Chapter Summaries

Lian Youming fought Gan Yu’s three challengers alone and killed them one by one, ending the fight by defeating the Purple-Robed Taoist. The gathered martial sects cheered as he stood victorious.

• Lian Youming challenged Gan Yu and the two fighters with him, while Situ Wudi stepped aside and the gathered schools cleared space.
• Lian Youming struck the foreign fighter through his injured eye with a Sword Finger, killing him despite the blows he landed.
• Lian Youming countered Saito Izō’s Nukite, carried him and the Purple-Robed Taoist into a nearby house, and killed Saito.
• Lian Youming and the Purple-Robed Taoist locked hands and fought through the roof, matching their inner strength in a deadly contest.
• Lian Youming forced apart the Purple-Robed Taoist’s arms, tore them from their shoulders, and struck him over the heart, prompting the onlookers to cheer.

Lian Youming drove off Gan Yu’s group, then coordinated with Chiba Aoi, the White Lotus Sect, and arriving Hongmen reinforcements to prepare against the Gan Clan and other enemies. The chapter ended with the elders recognizing that he had gathered the tokens of all Three Teachings.

• Lian Youming let Gan Yu and his followers leave the Hung Fist Association Hall, explaining that they carried bombs and would not survive Guangzhou.
• Lian Youming revealed that Chiba Aoi was helping him track the martial artists, while Huang San and other allies had gone to deal with threats across the north.
• Gu Yutong delivered the White Jade Ring to Lian Youming and learned that Fu Jianqiu was her mother’s fellow disciple; the White Lotus Sect agreed to cooperate with the Green Gang and Hongmen.
• Five elderly experts from the Honolulu Hongmen Headquarters arrived with eleven disciples and demonstrated their coordinated Joint Attack Method.
• The elders noticed Lian Youming wore the Green Gang, White Lotus Sect, and Hongmen tokens, and Fu Jianqiu recited, “Number One Under Heaven, flourishing martial fortune!”

As the Hung Fist Association Hall filled for China's Righteous Gathering, an elderly man brought his skeptical student to witness the martial world he had once seen. The student saw martial artists display their skills and was carried into the hall, where Lian Youming appeared before the gathering.

• The hall was prepared with rows of chairs and the old banners of China's Righteous Gathering as martial artists and ordinary people gathered outside.
• An elderly man told his student that he had witnessed a martial arts gathering in Foshan decades earlier and urged him to continue the story in his manuscript.
• The student read the old account and questioned whether it was true, then followed his teacher toward the crowded hall.
• Two martial artists vaulted into the courtyard, and onlookers identified their skills as the Nature Sect's Heaven Plate Skill and the Swallow Sect's Swallow Three Dips in Water.
• Feng Xiong carried the teacher and student into the hall, while Zhang Weiyi spotted the manuscript and recognized its account of China's Righteous Gathering.
• The elderly man became emotional at the old banners as a tall, broad-shouldered figure strode into view.

Lian Youming calmed the gathered martial artists’ rivalries by urging them to master themselves and unite against the dangers ahead. The alliance presented its charter flags, inviting everyone to sign them.

• Lian Youming demonstrated his precise control by catching a sparrow and keeping it circling in his palm before releasing it.
• Representatives from martial schools and factions entered the hall, where an unfamiliar old man took the Eight Trigrams Sect’s chief seat and drew wary attention from Lian Youming, Fu Jianqiu, and Huo Diange.
• A man outside recognized the mysterious elder as someone with the surname Gong after recalling having seen him beside another man in the past.
• Martial artists in the hall argued over old grudges involving the White Lotus Sect and former disciples until Lian Youming quieted them with a story about Liu Xiang and a speech on martial chivalry and self-mastery.
• Lian Youming warned the gathering that they might soon face defeat, injury, or death, prompting former rivals to laugh together and ease the tension.
• Three Green Gang disciples brought out flags reading “Gathered across the land” and “Noble spirit endures” as the proposed Alliance Charter, and the gathered martial artists were asked to sign them.

