Chapter Summaries

Zhang Yuanqing’s family tried to keep him home while Jiang Yu'er went on a blind date, but a mysterious parcel arrived from Lei Yibing. It contained a strange black card and a letter claiming the object might change Zhang Yuanqing’s life.

• Zhang Yuanqing worried that his medication was losing its effectiveness, then got up when his grandmother threatened to splash him awake.
• Jiang Yu'er tried to take Zhang Yuanqing along to disrupt her blind date, but their grandmother forbade them from going together.
• After his grandmother stopped him from leaving, Zhang Yuanqing messaged Jiang Yu'er that she would have to handle the blind date alone.
• Zhang Yuanqing received a parcel from Hangcheng addressed to him and found a black card and a letter signed by Lei Yibing inside.

Zhang Yuanqing struggled with a worsening mysterious condition while spending the morning with his family and being kept from accompanying Jiang Yu'er on a blind date. A parcel from Lei Yibing arrived with a strange black card and a letter calling it an interesting gift, leaving Zhang Yuanqing to wonder what it was.

• Zhang Yuanqing woke from an episode and worried that his special medicine was losing effectiveness.
• Zhang Yuanqing ate breakfast with his grandmother and youngest aunt, Jiang Yu'er, who planned to take him along to her blind date.
• Zhang Yuanqing's grandmother stopped him from leaving, so he messaged Jiang Yu'er that she would have to attend the date alone.
• Zhang Yuanqing accepted a parcel from Hangcheng containing a black card and a letter from Lei Yibing.
• Lei Yibing wrote that he could not control the card and gave it to Zhang Yuanqing as a gift.

Zhang Yuanqing spent a weekend morning with his family while worrying that his mysterious condition was worsening. A package from Lei Yibing arrived with a strange black card, which Zhang Yuanqing examined after his grandmother stopped him from joining Jiang Yu'er on her blind date.

• Zhang Yuanqing suspected his medication was losing effectiveness, then got up when his grandmother threatened to wake him with a splash of water.
• Zhang Yuanqing ate breakfast with Jiang Yu'er and his grandmother, who was preparing Jiang Yu'er for a blind date.
• Zhang Yuanqing tried to go with Jiang Yu'er but returned to his room after his grandmother threatened to break his legs.
• Zhang Yuanqing received a package from Hangcheng containing a black card and a letter from Lei Yibing.
• Zhang Yuanqing read Lei Yibing's letter, which said he had been unable to master the card and was giving it to him as a gift.

Zhang Yuanqing spent a spring morning with his family, learned that his aunt was heading to another blind date, and received an unexplained package from his friend Lei Yibing. The package contained a mysterious black card and a letter claiming it could change Yuanqing’s life.

• Zhang Yuanqing woke from a disturbing episode and worried that his medication was losing effectiveness.
• Zhang Yuanqing ate breakfast with his grandmother and aunt Jiang Yu'er, who was preparing to go on a blind date.
• Zhang Yuanqing tried to join Jiang Yu'er but his grandmother stopped him, so he messaged his aunt instead.
• A courier delivered Zhang Yuanqing a package from Hangcheng with no sender listed.
• Zhang Yuanqing opened the package and found a black card and a letter from Lei Yibing saying the card was something he could control.

Zhang Yuanqing spent a spring morning with his family, while worrying that his medication was losing its effectiveness. After his grandmother stopped him from joining Jiang Yu'er on her blind date, a mysterious parcel arrived from Lei Yibing containing a black card and a letter calling it something interesting that might change Yuanqing’s life.

• Zhang Yuanqing reflected on his worsening symptoms and his reliance on medication before getting up at his grandmother’s insistence.
• At breakfast, Jiang Yu'er invited Zhang Yuanqing to help derail her blind date, but their grandmother threatened them both into behaving.
• Jiang Yu'er left for her blind date, while Zhang Yuanqing obeyed his grandmother and stayed home.
• Zhang Yuanqing received an unexpected parcel from Hangcheng and opened it to find a black card and a letter from Lei Yibing.
• Lei Yibing wrote that he could not master the card’s potential and had sent it to Zhang Yuanqing as a gift.

Zhang Yuanqing spent a spring morning at his grandparents’ home, where his grandmother kept him from joining Jiang Yu'er on her blind date. A mysterious parcel from Lei Yibing arrived, containing a strange black card and a letter that claimed Yuanqing might be able to master it.

