Recaps

Shangguan Shenhao faced growing pressure as the Formless Divine Sect and its allies cut off the Shangguan Clan, while the Iron Banner Gang raised its costs and authorities reopened investigations into his guards. Long Heng urged him to appease the sects and wait for Chu Xisheng to leave the academy, but new setbacks and Chu Xisheng’s rising fame left them increasingly troubled.

• Seventeen Sects and 103 martial academies barred Shangguan Clan descendants and subordinates, while dock workers raised the clan’s shipping charges and wages.
• Long Heng advised Shangguan Shenhao to accept the higher dock costs, apologize to Zhengyang Martial Academy, and wait until Chu Xisheng entered the martial world before confronting him.
• The steward reported that the Linhai Zhou Family had stopped buying Shangguan Clan goods and that a Six Fan Gate envoy was investigating two of Shangguan Shenhao’s Household Guards.
• Long Heng read the new Martial Secrets Almanac, found Chu Xisheng ranked sixtieth on the Azure Cloud Ranking, and saw an article recounting his rise to fame through the Long Clan.
• The steward said the Almanac’s 200,000 copies in Xiushui Commandery had sold out within an hour, and Long Heng and Shangguan Shenhao realized Chu Xisheng’s popularity made him harder to dismiss.

Xie Zhenqing celebrated the Eastern Province Gazette’s huge sales and prepared to leave for her new post after recommending Dong Linshan as her successor. Meanwhile, Chu Xisheng spent rapidly accumulating Martial Dao Points on powerful bloodline talents and faced a choice between his next major upgrades.

• Xie Zhenqing saw the Eastern Province Gazette sell out and credited Dong Linshan’s article as well as her decision to delay its release.
• Xie Zhenqing told Dong Linshan she had recommended him to succeed her as Xiushui Commandery’s Martial Discourse Tower Master and urged him to avoid trouble before his promotion.
• Chu Xisheng recovered his primordial qi with Lu Luanli’s Pangu Blood Essence Pill and redeemed third-rank Divine Sorrow and fourth-rank Body of Light-Speed Shadow.
• Chu Xisheng’s Martial Dao Points surged past eight thousand, and he redeemed fourth-rank Pure Yang while waiting to afford his next upgrade.
• Chu Xisheng weighed whether to spend his next 12,500 Martial Dao Points on fourth-rank Divine Sorrow or fifth-rank Wind-Grasping, Lightning-Riding Hand.

Chu Xisheng chose to redeem fourth-rank Divine Sorrow and prepared for the public True Inheritance Trial, despite his dwindling lifespan and the limit on Martial Dao Points imposed by his low Origin Power. He arrived at the packed Training Ground to a roaring reception from the crowd, and fireworks appeared in his vision as his Martial Dao Points surged.

• Chu Xisheng reviewed his improved character panel, noted that his Martial Dao Points were capped until his Origin Power advanced, and decided to seek the Fifth Layer secret medicine formula.
• Chu Xisheng equipped his remaining magic artifacts and switched to his old Blood-Refined Demon-Pattern Saber after Thunderclap was ruined.
• Chu Yunyun questioned Chu Xisheng's careful grooming, and he explained that the Martial Secrets Almanac: Eastern Province Gazette's readers had made him a popular figure.
• Chu Xisheng and Chu Yunyun avoided the crowd outside the Storage Yard by crossing the rooftops toward the Training Ground.
• Chu Xisheng glided into the packed Grand Training Ground, where the crowd cheered him and his Martial Dao Points began rising rapidly.

Chu Xisheng arrived at Zhengyang Martial Academy’s True Inheritance Trial and learned why Lu Luanli was competing despite her undercover role. Academy Master Lei Yuan announced that the trial quota had doubled and that Chu Xisheng could be challenged by the eventual victor, then began the trial.

• Chu Xisheng landed beside Lu Luanli and asked why she was taking the True Inheritance Trial; she explained that advancing would let her enter higher floors of the Library Tower and that her Origin-Nourishing Art concealed her origins.
• Chu Yunyun heard Lu Luanli describe the Formless lineage and inferred where Lu Luanli came from.
• Lei Yuan addressed the crowd about resolve and announced that the academy’s annual True Inheritance quota had risen from forty to eighty, doubling the available places for the trial.
• Lei Yuan announced that Chu Xisheng had been exempted from the selection because of his Azure Cloud Ranking and that the trial’s victor could challenge him for first place.
• The hour of the dragon arrived, and Lei Yuan ordered the True Inheritance Trial to begin.