Lian Youming united 125 Martial Gate experts in the Riverland Society, swearing to fight the Mystic Connection Calamity together. After the oath, Gong Baotian revealed his identity and warned Lian Youming that Gan Fengchi’s other son, Gan Yu, was likely to challenge him; Lian Youming chose to face him alone.

• Ni Fei signed the Alliance Charter, and Martial Gate experts across the hall followed, covering the flags with their names and some with blood.
• Fu Jianqiu challenged the mysterious old man, who revealed that he had signed the charter decades earlier and reminded Fu of their meeting at Li Cunyi and Cheng Tinghua’s funeral.
• Lian Youming raised the alliance flags and led the gathered experts in a blood-sealed oath, formally founding the Riverland Society and vowing to end the Mystic Connection Calamity.
• Lian Youming recognized the old man as Gong Baotian, who confirmed he had entered Mystic Connection and said Chen Baihu had asked him to hold the South.
• Gong Baotian warned Lian Youming that Gan Yu, Gan Fengchi’s other son, had powerful defenses and formidable spear skills; Lian Youming said he wanted to face him alone and left to test his abilities.

Lian Youming, Xu Baishi, and Li Yinhuan caught up with Gan Yu’s group as they headed for Wudang Mountain and intercepted them. Lian Youming killed two of Gan Yu’s Foresight-level fighters with his sword, leaving Gan Yu facing him alone.

• Lian Youming sent Zhang Weiyi and the others toward Wudang while he, Xu Baishi, and Li Yinhuan raced ahead to intercept Gan Yu’s group.
• Lian Youming shot one of Gan Yu’s subordinates in the shoulder, while Xu Baishi and Li Yinhuan blocked the group’s path.
• Lian Youming challenged Gan Yu and fought him alongside two other attackers as Xu Baishi and Li Yinhuan finished off the wounded subordinate.
• Lian Youming used sword intent to deceive one attacker and cut him open, then beheaded the other in midair.
• Gan Yu wiped blood from his cheek and faced Lian Youming after both of his Foresight experts fell in a single move.

Lian Youming defeated and killed Gan Yu after Gan Yu revealed that he intended to conquer Wudang Mountain. He ordered the Green Gang disciples to deliver Gan Yu’s body to Situ Wudi and his sister, then continued toward Wudang.

• Lian Youming used a sword manifested from intent to question Gan Yu, who declared that he planned to conquer Wudang Mountain.
• Gan Yu fought Lian Youming with Toad-Fishing Skill, Baji and Pigua, and the Fist-Shot Technique, but Lian Youming blocked his attacks and moved through his barrage.
• Gan Yu knocked Lian Youming’s sword away and tried to seize the advantage, but Lian Youming evaded his punches and struck him between the brows.
• Lian Youming retrieved his sword, pierced Gan Yu’s mouth, and struck his chest with internal force before killing him with a thrust through the mouth.
• Lian Youming ordered the Green Gang disciples to bury three bodies and take Gan Yu’s body to Situ Wudi and his sister, then set out for Wudang.

Lian Youming and his companions learned that Wudang Mountain had been attacked and rushed north after rescuing an injured Daoist. He summoned Southern Faction experts to gather at Wudang, while planning to meet the threat with help from other young fighters.

• Lian Youming learned that Li Yinhuan's Senior Martial Uncle had died, Gongyang Ming was badly injured, and Senior Sister Xie had returned north as a Foresight expert.
• Lian Youming found an unconscious Wudang disciple in the woods, treated his wounds, and learned that martial experts had attacked Wudang and captured Daoists.
• Lian Youming took the injured disciple north and instructed Gelaohui brothers to summon the Southern Faction's experts to Wudang.
• Lian Youming told Xu Baishi that the gathering was meant to test whether the enemy was targeting the South, and said Gong Wuer and Li Da's groups would join them.
• Lian Youming welcomed the chance to face nearly a hundred experts and looked forward to fighting alongside his peers.

Lian Youming gathered martial-world allies in Danjiangkou and prepared to attack Wudang Mountain, where enemy forces had set an ambush. By evening, reinforcements had arrived, and he ordered the assault to begin that night with no survivors.

