Chapter Summaries

Attackers stormed Cao Lin’s Black Tower, and Zhang Xing joined the northern formation to help bring them down. After Cao Lin returned and defeated Zhou Wuji, Zhang Xing was carried out of the formation with severe formation sickness.

• Cultivators and martial fighters attacked the Black Tower, prompting Zhang Xing to lead the Patrol Cavalry and clerks toward the tower’s defensive formation.
• Zhang Xing joined the northern formation and discovered that his True Qi strengthened the collective force as the cultivators struck together.
• The formation’s Black Sash commander used a combined sword stroke to smash the Condensing the Core expert Chi Ming to the ground.
• Zhang Xing was overwhelmed by the returning surge of True Qi, vomited, and was carried out of the formation by familiar faces.
• Cao Lin returned and captured several fleeing attackers with Radiant Light True Qi, while Zhou Wuji escaped with both legs severed before falling into the Jing'an Directorate’s pool and dying.

After the Seven Saints’ attack left the Jing'an Directorate damaged and its pool full of human remains, Zhang Xing handled the resulting mess while working through his illness. He secured Hong Changya’s release and escorted him out of the Eastern Capital, where Hong left in tears.

• The Jing'an Directorate dealt with the aftermath of the Seven Saints’ attack, while Zhang Xing was reassigned to help manage its affairs.
• A White Ribbon told Zhang Xing that dredging the pool had uncovered thirty-five sets of human remains, and Zhang ordered him to pass them off as livestock bones and remove them discreetly.
• Li Qingchen complained that the kitchens would not accept the fish and frogs caught from the pool, so Zhang suggested giving them away to nearby wards as a festival gift.
• The Black Sash surnamed Chen approved Hong Changya’s release after Zhang signed the necessary documents and arranged to settle the remaining matters through the Ministry of Justice.
• Zhang Xing and Qin Bao escorted Hong Changya beyond the Southern City's wall, gave him silver, and urged him to return home and forget the Eastern Capital.
• Hong Changya thanked Zhang Xing, then broke down sobbing as he set off beneath the moonlight.

On Mid-Autumn Festival, Zhang Xing spent time with Li Ding, who lamented his stalled career and discussed his ambitions and the Great Wei Dynasty’s prospects. After Li Ding left, a servant from the Bai Clan’s Marquis of Ji'an’s residence invited Zhang Xing to a banquet, but Zhang Xing refused to become a retainer and shut the door.

• Zhang Xing received his festival benefits, shared some with Little Gu and the others, then bought books, food, and supplies before returning home.
• Zhang Xing found Li Ding waiting and learned that his family had excluded Shiniang from their banquet while his attempt to transfer into the new army as a Soaring Eagle Commander had failed.
• Li Ding explained what he had learned from the Muscle-Tendon Change Classic and asked Zhang Xing how he stayed content with his current position.
• Zhang Xing said he was willing to pursue a career in the Southern Office or become a Vermilion Sash if peace continued, and Li Ding told him the Ministry of War was still recruiting while new palace construction would require widened roads.
• A servant from the Bai Clan’s Marquis of Ji'an’s residence invited Zhang Xing to a banquet, but Zhang Xing refused the household’s invitation and returned to meditating in the courtyard.

As Zhang Xing settled into clerical work, the court ordered a Bright Hall built and began bringing laborers to the Eastern Capital. After freeing Niu Da from the Black Tower, Zhang Xing promised to kill the gang boss who had betrayed him, then saw the first frightened laborers arriving to demolish Qianyuan Hall.

• The court overruled objections and ordered Minister Bai Hengqiu to oversee construction of a Bright Hall, with a deadline before the Longevity Festival.
• Niu Da refused Zhang Xing's money and explained that gang boss Liu had betrayed him, so Zhang Xing promised to deal with Liu himself.
• Zhang Xing enlisted Qin Bao to kill Liu, and they carried Liu's head toward the island to complete the paperwork.
• Zhang Xing and Qin Bao saw the first laborers arriving by boat to prepare for the demolition of Qianyuan Hall, and Zhang Xing felt pity for them.