Chu Xisheng reached the True Inheritance Trial’s final match against Luo Li, an unexpectedly powerful disciple determined to claim the Champion’s position. When Luo Li asked him to fight without weapons, Chu Xisheng agreed, discarded his saber, and strengthened his finger technique and martial intent, leaving his allies worried and Luo Li delighted.

• Chu Yunyun explained that sects manipulated the trial bracket to limit aristocratic disciples, while Lu Luanli finished in twenty-seventh place.
• Luo Li returned from years of cultivation outside the academy and swept through the competitors to take first place, then challenged Chu Xisheng for the Champion’s position.
• Lu Luanli warned Chu Xisheng that Luo Li had several bloodline talents and exceptional eighth-rank combat strength.
• Chu Xisheng entered the arena to roaring cheers, and his Martial Dao Points rose as spectators praised him.
• Luo Li asked Chu Xisheng to fight without weapons, and Chu Xisheng agreed, tossed aside his Blood Refinement Demon-Pattern Saber, and raised Lightning-Pursuing Finger and Wind-Thunder Martial Intent.
• Ye Zhiqiu, Chu Yunyun, and Lu Luanli worried that Chu Xisheng had made a dangerous choice, while Luo Li was delighted.

Chu Xisheng defeated Luo Li in the True Inheritance Trial, then watched Shangguan Shenhao publicly beg forgiveness and pay a steep price for the attack at Taste-Knowing Pavilion. After receiving his rewards and a warning about Shangguan Shenhao, Chu Xisheng prepared for the academy’s upcoming enhancements to his cultivation and strength.

• Chu Xisheng used wind blades and lightning to defeat Luo Li without moving from his spot, winning the match and drawing a huge crowd of admirers.
• Academy Master Lei Yuan and Ye Zhiqiu rescued Chu Xisheng from the women swarming him, while Qiu Feng asked Jian Zangfeng to consider awarding Luo Li an Origin-Nourishing Art Battle Diagram.
• Shangguan Shenhao arrived carrying thorn branches, performed Three Knives, Six Holes, and cut off his own arm while offering compensation for the attack on Chu Xisheng.
• Jian Zangfeng accepted Shangguan Shenhao’s apology and destroyed his severed arm, while the crowd’s reaction pushed Chu Xisheng’s Martial Dao Points above five thousand.
• Chu Xisheng received his trial rewards, a new Wild Goose Feather Saber named Thunderclap, Luan Blood Inner Armor, and the secret medicine for the fifth level of the Origin-Nourishing Art.
• Lei Yuan told Chu Xisheng that the academy would arrange his Origin-Nourishing Art Battle Diagram, Divine Weapon Institute, and Blood Source Diagram Pillar, and warned him that Shangguan Shenhao remained a threat outside the academy.

Blind Elder inscribed Chu Xisheng’s Origin-Nourishing Art Battle Diagram, greatly strengthening his True Essence and saber techniques, before Chu Xisheng and Chu Yunyun joined the academy’s midnight Weapon Baleful Intent ritual. A hidden Yazi and Suanni Baleful Spirit emerged and bonded with them, while Blood-Yazi, the divine saber guarded at the Formless Divine Sect’s home mountain, began to tremble.

• Blind Elder completed Chu Xisheng’s Battle Diagram, boosting his True Essence and increasing the speed of his Wind-Chasing Blade techniques.
• Lei Yuan led Chu Xisheng to the Divine Weapon Institute, where Chu Xisheng sensed a Yazi responding to his Saber Intent beneath the courtyard.
• As the midnight ritual began, Chu Yunyun secretly rolled crimson Talisman Beads between the divine weapons, and their flames disrupted the Rune Array and obscured everyone’s sight.
• A fist-sized Yazi and Suanni emerged from underground and rushed to Chu Xisheng and Chu Yunyun, with the Yazi entering Chu Xisheng’s body and adapting to him.
• At the Formless Divine Sect’s home mountain, Ren Daoxing and Zong Lingwei discussed the Blood-Yazi Saber Lord and Qin Muge before Zong Lingwei noticed Blood-Yazi trembling.