• Zhang Yuanqing woke after his grandmother threatened to splash him, then joined her and Jiang Yu'er for breakfast.
• Jiang Yu'er planned to take Zhang Yuanqing along on her blind date, but his grandmother ordered her to go alone.
• Zhang Yuanqing tried to leave after his aunt, but his grandmother stopped him, so he messaged Jiang Yu'er that she would have to manage the date herself.
• A deliveryman brought Zhang Yuanqing an unexpected parcel from Hangcheng.
• Zhang Yuanqing opened the parcel and found a black card and a letter from Lei Yibing, who said the card might change his life and that Yuanqing could master it.

Yu Zhengxing explained sword consciousness and how it allowed a Sword Cultivator to command flying swords through a bond with the weapon. He told Hou Niao to begin cultivating it before reaching Profound Connection using the Sword Sacrifice of Life and Death, a method based on killing and the cycle of life and death.

• Yu Zhengxing corrected Hou Niao's understanding of swordsmanship and identified sword consciousness as his next hurdle after sword gall and sword intent.
• Yu Zhengxing explained that true flying-sword control depended on communion between a cultivator and a sword, rather than manipulating it with law power.
• Yu Zhengxing showed Hou Niao his flying sword and described the sword-consciousness method developed by Quanzhen's founding master.
• Yu Zhengxing explained that ordinary methods of cultivating sword consciousness required Profound Connection, but life, death, and reincarnation offered another approach.
• Yu Zhengxing introduced Hou Niao to the Sword Sacrifice of Life and Death, a method that used the arts of killing to develop sword consciousness.

Yu Zhengxing explained the Quanzhen Sect’s forbidden art for developing Sword Consciousness and why it had once brought the sect to the brink of ruin. Hou Niao read the secret jade booklet and accepted the danger of learning it, leaving Yu Zhengxing’s test convinced that Hou Niao could control himself.

• Yu Zhengxing told Hou Niao that the art had once encouraged lower-ranked disciples to kill for Sword Consciousness, provoking the continent and nearly destroying the Quanzhen Sect.
• Yu Zhengxing said he had selected Hou Niao to receive the secret after investigating his past and testing his restraint.
• Hou Niao read the jade booklet several times, then said he must not kill deliberately because of its teachings.
• Yu Zhengxing judged Hou Niao’s resolve firm and warned that he had personally killed disciples who became murderous fiends.
• Hou Niao realized Yu Zhengxing had been disguising his role in passing on secret arts and asked whether he had become his disciple.
• Yu Zhengxing denied taking Hou Niao as a disciple and said he could escape the trap only by defeating him.

Yu Zhengxing assigned Hou Niao a journey to the Anhe Kingdom to settle a deceased friend's affairs and kill the pill fraud Gu Xiqiao, and gave him money for the trip. Before leaving Miaogao Town, Hou Niao encountered Dugu Lan and Xiao Qiang, whose companions began questioning him.

• Hou Niao discussed cultivation with Yu Zhengxing, who gave him a Jade Slip and Treasure Gourd and ordered him to handle his late friend's affairs and kill Gu Xiqiao in the Anhe Kingdom.
• Hou Niao accepted the assignment and said he would show no mercy to Gu Xiqiao for harming children, regardless of their shared nationality.
• Hou Niao asked Yu Zhengxing for travel funds, and Yu Zhengxing reluctantly gave him another Treasure Gourd.
• Hou Niao feasted at a Miaogao Town restaurant and noticed someone watching him from upstairs.
• Dugu Lan and Xiao Qiang greeted Hou Niao, and one of their male companions asked his surname and why the women had not introduced him.

Hou Niao left the gathering in Miaogao Town and headed to Longtou Ferry to travel downriver toward Anhe. After boarding, he found Dugu Lan and Xiao Qiang had arranged an upgraded cabin for him, and he asked the crew not to disturb him.

• Hou Niao introduced himself and walked out of the restaurant, leaving the bill for Dugu Lan and Xiao Qiang to pay.
• A young cultivator challenged Hou Niao from the restaurant, but he could not bring himself to pursue him down the street.
• Hou Niao went to Longtou Source and spent the night in a pavilion while waiting for his boat.
• Hou Niao boarded the passenger boat the next morning and learned Dugu Lan and Xiao Qiang had upgraded his booking to a deluxe cabin.
• Hou Niao told the first mate to withdraw the staff and not disturb him unless he gave instructions.