Zhang Xing learned that laborers were fleeing the harsh construction work around the Luo River, while officials focused on meeting quotas rather than protecting them. Bai Yousi then brought Zhang Xing and Qian Tang to meet her father, a Southern Office official with influence over appointments.

• Qin Bao told Zhang Xing and Li Qingchen that the Jinwu Guard, Upper Five Armies, and Street-Cleaning Tigers had been ordered to round up fugitive laborers.
• Hu Yan explained that local officials cared about supplying enough corvée laborers to satisfy their superiors, not whether the laborers survived or returned home.
• Zhang Xing wondered how Great Wei could endure the losses from repeated mass corvée projects, and Li Qingchen attributed it to the empire’s enormous population.
• Bai Yousi asked whether Zhang Xing had refused an invitation from her household, then explained that her father wanted to meet Zhang Xing and Qian Tang that night.
• Zhang Xing and Qian Tang rode with Bai Yousi to the Marquis of Ji'an's Estate, where Zhang Xing jokingly listed Bai Yousi’s supposed bad habits when she asked them to tell her father the truth.

Bai Hengqiu welcomed Qian Tang and Zhang Xing at the Marquis of Ji'an's residence, praised Qian Tang for supporting Bai Yousi, and offered Zhang Xing a promising career away from the capital. Zhang Xing accepted the offer in principle but asked to speak frankly about matters troubling him, leaving Bai Hengqiu staring at him in anger.

• Bai Yousi led Zhang Xing and Qian Tang through the Marquis of Ji'an's residence to its extravagant ancestral shrine.
• Bai Hengqiu warmly thanked Qian Tang for helping Bai Yousi and asked him to continue supporting her.
• Bai Hengqiu praised Zhang Xing's talent and offered to arrange a Black Sash posting in Bashu or Jiangdong, followed by a provincial assistant prefect's position.
• Zhang Xing considered the offer tempting, then asked Bai Hengqiu for permission to voice his grievances about the Bright Hall construction and his time in the Jing'an Directorate.
• Bai Hengqiu stared at Zhang Xing as the chapter ended.

Zhang Xing bluntly criticized Bai Hengqiu over the Ministry of Works’ failures and the treatment of laborers, then challenged his judgment as both a chief councilor and a father. After fleeing the Marquis of Ji'an's Estate, Zhang Xing returned to Chengfu Ward and saw laborers working through the night on Bright Hall supplies.

• Zhang Xing listed the Ministry of Works’ extravagance, lax controls, and disregard for laborers, and urged Bai Hengqiu to think carefully before acting.
• Bai Hengqiu questioned whether Zhang Xing’s sincere criticism was useful and whether he would follow it if he held power; Zhang Xing said he would.
• Bai Hengqiu warned that he could not support Zhang Xing and might tell Bai Yousi to keep her distance, but Zhang Xing argued that Bai Yousi had already made her own choices.
• Bai Yousi angrily ordered Zhang Xing to leave, and he rushed out of the ancestral hall.
• Zhang Xing ate camel stew and mandarins at the Marquis of Ji'an's Estate, then fled without saying goodbye or collecting his government horse.
• On his way home, Zhang Xing saw laborers working at night in Chengfu Ward to prepare supplies for Bright Hall construction.

Zhang Xing coordinated reports on corruption uncovered by the Patrol Groups and learned that the work crews and city officials were exploiting the construction project. After nightfall, he killed Banner Officer Wang for an earlier injustice, only for a mysterious white figure to arrive and find his verse signed Li Taibai.

• Zhang Xing pressed Han Jiulang for an honest account of the copper shortages and learned that most of the missing value had gone to local officials and overseers.
• Zhang Xing heard how the Third Group arrested a Ministry of Works clerk and broke up a gang extorting laborers, returning the stolen money.
• After talking with Yue Niang about Qin Bao and his family, Zhang Xing changed into black clothes and left home armed.
• Zhang Xing slipped into Banner Officer Wang's bedroom, killed him, took some silver, and left a verse signed Li Taibai on the wall.
• A white figure entered Banner Officer Wang's bedroom, saw the corpse and verse, and then vanished into the night.

Zhang Xing learned that a new pair of killings had stirred the Jing'an Directorate, then joined Bai Yousi and the Second Patrol Team as they were sent to search for thousands of escaped corvée laborers. With the fugitives hiding in dense reeds along the Yi River, Zhang Xing used the Compass and recited its activation phrase.