The Blood-Yazi Saber resonated with an unknown person, prompting the Formless Divine Sect to seal Formless Divine Mountain and launch a search. Meanwhile, Chu Xisheng remained under house arrest at Zhengyang Martial Academy, formed an initial symbiosis with the juvenile Yazi, and demonstrated new combat abilities before Ye Zhiqiu arrived.

• The Blood-Yazi Saber trembled and sent crimson saber qi hundreds of feet into the sky, so Li Changsheng ordered the sect to conceal the resonance and search for the person who caused it.
• At Zhengyang Martial Academy, Jian Zangfeng and Daoist Zijing questioned and examined everyone in the Divine Weapon Institute, but they found no culprit or evidence that revealed Lu Luanli’s identity.
• Jian Zangfeng moved everyone to the North Court and suspected that the intruder had sought the God-Defying Banner beneath the Divine Weapon Institute.
• During six days of house arrest, Chu Xisheng refined the juvenile Yazi and reached initial symbiosis with it, raising his Yazi Saber Intent to the seventh level.
• Chu Xisheng summoned the juvenile Yazi and tested its astral armor and combined attacks with Chu Yunyun, who warned him to keep their bond secret.
• Ye Zhiqiu entered Chu Xisheng’s courtyard.

Ye Zhiqiu released Chu Xisheng and Chu Yunyun from house arrest, but postponed the Blood Source Diagram Pillar until after the Lantern Festival. While investigating the flagpole’s owner, the siblings discovered that the Clear Sea Gang had abducted Liu Ruoxi and learned the Divine Strategy Bureau was supposedly destroyed; Chu Xisheng planned to wait for Wu Meiniang’s news before acting.

• Ye Zhiqiu told Chu Xisheng and Chu Yunyun that the North Court was unsealed, warned Chu Xisheng to stay out of the Divine Weapon Institute matter, and said the Blood Source Diagram Pillar would open after the Lantern Festival.
• Chu Yunyun asked Chu Xisheng to copy the secret art White Horse Is Not a Horse from the Library Tower and said she needed to find the flagpole’s original owner and erase their traces.
• Chu Xisheng and Chu Yunyun found that Liu Pu’s former courtyard had been sold, then discovered his broken spirit tablets identifying him as a Meritorious Fruit Colonel and Qin Muge’s subordinate.
• Chu Xisheng questioned the neighborhood head, who revealed that the Clear Sea Gang had driven Liu Pu’s family into debt, killed Liu Pu’s son, and abducted Liu Ruoxi after attacking her protector.
• The neighborhood head said the Clear Sea Gang claimed Qin Sheng had destroyed the Divine Strategy Bureau at Falling Phoenix Mountain; Chu Yunyun suppressed her rage as Chu Xisheng promised to handle the Liu family’s case.
• Chu Xisheng sent Wu Meiniang a message asking for help locating Liu Ruoxi and told Chu Yunyun they would wait for her reply before making a move.

Chu Xisheng joined the Iron Banner Gang and secured eight hundred Vanguard Hall warriors to move against Liu Dingtang’s West Mountain Hall, while Tie Kuangren mobilized further support. As the force neared West Mountain Town, Chu Xisheng revealed a plan to threaten Shen Zhou’s Poppy Hemp fields and hold off the troops sent to defend them.

• Chu Yunyun learned Liu Ruoxi had been beaten and humiliated at the Fragrant Beauty House, while Chu Xisheng studied Wu Meiniang’s intelligence on West Mountain Hall.
• Chu Xisheng joined the Iron Banner Gang and asked Tie Kuangren for eight hundred men to settle his grievance with Liu Dingtang; Tie Kuangren agreed and ordered thousands of gang members, boats, and crossbows assembled to support him.
• On the road to West Mountain Town, Zhou Liangchen found Chu Xisheng and insisted on joining him as an altar master, then demonstrated his improved swordsmanship by challenging him.
• Jia Dali confronted Chu Xisheng about how he intended to fight West Mountain Hall, and Chu Xisheng explained that he planned to attack Shen Zhou’s Poppy Hemp fields to draw Liu Dingtang out.
• Chu Xisheng pointed out a gorge where the commandery troops would have to pass and declared that he and Jia Dali would hold it if Shen Zhou’s forces came to defend the fields.