• Lian Youming spotted profound presences and a killing formation on the mountain, then withdrew with Xu Baishi and Li Yinhuan to await reinforcements.
• Situ Wudi, Gu Yutong, and others arrived, and Lian Youming proposed sending a small force to attack the mountain while the rest prepared for a possible strike on the south.
• Gu Yutong warned Lian Youming that enemy sleepers might be among the gathered martial artists, so he told everyone to avoid food and disperse through the city.
• Tian Dayong and Li Da arrived with word that local Public Security would seal the mountain routes, while Yang Cuo reported that Foresight experts had ambushed him near a one-armed young man.
• Li Da and Yang Cuo identified Gan Xihu as a dangerous spear fighter wielding the Lique Spring Spear, and more allies, including Gong Wuer, Boss Chen, Xie Ruomei, Yang Shuang, and Wu Jiu, joined the group.
• Lian Youming declared that they would assault the mountain that night and leave none alive.

Lian Youming led an assault on Wudang Mountain while sending most of the assembled fighters back to reinforce Liangguang. After cutting down three attackers on the mountain path, he faced a group of enemies who demanded to know what happened to Gan Yu.

• Lian Youming exposed the infiltrators, sent a dozen prisoners away, and ordered most of the fighters to return to Liangguang while a smaller group climbed Wudang Mountain.
• Lian Youming and his companions advanced toward the mountain as the defenders prepared to retreat, and the two sides began fighting in the forest and along the path.
• Lian Youming killed three attackers with his sword and continued deeper into the mountain as signal notes summoned dozens of hostile auras.
• Lian Youming evaded a surprise attack and a descending iron staff, then faced five men, one of whom demanded to know where his son Gan Yu was.
• Lian Youming said Gan Yu was dead, and the man vowed to kill him.

Lian Youming was surrounded on the mountain steps by six Foresight martial artists seeking the Three Teachings Token. After Zhu Wu and Chiba Aoi brought him the Walled City’s heavy hammers, he seized them and turned the fight against his attackers.

• Lian Youming evaded Gan Yu’s father and four other martial artists as they closed in around him, while a hidden assassin waited overhead.
• The four attackers launched a coordinated assault, targeting Lian Youming’s left hand and trying to seize the Three Teachings Token.
• Zhu Wu and Chiba Aoi appeared carrying the heavy hammers from the Walled City, and Lian Youming used his Sound Strike to interrupt the encirclement and kill the hidden ninja.
• Lian Youming took the heavy hammers and ordered Zhu Wu and Chiba Aoi to retreat before striking Gan Yu’s father’s iron staff and driving him back.
• Lian Youming pinned the whip beneath his foot and swung a hammer, sending two attackers flying and killing the woman wielding the whip.

Lian Youming fought through the remaining attackers on the mountain path, killing the staff-wielding old man after a brutal clash. Xie Ruomei joined him as more experts emerged, and Lian Youming continued uphill.

• Lian Youming killed the meteor-hammer wielder and fought the iron-staff old man, who used Gu Feiyan's secret medicine to boost his strength.
• Lian Youming killed the wounded man wielding the Midnight-Meridian Mandarin Duck Yue, then traded heavy blows with the drug-enhanced old man.
• Lian Youming joined his hammer chains into one enormous weapon and battled the old man until the medicine began to wear off.
• Lian Youming delivered a final crushing blow that killed the old man, while Xie Ruomei deflected throwing knives with her spear.
• Lian Youming wiped the blood from his mouth and rushed uphill after warning that more experts were present.

Lian Youming and his companions fought their way toward Wudang Golden Summit, where Ma Laosi and a force of hidden enemies blocked the path. Ma Laosi revealed a bloodstained piece of Junk King's robe to provoke Lian Youming, who ordered the group to advance.

• Gu Yutong countered a hidden attacker's throwing weapons, and the attackers withdrew to regroup.
• Lian Youming and his companions pressed onward as enemies converged around them, and Xie Ruomei told him she had caught up with him.
• At the foot of Wudang Golden Summit, Lian Youming shared his remaining old medicine and rallied the group for the fight ahead.
• Ma Laosi introduced himself as a tomb keeper from the Plain White Banner and said the gathered descendants of the Eight Banners wanted to destroy the current world.
• Ma Laosi showed Lian Youming a bloodstained piece of Junk King's robe, but Li Da warned that it was meant to provoke him.
• Lian Youming ordered the group to advance, and Ma Laosi crushed the garment and commanded his forces to leave none alive.

