a month earlier after recovering from a serious illness and described his martial training in detail.
• Li Xian examined his injured hand and savored the pain from fighting Liu Fu, imagining the powerful martial artists and realms that awaited him in this world.

Li Xian’s martial arts talent drew the attention of Lijiang’s upper circles, and Elder Zhou reconsidered his opposition to Li Xian’s training. Hongyu and Elder Zhou then worried that the Dingfeng Marquis Estate and the Commandery Prince’s Residence might move against Li Xian to protect their plan for the Dragon Gate Token.

• Li Xian reached great accomplishment in muscle and bone training after days of costly practice and prepared to refine his internal organs.
• Elder Zhou asked Hongyu about Li Xian’s talent, and she said he could attain great accomplishment in internal organs within months and might leap over the Dragon Gate in the future.
• Elder Zhou accepted that Li Xian should practice martial arts rather than become a live-in son-in-law at the Dingfeng Marquis Estate.
• Hongyu explained that the marquis’s estate and the Commandery Prince’s Residence had refused to register Li Xian to conceal their scheme involving the Immortal Seedling and the Dragon Gate Token.
• Elder Zhou warned that both households could threaten Li Xian if he exposed their scheme, and suggested he either leave for distant lands or negotiate with them from a position of strength.

Li Xian completed internal organ refinement and began blood exchange and marrow washing, astonishing Hongyu with his progress. After learning that Zhou Juechen and Jiangzhou’s experts had gathered at Canglang Mountain for Sword Saint Guangyuanzi’s symposium, Li Xian set out to attend and encountered a familiar member of the Dingfeng Marquis’s household guards on the road.

• Hongyu found Li Xian completing a cycle of blood exchange and marrow washing and learned he had fully refined his internal organs two days earlier.
• Hongyu explained the martial ranks and told Li Xian that Zhou Juechen had gone to Canglang Mountain for Sword Saint Guangyuanzi’s gathering.
• Li Xian decided to attend the sword symposium, packed his belongings, and immediately left the city for Canglang Mountain.
• After traveling about a hundred li, Li Xian passed six riders on the official road and recognized one as Fang Xin, a captain of the Dingfeng Marquis’s household guards.
• Fang Xin sensed Li Xian looking back, and the two met eyes.

Li Xian reached the town beneath Canglang Mountain, where martial artists had gathered for the Sword Symposium. After watching two young fighters duel, he judged their skill to be merely third-rate.

• Zhao Tianming sensed primordial unity in a young, disguised traveler and considered him a contender for Leaping Over the Dragon Gate.
• Fang Xin and Zhao Tianming hurried toward Lijiang City to deal with Li Xian.
• Li Xian arrived at the bustling town beneath Canglang Mountain and followed a crowd to the Sword-Dueling Platform.
• Pine Wind Sword Zhang Yunsheng and Snow Baleful-Intent Saber Bai Zhanfeng fought over their disagreement about Lady Yu.
• Li Xian saw through both fighters' strengths and weaknesses and concluded that their skill was third-rate.

Zhang Yunsheng defeated Bai Zhanfeng on the Sword-Dueling Platform, but Xu Yu Niang then used his public reputation to pressure him into helping her seek justice for the Xu Family. After the crowd dispersed, Li Xian picked up a discarded Blood Jade Art manual and discovered it was a demonic art.

• Zhang Yunsheng defeated Bai Zhanfeng with the Thirteen Pine Wind Swords and gained loud acclaim from the crowd.
• Xu Yu Niang knelt before Zhang Yunsheng, offered the Blood Jade Art, and asked him to introduce her to the Guangyuan Sword Saint so she could report the Xu Family massacre.
• The crowd urged Zhang Yunsheng to help Xu Yu Niang, so he took her toward Mount Canglang without making a clear promise.
• Li Xian picked up the discarded Blood Jade Art manual after martial artists warned one another to avoid trouble with the Thirteen Eagles of Luoyang.
• Li Xian read the manual and realized that the Blood Jade Art was a demonic art.

Li Xian practiced the Blood Jade Art and made rapid progress in blood exchange and marrow washing, but after six days his blood and qi were depleted, so he went to Canglang Mountain to ask Zhou Juechen about replenishing them. Zhou Juechen learned that Li Xian had arrived and suspected the visit was connected to people from Prince Yue's Residence.

• Li Xian studied the Blood Jade Art, recognized its risks, and decided to test it despite the lack of a blood-replenishing prescription.
• Li Hanbing encountered Li Xian on Canglang Mountain and warned him that the martial artists there could be dangerous.
• Li Xian practiced the Blood Jade Art at an inn, entered a berserk state, and found that his blood exchange and marrow washing progressed more than ten times faster.
• After six days of intensive training, Li Xian's blood and qi were depleted, so he decided to ask Zhou Juechen about blood-replenishing medicine.
• Li Xian went to the Canglang Sword Sect and requested a meeting with Zhou Juechen.
• Zhou Juechen heard that Li Xian had arrived and wondered whether his visit was related to people from Prince Yue's Residence.

At the Sword Discussion Convention, Zhou Juechen learned Li Xian had come to Canglang Mountain and went to send him away, worried he would provoke Yan Kaigui. At the pavilion, Li Xian recognized one of the guards as the man who had once kicked him into a river and walked toward him, while Liu Yanran ordered Shen Hong to deal with Li Xian.