Chu Xisheng led Vanguard Hall in capturing the Shen Clan’s Poppy Valley, where they freed Li Shenshan and other survivors of the Divine Strategy Bureau. As the commandery army advanced, Chu Xisheng prepared to face its 3,500 soldiers alongside Jia Dali, leaving the two men in the mountain pass as the enemy arrived.

• Liu Dingtang learned that Chu Xisheng was leading 800 Vanguard Hall elites toward West Mountain Town, then prepared his defenses after learning they had diverted to Poppy Valley and disrupted the Six Fan Gate’s support.
• Chu Xisheng’s forces broke into Poppy Valley, burned its poppy fields, defeated the defenders, and seized the warehouses’ treasure.
• Vanguard Hall freed nearly 2,000 prisoners, including Li Shenshan, who revealed that the Divine Strategy Bureau had scattered after the army was betrayed and that pirates had sold his group into captivity.
• Jia Dali reported that 3,500 commandery soldiers were approaching Poppy Valley, while Liu Dingtang and his forces were still farther away.
• Chu Xisheng insisted that he and Jia Dali would stop the commandery army together, then raised his Yazi Remnant Intent and acquired the Eight Winds Do Not Move saber move.
• The commandery soldiers entered the mountain road as Chu Xisheng and Jia Dali waited to face them.

Chu Xisheng used the gorge’s arrow storm, his Yazi Saber Intent, and his sister’s spells to break the West Mountain commandery army’s attack and fight off its seventh-rank commanders. Lu Luanli killed Yun Kaiyang, Yan Guo and the soldiers fled, and Chu Xisheng was left injured and drained of spiritual sense but with his Martial Dao Points greatly increased.

• Yan Guo and Yun Kaiyang ordered the archers to fire on Jia Dali and Chu Xisheng, but Jia Dali and Chu Xisheng deflected the volleys and sent arrows back into the formation.
• After enduring the attack, Chu Xisheng used the gale, fire, and thousands of fallen arrows to devastate the archers, while Chu Yunyun helped control the assault.
• Chu Xisheng unleashed his Yazi Saber Intent, forcing the armored soldiers to their knees and cutting through them as the commandants sent seven seventh-rank fighters to stop him.
• Chu Xisheng killed one of the seven fighters and wounded another, then drove the remaining commanders into retreat while Jia Dali engaged Yan Guo and Yun Kaiyang.
• Lu Luanli appeared and killed Yun Kaiyang; Yan Guo fled, and the prefectural soldiers abandoned the gorge.
• Chu Xisheng stopped pursuing the retreating troops because his spiritual sense and arms were badly strained, and his Martial Dao Points increased by sixteen hundred.

After the Iron Banner Gang routed the commandery troops, Chu Xisheng and Jia Dali pursued Liu Dingtang, who took refuge on a hill with his men. Chu Xisheng won over the West Mountain hunters with promises of relief from their dues, then challenged Liu Dingtang to a duel to spare the others; Liu accepted.

• Jia Dali flew ahead to intercept Liu Dingtang while Chu Yunyun bandaged Chu Xisheng's injured arms and warned him not to trade heavy blows.
• Tie Kuangren dismissed Lin Shi's fears that the Shen Clan would retaliate, while Liu Dingtang ordered his force to retreat toward West Mountain Town.
• Jia Dali blocked Liu Dingtang's retreat, and Vanguard Hall surrounded his troops, forcing Liu to lead them up a hill and hold out.
• Chu Xisheng and Chu Yunyun arrived, and Chu Xisheng and Jia Dali used wind, arrows, and fire to pressure Liu Dingtang's force on the summit.
• Chu Xisheng promised the West Mountain hunters an end to their protection dues and offered to recruit two hundred of them, reducing their support for Liu Dingtang.
• Chu Xisheng challenged Liu Dingtang to a duel, offering to let him leave with his wealth if he won; Liu accepted.