Hou Niao traveled to Linjing to kill Gu Xiqiao and began searching for him by posing as a rogue cultivator selling family treasures. He had drawn out a few leads but had not yet found his target.

• Hou Niao traveled by boat into Anhe and continued by horse to Linjing, reflecting on his return to his homeland and studying his Purple Mansion.
• Hou Niao settled in Linjing under the identity of a wandering rogue cultivator and observed the city's bustling cultivation trade.
• Hou Niao decided against searching the Gu Family Mansion, knowing that one exposed attempt could make Gu Xiqiao disappear.
• Hou Niao used the Poison Pill Incident details to conclude that Gu Xiqiao had likely resumed business more discreetly after returning home.
• Hou Niao sold low-value items at Gu Family shops, accepted small losses, and hinted that he had ancestral treasures to sell in order to draw out information.

Hou Niao prepared to exploit a private auction organized by the Gu Household Shop as a chance to find Gu Xiqiao, while hiding his identity and planning his escape. He disguised his face with ordinary methods and made his final preparations for the gathering.

• Hou Niao posed as a cultivator who was tempted by a broker's offer to sell ten soul pearls at a private auction.
• He planned to use the auction to find Gu Xiqiao, who he believed would favor shadowy trading channels rather than conduct open business.
• Hou Niao arranged an escape route and false trails, drawing on his criminal-investigation experience and Yu Zhengxing's guidance.
• He avoided the Hou Niao market so no one would discover that he was a Quanzhen Sword Cultivator from his purchases.
• On the eighth evening, Hou Niao disguised his face with padding, deer glue, a beard, and other ordinary tricks before the auction.

Hou Niao entered a crooked underground auction in Linjing while posing as Yu Zhengxing, hoping to identify Gu Xiqiao. The hoarse-voiced host matched Gu Xiqiao’s description, but Hou Niao waited for stronger confirmation before acting.

• The broker led Hou Niao through Linjing’s western district to a hidden auction house and explained how the sellers were expected to behave.
• Hou Niao noticed that several sellers seemed to be shills and suspected the auction organizers also used shill buyers.
• The participants put on black hoods, and a hoarse-voiced cultivator began hosting the auction.
• Hou Niao recognized that the host’s voice, height, and build resembled Gu Xiqiao’s, but held back because he was only fifty-percent certain.

At an auction in Linjing, Hou Niao watched the host for signs that he was Gu Xiqiao, comparing him with a description in a Jade Slip. When the host’s manner shifted and Hou Niao became confident he had found his target, he stood, but he remained uncertain and had not yet struck.

• A Water-Repelling Pearl drew heated bidding and sold for eight hundred Spirit Stones while Hou Niao studied the host’s movements and voice.
• The host presented a Fire-Strike Stone, which sold for one hundred and forty Spirit Stones after more than ten rounds of bidding.
• Hou Niao felt the host matched the Jade Slip’s description but seemed to lack the expected presence, and he began to lose hope that the plan would succeed.
• The auction’s atmosphere abruptly changed as the host waved his arms, and Hou Niao recognized a slight difference in his voice.
• Hou Niao stood about seventy feet from the host, suspecting he was Gu Xiqiao, but repeatedly held back from attacking to get a clearer look.

Hou Niao assassinated Gu Xiqiao at an auction in Linjing and escaped after confronting Gu Weixin, who had pursued him. Gu Weixin fled the city, while the Linjing Dao Prefecture launched a search for the killer.

• Hou Niao killed Gu Xiqiao at the auction, declared that he was acting on Yu Zhengxing's orders, and scattered treasures and Spirit Stones to distract the crowd.
• Gu Weixin chased Hou Niao across the rooftops, but Hou Niao disarmed him in three sword clashes and ordered him to return to Jincheng or leave the Quanzhen Sect.
• Gu Weixin realized that his uncle Gu Xiqiao's actions had brought Hou Niao to Linjing and that he could not safely remain in the city.
• Gu Weixin left Linjing for the Shan Kingdom as the Linjing Dao Prefecture took charge and sent Daoists to search for Hou Niao.

The Linjing Dao Prefecture called off an extensive search for the assassin, balancing the Gu Family dispute against the improving relationship between the Anhe Daoist Sect and the Quanzhen Sect. Meanwhile, the escaped Quanzhen cultivator traveled upriver by grain boat and continued trying to awaken his sword consciousness, leaving his secret dependent on Gu Weixin’s silence.