• Ren Qingshan explained that martial artists attended the convention to seek the Guangyuan Sword Saint’s guidance and build support for the Dragon Gate leap.
• Zhou Juechen told his disciple to send Li Xian away, then decided to go himself to keep him from provoking Yan Kaigui over Liu Yanran.
• Ren Qingshan and Yu Songnian discussed the difficulty of reaching an impervious body and noted that Su Jianxing had received private guidance from the Guangyuan Sword Saint.
• At the pavilion, Li Xian recognized a burly guard as the man who had kicked his former self into a river outside Soaring Dragon Ward.
• Liu Yanran recognized Li Xian and ordered Shen Hong to deal with him.

Li Xian confronted Yan Lian, whom he identified as the man who had killed him two months earlier, and fought the guards accompanying Princess Yan Ruxue. He killed Liu Feng while Yan Lian fled with the princess toward Canglang Mountain.

• Li Xian snapped Shen Hong’s shoulder and threw her to the ground, shocking Yan Lian and Princess Yan Ruxue with his strength.
• Li Xian accused Yan Lian of killing him two months earlier and vowed to kill him in return; Yan Ruxue ordered her guards to kill Li Xian.
• Yan Lian attacked Li Xian with his saber, but Li Xian deflected the strike and nearly cut his throat.
• Liu Feng and another guard joined the fight, but Li Xian disarmed Yan Lian and cut Liu Feng’s throat.
• Yan Lian escaped and grabbed Princess Yan Ruxue, rushing with her toward Canglang Mountain.

Li Xian defeated Yan Lian outside the Canglang Sword Sect after killing Liu Fu and driving off the other fighters, then returned to the pavilion. His feat made the martial artists at the Sword Discussion Convention recognize his strength, and the Canglang Sword Sect invited him inside as Zhou Juechen learned what had happened.

• Yan Lian sent Yan Ruxue toward the Canglang Sword Sect and drew Li Xian away from her, allowing the other guards to escort her inside.
• Li Xian overwhelmed Yan Lian's desperate counterattack, threw him off balance, and smashed his head against the flagstones, killing him.
• Li Xian declined to enter the Canglang Sword Sect to pursue Yan Ruxue and returned calmly to the pavilion.
• The watching martial artists discussed Li Xian's strength and speculated that his feat could earn him a place on the Hidden Dragon Ranking.
• A Canglang Sword Sect steward apologized to Li Xian and invited him inside, while Zhou Juechen stopped two young martial artists to hear about Li Xian's fight.

Li Xian told Zhou Juechen that he had reached internal organ refinement and expected to complete blood exchange and marrow washing within their three-month wager, astonishing Zhou Juechen with his progress. Zhou Juechen warned him that revealing such rapid advancement would attract people eager to uncover his secrets, leaving Li Xian facing the dangers of drawing attention.

• Li Xian greeted Zhou Juechen and explained that he had reached internal organ refinement but had not yet completed blood exchange and marrow washing.
• Zhou Juechen realized Li Xian had believed their wager required him to complete blood exchange and marrow washing in three months, and was shocked that Li Xian had agreed seriously.
• After considering Li Xian's rapid progress and potential, Zhou Juechen called him a freak of nature and invited him inside to talk privately.
• Zhou Juechen advised Li Xian to conceal how much he had learned and how quickly he had advanced, while Li Xian said he understood the risks of attracting challengers.
• Zhou Juechen warned that powerful factions would suspect Li Xian had obtained a divine art or extraordinary fortune and might exploit him to uncover his secrets.

Li Xian told Zhou Juechen he welcomed the possibility of being defeated and asked how to replenish the blood and qi consumed by his rapid blood exchange and marrow washing. Zhou Juechen explained the Hidden Dragon Ranking and the path to leaping over the Dragon Gate, then offered to buy ingredients for Precious Jade Soup—until its price of three hundred taels per dose stopped Li Xian short.

• Li Xian explained that he welcomed a future defeat as the fulfilling end of his chosen path, and Zhou Juechen apologized for assuming he had come to see Liu Yanran.
• Li Xian asked how to restore the blood and qi depleted by his plan to complete blood exchange and marrow washing in three months.
• Zhou Juechen recommended Blood-Nourishing Pills, Blood Spirit Powder, and Precious Jade Soup, but said he could only help Li Xian obtain the soup ingredients.
• Zhou Juechen explained that the Hidden Dragon Ranking identified young talents with a chance to leap over the Dragon Gate and reach the world of Dao-attaining cultivators.
• Zhou Juechen said Li Xian would likely appear on the new ranking and could seek support from a great faction, but Li Xian declined to pursue one and asked about the soup ingredients instead.
• Zhou Juechen said each dose of Precious Jade Soup cost three hundred taels, and Li Xian halted as he reached for his money.

Li Xian accepted the Zhou Family’s support for Precious Jade Soup but refused to seek the Guangyuan Sword Saint’s favor, insisting on cooperation without personal entanglements. Meanwhile, Yan Ruxue returned to the courtyard and told Yan Kaigui that Li Xian had killed Yan Lian.

• Zhou Juechen offered to support Li Xian, and Li Xian warned that backing him could endanger the Zhou Family.
• Li Xian agreed to accept a dose of Precious Jade Soup but declined to pursue the Guangyuan Sword Saint as a master.
• Zhou Juechen decided to approach the Guangyuan Sword Saint about a mutually beneficial cooperation with Li Xian.
• Yan Ruxue returned to the courtyard still shaken by Li Xian’s killing and grew furious as she recalled the humiliation.
• Yan Ruxue interrupted Yan Kaigui, Daoist Xuantie, and Feng Juanyun, then revealed that Li Xian had killed Yan Lian.