Chu Xisheng defeated Liu Dingtang, took control of West Mountain Town, and founded the beginnings of West Mountain Hall. He gave Liu Ruoxi Liu Dingtang to punish, while Chu Yunyun warned him not to operate brothels or gambling houses.

• Chu Xisheng used his Zangtian bloodline talent and swift saber to sever Liu Dingtang's hands and legs, then ordered him kept alive for interrogation.
• Chu Xisheng offered high wages to Li Shenshan and the former Divine Strategy Bureau soldiers, who agreed to join West Mountain Hall.
• Chu Xisheng and Jia Dali reached West Mountain Town, where Chu subdued the conscripted hunters and moved to quell the chaos and seize Liu Dingtang's assets.
• Lin Shi reported the spoils and funds allocated to West Mountain Hall, and told Chu that Tie Kuangren would return in three days to hold its founding ceremony.
• Liu Ruoxi asked Chu Xisheng to give Liu Dingtang to her in exchange for the pawned family item, and Chu agreed; she took Liu Dingtang away with scissors.
• Chu Yunyun told Chu Xisheng not to run the seized brothels or gambling houses, and he realized West Mountain Hall would struggle to cover its expenses.

Chu Xisheng formally founded West Mountain Hall, discovered that his system could strengthen his followers, and agreed to help Li Shenshan and Liu Ruoxi rescue Wei Yang. As the Shangguan Clan, Shen Clan, and Long Clan moved to undermine West Mountain Hall, Chu Xisheng considered using a discounted Qin Muge character template on Liu Ruoxi.

• At West Mountain Hall’s opening ceremony, Chu Xisheng swore a blood oath with Tie Kuangren and drank himself unconscious after bonding with the hall’s three hundred and thirty members.
• After waking, Chu Xisheng found that the system had unlocked a follower management module and redeemed discounted character-template and talent cards for his subordinates.
• Chu Yunyun revealed that the black spear was likely the God-Defying Banner’s flagpole, while Chu Xisheng told her he had a plan to rescue the Meritorious Fruit Colonel in the Embroidery Guard prison.
• Li Shenshan and Liu Ruoxi asked Chu Xisheng to help free Wei Yang, and Chu Xisheng agreed on the condition that they waited patiently and avoided rash action.
• Li Shenshan borrowed fifteen thousand taels from Chu Xisheng, and Liu Ruoxi reported that the Shangguan Clan, Shen Clan, and Long Clan had pressured businesses to terminate leases on forty-two West Mountain Hall shops.
• Chu Xisheng confirmed that Liu Ruoxi met the requirements for his Qin Muge character template card and considered using it on her.

After discovering that Liu Ruoxi’s cultivation had advanced, Chu Xisheng funded her secret medicine and explored ways to support West Mountain Hall. He changed the town’s tax policy and spotted a promising way to profit from West Mountain, though his plan had not yet been revealed.

• Liu Ruoxi reached ninth-rank upper perfection after Chu Xisheng used a Qin Muge Character Template Card on her, and Chu Xisheng gave her four thousand taels for secret medicine.
• Chu Xisheng learned that Zhou Liangchen was training West Mountain hunters in the costly Imperial Way Secret Art and decided not to fund the art for the whole hall.
• Chu Xisheng met Lu Luanli, offered her a job at West Mountain Hall, and invited her to help find a profitable business.
• Chu Xisheng found that West Mountain Hall’s shops brought in little, then ordered its men to end entry taxes on goods and collect taxes only when merchants made sales.
• Chu Xisheng surveyed West Mountain’s streams, herbs, and timber, concluded the mountain could sustain the hall, and rode down with a plan to make it profitable.

Chu Xisheng secured investors for a canal linking West Mountain to the Divine Splendor River, giving up most of its shares while protecting the project with powerful allies. On New Year’s Eve, he comforted Chu Yunyun and promised to help settle her grievances, while Zong Lingshu arrived at the eastern city docks as the Formless Divine Sect’s envoy seeking the Blood-Yazi Saber Lord’s successor.