• Zhang Xing heard that two officials had been killed and realized one victim was the Ministry of Works Vice Director he had planned to investigate over the Copper Materials Case.
• Investigators disagreed over whether one expert or a gang had committed the killings, while Zhang Xing worried he might have acted in his sleep.
• Deputy Regular Inspector Shen told Zhang Xing that thousands of corvée laborers had fled after rumors spread that their service would be extended to build the Heaven-Piercing Tower and a golden pillar.
• Zhang Xing joined Bai Yousi and the Jing'an Directorate's patrols as they rode east to search for the fugitives, who were likely to escape across the rivers.
• At a dense reed marsh on the Yi River, Zhang Xing told his men to spread out and quietly used the Compass, reciting its activation phrase.

Zhang Xing secretly used his ice true qi to make a makeshift bridge across the Yi River, allowing the hidden corvée laborers to escape. Bai Yousi found him afterward and revealed that she had completed Core Formation and was trying to visualize him in her Inner Core before carrying him across the river.

• Zhang Xing used the Compass to find people hiding in the reeds and built a precarious bridge of frozen reeds and river water across the Yi River.
• After exhausting his True Qi, Zhang Xing crossed the river and hid on the opposite bank, where one of the people in the reeds followed his example and crossed after dark.
• Bai Yousi found Zhang Xing and challenged him about risking himself to help the laborers; he said he had expected her to come and trusted her.
• Bai Yousi told Zhang Xing she had completed Core Formation and was visualizing him for her Inner Core, but found it difficult.
• Bai Yousi laughed at Zhang Xing's modest explanation and carried him over the Yi River.

Zhang Xing reflected on the sovereign’s motives and his own uncertain course before Vermilion Sash Luo accused him of helping corvée laborers escape across the Yi River. Zhang Xing demonstrated that he could freeze water but not make a river-crossing bridge, and Bai Yousi intervened as another inspector executed the accuser; Zhang Xing was left grieving the laborer’s death.

• Zhang Xing discussed government service with Young Gu, then considered the sovereign’s achievements and questioned what he was pursuing.
• Young Gu woke Zhang Xing to warn him that Vermilion Sash Luo had arrived with men who wanted to see him.
• Luo Fang presented a captured laborer who accused Zhang Xing of using an ice bridge to help fugitives cross the Yi River.
• Zhang Xing froze a vat of water to demonstrate his technique and argued that he could not have created the alleged bridge.
• Bai Yousi arrived and threatened to cut down anyone who humiliated his subordinate, while two inspectors restrained Luo Fang and one killed the laborer.
• Zhang Xing watched the laborer’s head roll and mourned that the man would not return to his family.

After Zhang Xing exposed the First Patrol Team’s copper embezzlement, Intendant Cao questioned Luo Fang about the conflict with Bai Yousi’s team and arranged difficult assignments for both patrol teams. Luo Fang accepted the orders, though he worried his men would see the punishment as unfair.

• Zhang Xing filed and posted a report accusing the First Patrol Team of embezzling public funds in the Southern City’s Copper Materials Case, and the Black Tower recognized the allegations as true.
• Intendant Cao asked Luo Fang why he had targeted Zhang Sanlang and Bai Yousi’s Patrol Group.
• Luo Fang admitted that resentment over Bai Yousi’s status and anger at Lord Bai’s clashes with Cao Lin had influenced him.
• Luo Fang explained that he had suspected Zhang Sanlang after seeing a block of ice on the river and hearing a laborer’s accusation, but Cao Lin pointed out that the evidence had been weak.
• Cao Lin ordered Luo Fang to travel to Chengdu to pursue the Reckless Vajra and investigate Qinghe, while assigning the Second Patrol Team to collect overdue autumn grain from Jiangdong.

Zhang Xing and Bai Yousi led the Patrol Group south to Jiangdong, discussing the emperor’s cultivation and the supernatural Han River as they traveled. Aboard an official ship, Zhang Xing ended their conversation with a playful poem about the river dragon.