• Daoist Kong and another Linjing Dao Prefecture cultivator found that the trails led to decoy clothes and a Water-Repelling Pearl on a cargo boat, then decided to limit the search to Linjing City.
• The two Daoists weighed the sects’ rules and the Gu Family dispute, concluding they could not pursue the assassin aggressively or send cultivators above his realm after him.
• The assassin traveled upstream on a government grain boat while meditating on the Sword Sacrifice of Life and Death, which he had learned from Yu Zhengxing.
• He recalled that Gu Weixin had recognized his Quanzhen swordsmanship and that he had warned him not to reveal his identity.
• The assassin trusted Gu Weixin to keep silent for the sake of the larger situation, though he accepted that their relationship might not recover.

Zhang Yuanqing spent the morning at his grandparents’ home, where his grandmother prevented him from accompanying Jiang Yu'er on her blind date. The day took a strange turn when he received a mysterious black card and a letter from Lei Yibing, who believed Zhang Yuanqing could master it.

• Zhang Yuanqing woke from a disturbing episode and worried that his medication was losing its effectiveness.
• At breakfast, Zhang Yuanqing and Jiang Yu'er discussed her blind date, but their grandmother forbade him from going along.
• Jiang Yu'er left for her date alone after Zhang Yuanqing failed to sneak out and join her.
• A courier delivered Zhang Yuanqing a parcel from Hangcheng with no sender listed.
• Zhang Yuanqing opened the parcel and found a black card and a letter from Lei Yibing, who said the card might change his life and entrusted it to Zhang Yuanqing.

Zhang Yuanqing woke after a worsening episode of his mysterious condition and spent the morning at his grandparents’ home, where his aunt tried to recruit him to help disrupt her blind date. After his grandmother stopped him from leaving, he received an unexplained parcel from Lei Yibing containing a strange black card and a letter.

• Zhang Yuanqing worried that his medication was losing effectiveness, then got up when his grandmother threatened to splash him awake.
• Zhang Yuanqing ate breakfast with his grandmother and aunt Jiang Yu'er, who planned to take him along to interfere with her blind date.
• Zhang Yuanqing volunteered for a blind date, but his grandmother threatened to break his legs if he left the apartment.
• Jiang Yu'er tried to coax Zhang Yuanqing into joining her, but he refused to risk angering their grandmother.
• Zhang Yuanqing accepted a parcel addressed from Hangcheng and found a black card and a letter from Lei Yibing saying he believed Zhang Yuanqing could master it.

After delivering Yu Zheng’s gift to Wen Jinglai’s distant relatives, Hou Niao explained to Lanruo and Lanting that the Wen Clan’s collapse could preserve its bloodline from greater threats. He urged them to settle the clan’s affairs quickly and return to Liuyang, leaving them to face the remaining decisions.

• Hou Niao delivered Yu Zheng’s gift to the Wen Clan’s expelled branch, whose members had raised two cultivators.
• Lanruo and Lanting caught up with Hou Niao and accused him of causing the Wen Clan’s deaths and internal collapse.
• Hou Niao argued that the Wen Clan had no strong future, allies, or reputation, and faced enemies who would take revenge after Wen Jinglai’s death.
• Hou Niao explained that he had chosen Fourth Uncle Wen’s branch because its members were restrained and willing to endure, making the clan’s division a way to preserve its bloodline.
• Hou Niao urged Lanruo and Lanting to sell the clan’s ill-gotten holdings, resolve the remaining disputes, and return to Liuyang away from Fairy Xi.

Hou Du explained why he had deceived the Wen Household: Yu Zhengxing had given him only five hundred low-grade Spirit Stones, so he used his own savings to stage a show of wealth and provoke the clan’s internal strife. He returned to Fufeng City, where familiar locals welcomed him as Constable Hou and he saw Xizai riding with the sword he had once given him.

• Lanting grieved over the deaths and questioned Hou Du’s conduct, while Lanruo urged her to stop blaming him and return to help the Wen Lineage.
• Hou Du recalled that Zhengxing’s Treasure Gourd held only five hundred low-grade Spirit Stones, far too little to support the display he had planned for the Wen Household.
• Hou Du admitted to himself that he had added his own savings to the gourd and provoked the Wen clan’s strife because he could not bear to present such a meager gift.
• Hou Du stopped near Fufeng City at Weiqiao Bridge and shared wine and food with Lame Six, who welcomed him without asking about his absence.
• Hou Du watched Xizai and the other youths ride past and recognized the sword he had given Xizai before leaving.