• Shangguan Shenhao received a powerful metal replacement arm and discussed plans with Long Heng to undermine Chu Xisheng’s control of West Mountain.
• Chu Xisheng explained his canal plan to Liang Zhen, and Tie Kuangren expanded the project while the Linhai Zhou Clan, other clans, and Iron Banner Gang associates invested in it.
• Chu Xisheng gave Zuo Qingyun a five-percent stake to repay his loan, and the group finalized the canal’s funding and shares by New Year’s Eve.
• After pretending to pass out during the New Year’s banquet, Chu Xisheng comforted Chu Yunyun and promised they would return to the Capital City and settle their grievances within eight years.
• Zong Lingshu arrived at the eastern city docks, where Jian Zangfeng and Lei Yuan greeted him as the special envoy seeking the Blood-Yazi Saber Lord’s successor.

Zong Lingshu ordered Zhengyang Martial Academy to search for the Blood-Yazi inheritor, while Chu Xisheng expanded West Mountain Hall and negotiated with Cao Xuan over the Iron Banner Gang and Divine Strategy Bureau remnants. The chapter ended with Chu Xisheng and several disciples discovering hidden scrolls in the Library Tower, including a map that appeared to point to the Embroidery Guard’s prison.

• Zong Lingshu ordered Zhengyang Martial Academy to investigate infants born at midnight on the fifteenth and examine promising talents, while Jian Zangfeng identified Chu Xisheng as a possible candidate for scrutiny.
• Chu Xisheng reorganized West Mountain Hall, rented out its vacant properties, arranged warehouses and canal security, and expanded the hall’s membership to five hundred.
• Cao Xuan summoned Chu Xisheng, urged him to keep the Iron Banner Gang away from rebellion, questioned him about Divine Strategy Bureau remnants, and refused his request to release Wei Yang.
• Cao Xuan promoted Chu Xisheng to Hundred-Household Commander and gave him the Ninefold Refinement Ultimate Origin Purple-Gold Body and three Four-Revolution Golden-Body Pills, while privately arranging extra guards for Wei Yang.
• At Zhengyang Martial Academy, Chu Xisheng joined Xiang Kui, Wang Zheng, and other disciples in the Library Tower, where Wang Zheng accidentally revealed a concealed compartment.
• Chu Xisheng and the disciples found scrolls attributed to Qin Muge, including a map that seemed to mark the Embroidery Guard’s prison as the site of a hidden treasure.

Chu Xisheng uncovered Qin Muge’s writings and map, then used the map to draw Cao Xuan into a prison raid while secretly joining the assault to rescue Wei Yang. As fighting broke out in the Northern Fortress, Chu Xisheng’s group encountered Jian Zangfeng and Li Daogui, while Liu Ruoxi faced Zhu Bloodclothes alone on the stairs.

• Chu Xisheng and the others discovered Qin Muge’s hidden notes, True-Meaning Diagrams, and map in the Library Tower, and Ye Jingyuan questioned them about finding the compartment.
• Cao Xuan summoned Chu Xisheng to the Emerald Cloud Restaurant, where Chu copied Qin Muge’s writings and map and negotiated eight Four-Refinement Golden Body Pills and a Blood Source Diagram Pillar place for Liu Ruoxi.
• Chu Xisheng, Chu Yunyun, Li Shenshan, Liu Ruoxi, and Lu Luanli watched the Embroidery Guard prison as a meteor struck the Southern Fortress and a group of attackers stormed the prison.
• Chu Xisheng’s group entered the Northern Fortress, destroyed the central magic-array control, and killed the Sixth Grade Deputy Thousand-Household Commander blocking their path.
• Chu Xisheng left Liu Ruoxi guarding the fifth floor, then encountered Jian Zangfeng confronting Bloodwind Sword Li Daogui and his six subordinates in the prison’s lowest hall.
• Zhu Bloodclothes confronted Liu Ruoxi on the fifth-floor staircase, and she resolved to defend her post despite his superior rank.

Liu Ruoxi battled Zhu Bloodclothes on the Northern Fortress’s fifth level while Chu Xisheng and his allies fought the Bloodwind Bandits below. After the bandits retreated and the group rescued Wei Yang, rumors that the God-Defying Banner’s cloth had been found in the Embroidery Guard prison left Chu Xisheng and Lu Luanli stunned.