• The Black Tower ordered the entire Patrol Group to leave together for Jiangdong, and Zhang Xing felt relieved to be away from the Eastern Capital’s oppressive politics.
• Qin Bao arranged money, food, and protection for Yue Niang before the group departed, and they brought the Bump-spotted Horse along.
• The group traveled south through Nanyang and reached Xiangyang, where Bai Wulou hosted them and provided a three-deck official ship.
• Bai Yousi told Zhang Xing that the emperor might have reached the Grandmaster realm and explained that Grandmasters built towers or other great enterprises.
• Bai Yousi recounted how the Lord White Emperor slew Lord Huaiyang and transformed the Han River into a broad, dependable waterway.
• At Bai Yousi’s request, Zhang Xing recited a poem about their ship and the dragon beneath the Han River, making her laugh.

Zhang Xing and the Patrol Group traveled down the Yangtze, where they reached Tianmen Mountain and Zhang Xing gave Bai Yousi a poem to carve into the cliff. After Bai Yousi repelled a stranger’s challenge, Zhang Xing broke through his eighth Orthodox Meridian, and the ship arrived at Yangzi Ford.

• The Patrol Group endured seasickness, bad weather, and a passenger falling overboard before reaching the calmer waters of Danyang Commandery.
• The group admired Tianmen Mountain, and Zhang Xing recognized the scene from a poem by Li Taibai.
• Zhang Xing wrote a poem and asked Bai Yousi to carve it into the cliff with her Heaven-Reliant Longsword; she inscribed the poem and their names in the rock.
• A man on a passing ship challenged Bai Yousi, who sent a sword stroke after him and drenched him with a wave before the government ship sped onward.
• The next day, Zhang Xing broke through his eighth Orthodox Meridian on deck, and two days later the ship docked at Yangzi Ford.

Bai Yousi's Patrol Cavalry arrived in Jiangdu and were shuttled from Yangzi Ford to the imperial lodge before Duke Lai Zhan'er hosted them at a banquet. An assassination attempt at the banquet killed Liu Jing, and Lai Zhan'er ordered Bai Yousi to take action.

• Bai Yousi and the Patrol Cavalry reached Yangzi Ford, where frightened officials and travelers fled and local authorities hurried them onward to Jiangdu.
• Zhou Xingfan brought the Patrol Cavalry to the imperial lodge, and Duke Lai invited Bai Yousi and local dignitaries to a banquet.
• Zhang Xing noticed that nearly all the powerful figures in Jiangdu were southerners serving the northern court, and he discussed their uncertain position with Qin Bao.
• A dancer attacked Zhou Xiaoming with a qi-powered sleeve as servants revealed daggers and assaulted the banquet guests.
• Bai Yousi fought off the attackers and killed several, but Liu Jing was found stabbed through the heart.
• Zhou Xiaoming dismissed suspicion of Lai Zhan'er, who returned to find the aftermath and angrily told Bai Yousi that she would no longer have an idle assignment.

Zhang Xing used a doctrine he had invented, the Three Avoidances and Silences, to argue that the Jing'an Directorate should not be drawn into Jiangdu’s assassination case without authorization. After Lai Zhan'er questioned Zhang about his military service and offered him a position, Bai Yousi decided the unit would investigate once the garrison office granted them authority.

• Bai Yousi deferred to Zhang Xing, who cited three rules against investigating the assassination: Imperial Order Unaltered, Immediate Non-Intervention, and No Involvement in Factional Strife.
• Zhang Xing warned Zhou Xiaoming and Lai Zhan'er that investigating could make the Patrol Cavalry appear to favor former Southern Chen officials in Jiangdu, and Bai Yousi used his argument to leave the case with the local authorities for the moment.
• Lai Zhan'er asked Zhang Xing about Fallen Dragon Shoal, apologized for the soldiers’ losses, invited him to join his army, and gave the Patrol Cavalry officers silver and brocade at Zhang’s request.
• At the Temporary Palace, Zhang Xing admitted the doctrine was his own summary, and the officers discussed whether the assassination involved the True Fire Sect or a larger scheme.
• Bai Yousi ordered the unit to investigate the case once the garrison commissioner’s office approached them and granted authority, and the Patrol Cavalry officers agreed.