• Liu Ruoxi used Chu Xisheng’s talisman and twin sabers to hold off Zhu Bloodclothes, whose poison-coated sword wounded her.
• Liu Ruoxi’s strength and swordplay grew during the fight, and she revealed signs of divine sorrow, Zangtian, and wind-thunder martial intent as Zhu Bloodclothes struggled to overcome her.
• Lu Luanli attacked the Bloodwind Bandits while Jian Zangfeng wounded Li Daogui and Chu Xisheng killed two of the bandits who charged Chu Yunyun.
• Li Daogui’s poison-flame bombs filled the prison with fire, but Jian Zangfeng contained the explosions, then pursued the fleeing Li Daogui as Lu Luanli went to check on Liu Ruoxi.
• Chu Xisheng, Chu Yunyun, and Li Shenshan rescued the tortured Wei Yang and carried him out of the burning prison.
• Chu Xisheng heard people outside claiming the God-Defying Banner’s cloth had been found, while Liu Ruoxi told Lu Luanli that Zhu Bloodclothes had retreated.

Chu Xisheng freed prisoners from the Embroidery Guard prison and escaped with Wei Yang as experts fought over the God-Defying Banner. Back at his mansion, he discovered that the banner’s white fire could affect his and Chu Yunyun’s powers, though using it in battle would rapidly consume her lifespan.

• Chu Xisheng broke open the first- and second-level cells, then escaped the prison with Chu Yunyun, Wei Yang, and the others as the God-Defying Banner was fought over overhead.
• Xu R idong seized the banner and fled east, while Lu Luanli worried about the danger to her injured Uncle Dong.
• Cao Xuan returned to the prison, learned of the heavy casualties and the masked rescuers, and ordered an investigation into Wei Yang’s fate.
• Chu Xisheng brought Wei Yang to his mansion, where Chu Yunyun found that white flames appeared on the banner’s pole when she infused it with True Essence.
• Chu Xisheng’s status screen identified the flames as God-Defying Fire, temporarily mutating his Divine Sorrow talent into Divine Calamity when he touched them.
• Chu Yunyun drew the flames into her body, restoring some True Essence and loosening part of her bloodline seal, but learned that using the spear in battle would consume her lifespan; she also sensed that the flames could temper their bodies.

Chu Xisheng learned that Cao Xuan’s body-refinement manual contained a trap, then obtained and integrated the missing teachings of White Horse Is Not a Horse into his martial arts. As he advanced his Yazi Saber Intent, Shangguan Shenhao and Shen Zhou considered how to stop his canal project.

• Chu Yunyun discovered that Cao Xuan’s Ninefold Refinement Ultimate Origin Purple-Gold Body would let him control Chu Xisheng, but offered to correct it and explain how it could work with the God-Defying Banner’s White Flame.
• Chu Xisheng and Chu Yunyun returned to the Library Tower, where Chu Yunyun found only the first half of White Horse Is Not a Horse; Chu Xisheng persuaded Ye Jingyuan to recite the missing half from memory.
• Chu Xisheng used Martial Dao Points to master White Horse Is Not a Horse and integrate it into the Origin-Nourishing Art, demonstrating a confusing strike to Ye Jingyuan and writing down his insights and a True-Meaning Diagram.
• Chu Yunyun quickly grasped the Secret Art and warned Chu Xisheng to leave the Library Tower by the seventeenth, when the academy planned to activate the Blood Source Diagram Pillar.
• Chu Xisheng studied the Third Yazi Diagram, witnessed the Blood-Yazi Saber Lord defeat the Giant Spirits and Golden Heavenly Eyes, and advanced from Yazi Remnant Intent to Yazi True Intent.
• Shangguan Shenhao and Shen Zhou discussed Chu Xisheng’s canal project and concluded that official obstruction would only delay it, so they would need another way to stop construction.

Wei Yang woke after Chu Xisheng rescued him from prison and agreed to serve West Mountain Hall, while Chu Xisheng faced a coordinated effort to undermine his control of West Mountain Town. At Zhengyang Martial Academy’s Blood-Burning Ritual, the blood mist tested Chu Xisheng and Liu Ruoxi, and Chu Xisheng examined his character panel afterward.