Zhang Xing took Qin Bao and Zhou Xingfan sightseeing along the Yangtze River, then startled Yu Henshui and argued that Jiangdong’s great clans relied on their old reputations. The trio ended up leaping into a True Fire Sect vegetable patch, where Zhang Xing introduced Zhou Xingfan as proof they were not vegetable thieves.

• Zhang Xing praised the river’s scenery and reflected on how the seasons changed while the great river remained constant.
• Yu Henshui of the Yu Clan approached Zhang Xing, who claimed he had come to wipe out the Eight Great Families of Jiangdong and sent the people in the woods fleeing.
• Zhou Xingfan asked whether Zhang Xing’s mission targeted the clans, and Zhang Xing said he had only wanted to scare Yu Henshui.
• Zhang Xing challenged Zhou Xingfan’s deference to the old clans, arguing that their lineage and literary reputation mattered little without real power.
• Zhang Xing vaulted into a building’s courtyard, and Qin Bao and Zhou Xingfan followed him into a vegetable patch where True Fire Sect adepts were guarding their vegetables with dogs.
• Zhang Xing introduced Zhou Xingfan as the deputy custodian’s son to convince the adepts that the group were not vegetable thieves.

Zhang Xing visited a True Fire Temple with Zhou Xingfan and Qin Bao, learning about the sect’s faith and its uneasy place in the empire. After Zhang offered his saber cover and silver to the brazier, a divine manifestation appeared, leaving the temple worshipers convinced Sage Maiden Qionghua had answered.

• Zhang Xing explained to the abbess that he and his companions had climbed the temple wall by mistake, and she led them to the main courtyard after correcting his understanding of the sect’s worship.
• The abbess explained that the True Fire Sect worshiped the true fire as the struggle between good and evil, and Zhang questioned why the sect faced persecution and violence in its name.
• The abbess invited Zhang to offer a combustible possession, and he threw his saber cover into the brazier before donating ten taels of silver.
• A strand of red and white light descended into the brazier, and Zhou Xingfan identified it as a manifestation of Sage Maiden Qionghua.
• Zhang dismissed the idea that the manifestation had anything to do with him and returned with Qin Bao to their quarters in the outer city of the Temporary Palace.

Bai Yousi’s patrol investigated Liu Jing’s murder and considered whether Jiangdu’s officials or the True Fire Sect were involved. She revealed that the escaped assassin was a candidate for Sage Maiden who had returned from Yang Shen’s residence and first stayed at the Temporary Palace, leaving the investigation focused on that site.

• Hu Yan reported that Liu Jing had been frustrated in Jiangdu and may have been killed before he could reveal the city’s affairs to Bai Yousi.
• Qian Tang and Li Qingchen pointed to tensions among Jiangdu’s officials, including Commandery Assistant Xie, while noting that several powerful figures could have had motives.
• Zhang Xing reported that the True Fire Sect had divided into factions and that either faction might have been connected to the attack.
• Bai Yousi revealed that she had captured the escaped assassin, who was a True Fire Sect candidate for Sage Maiden and had visited Yang Shen’s residence.
• Bai Yousi said the assassin had returned to Jiangdu after Yang Shen’s defeat and had first stayed at the Temporary Palace.

Bai Yousi decided to use the accusation linking Eunuch Zhao to Yang Shen to force a confrontation and break the political deadlock in Jiangdu. When Zhou Xiaoming arrived at the Temporary Palace, Eunuch Zhao denied colluding with Yang Shen and suddenly died by poisoning himself.

• Bai Yousi ordered Hu Yan and Zhang Xing to enlist Lai Zhan'er and Zhou Xiaoming as witnesses, while others summoned Liao En and Xie Mingshan.
• Zhang Xing questioned Hu Yan and Bai Yousi about pregnancy prevention and abandoned infants after seeing crowded Foundling Homes in Jiangdu, then spent the night troubled by a sense that something did not fit.
• Zhang Xing and Hu Yan persuaded Zhou Xiaoming to accompany them to the Temporary Palace, where Eunuch Zhao was waiting to speak in front of him.
• Eunuch Zhao declared that he was loyal to the emperor and had not colluded with Yang Shen, then swallowed poison and died in front of Bai Yousi and the others.