• Li Shenshan told Wei Yang that the Divine Strategy Bureau had survived its losses at Falling Phoenix Mountain and that Liu Ruoxi was safe at West Mountain Hall.
• Li Shenshan offered Wei Yang a position as master of the Yang Character Altar, along with demon silver and magic artifacts to help restore his strength.
• Chu Xisheng learned from Lu Luanli that the God-Defying Banner had ended up with Ghost Shadow, then told her that the Commandery Office and the Wen Family were using excessive taxes to pressure him over his canal.
• Chu Xisheng explained that White Cloud Stronghold and Nine-Blade Stronghold had joined the West Mountain Commandery Army in driving hunters away from West Mountain Hall, and he resolved to crush his opponents by force.
• Ye Zhiqiu and the other instructors began the Blood-Burning Ritual, exposing Chu Xisheng and Liu Ruoxi to the pillar’s painful blood mist; afterward, Lu Luanli reported improved bloodline talents while Chu Xisheng checked his character panel.

Chu Xisheng tried to force West Mountain’s wealthy landowners to accept his tax plan, then secured an order allowing him to seize the estates of those who resisted. As he prepared to act in twenty days, Xiang Kui and Wang Zheng both asked to serve under him, deepening his suspicion that West Mountain Hall was becoming a haven for undercover agents and fugitives.

• Chu Xisheng and Liu Ruoxi discovered that the Blood-Burning Ritual had raised their bloodline talents, and Chu Xisheng left the Zhengyang Martial Academy for West Mountain Town.
• Ye Zhiqiu learned that Ye Jingyuan had given Chu Xisheng the complete White Horse Is Not a Horse and demanded to see his notes and diagrams.
• Chu Xisheng summoned West Mountain’s powerful landowners, announced a tax plan that placed the additional burden on wealthy households, and had Li Shenshan throw three disruptive guests from the restaurant.
• Wen Tiancai and Cloud-Crane Saber Yin Yang rejected Chu Xisheng’s demands and left with many of the other landowners; Chu Xisheng told Zhou Liangchen he intended to act against tax resisters.
• Zuo Qingyun delivered an order authorizing Chu Xisheng to confiscate the farmland of Wen Tiancai, Yin Yang, and the North-Guarding Dan Family and exile their male members in twenty days.
• Xiang Kui and Wang Zheng asked to serve under Chu Xisheng, who was dismayed that West Mountain Hall seemed filled with undercover agents and fugitives.

Chu Xisheng led West Mountain Hall against Wen Family Fort after local magnates resisted taxation, while rival forces moved to trap him and the Iron Banner Gang. As Chu Yunyun prepared to burn open the fort’s gates, Chu Xisheng activated a Divine Sorrow Talent Card on Zhou Liangchen and ordered the assault to begin.

• Zhou Liangchen discovered that local magnates were withdrawing their people and closing shops, while Chu Xisheng suppressed calls for an immediate attack and prepared West Mountain Hall for war.
• Chu Xisheng expanded West Mountain Hall to seven branch altars, armed and trained its members, borrowed heavily, and focused his forces on West Mountain Town and the canal after his tax collectors were attacked in the countryside.
• Chu Xisheng received his Xun Wind Thunderclap Saber and learned that the magnates were arming their retainers; on the eighth day of the second month, he gathered his forces and ordered them to march on Wen Family Fort under his authority as township magistrate.
• Zuo Tianlu warned Zuo Qingyun that the commandery governor’s wife and the Seventeen Linked Forts could be backing a trap, while Wu Meiniang told Tie Kuangren that Ren Daoxing planned to strike the Iron Banner Gang’s docks and branch halls.
• Lu Pingyuan reported that the West Mountain Garrison Army, Nine-Blade Stronghold, and White Cloud Stronghold were approaching, and that powerful cultivators had entered Wen Family Fort; Chu Xisheng dismissed the threats and ordered Chu Yunyun to burn open the gates.
• Chu Xisheng used a Third-Rank Divine Sorrow Talent Card on Zhou Liangchen, then Chu Yunyun summoned a flaming Suanni and sent it lunging toward Wen Family Fort.