Lian Youming and his companions fought their way through Ma Laosi’s killing formation on the mountain path, with Gu Yutong’s smoke pellets helping Lian break the encirclement. Lian carved a bloody route toward the Golden Summit, where he discarded his hammers and reached the path as Ma Laosi waited above.

• More than fifty Old-Era Martial Artists surrounded Lian Youming and his companions, forcing them into a defensive circle as Ma Laosi taunted them about Chen being unable to help.
• Lian Youming charged out of the circle to draw pressure away from his companions, while Gu Yutong blinded the attackers with an exploding smoke stone and helped him strike back with his hammers.
• Ma Laosi threw Gu Yutong’s smoke pellet back at Lian, but Lian burst it with internal qi and continued fighting through the attackers with his reinforced body and twin hammers.
• Ma Laosi ordered a huge net thrown over Lian, while Li Da, Huang San, Yang Cuo, Xie Ruomei, and the others used the Mandarin Duck Formation to counterattack.
• Lian hurled his hammers into the net and then drew his sword, cutting down an enemy as he reached the mountain path to the Golden Summit, where Ma Laosi challenged him from above.

Lian Youming fought his way to the Golden Summit, where Ma Laosi wounded him and threatened the Two Teachings Token. To give Li Da and the others a chance to win, Lian Youming fled across the rooftops to lure Ma Laosi away, and Ma Laosi pursued him with a dark figure close behind.

• Lian Youming used the Witnessing Art and his sword to cut through attackers on the mountain path, enduring numerous wounds as he reached the Golden Summit.
• Lian Youming killed a Hardened Martial Artist and repelled three more attackers before Ma Laosi struck him with the Baji Sect's Double Ram Strike.
• Ma Laosi stopped his men from attacking because Lian Youming still held the Two Teachings Token, while fighting continued below and enemies threatened Li Da and the others.
• Lian Youming told the people below to head south if they won, then leaped onto a Taoist temple and fled to draw Ma Laosi away.
• Ma Laosi ordered his men to slaughter Li Da and the others and then move south, before chasing Lian Youming with a dark figure following him.

Lian Youming fought Ma Laosi and a gifted flying-knife expert after they pursued him for the Two Teachings Token. He injured the woman but suffered a terrible wound to his face, leaving the outcome of their fight unresolved.

• Lian Youming used Divine Mobility to evade Ma Laosi and the cloaked woman, but her spirit-guided flying knife struck his sword and slowed him down.
• Lian Youming lured his pursuers into the stone cave, where Ma Laosi and the woman attacked him together with fists and Mandarin Duck Knives.
• Lian Youming realized Ma Laosi’s Baji Boxing could trap him and chose to trade injuries rather than prolong the fight.
• Lian Youming sent internal qi into the woman’s right eye, forcing her to retreat, but she threw a flying knife toward his open mouth as Ma Laosi attacked his head.
• Lian Youming’s face was torn open by the flying knife, leaving his teeth exposed as blood sprayed.

Lian Youming killed Ma Laosi and the woman after a brutal fight in the cave, then survived his grave injuries. Rethinking his goal of destroying the Martial Way, he set out for the Wudang Golden Summit with a new resolve to open a different path.

• Lian Youming used a Buddhist chant to stun Ma Laosi and the woman, then struck Ma Laosi while fighting off their attacks.
• Lian Youming unleashed Geng Metal Sword Qi, but Ma Laosi broke through his defenses and wounded him while the woman attacked from behind.
• Lian Youming caught the woman's throwing knife in his palm and killed her with the Gall-Illuminating Sword after Ma Laosi died.
• Lian Youming regained consciousness the next day, treated his injuries, and reflected that the old masters and the mistaken Martial Way—not the Martial Way itself—should be opposed.
• Lian Youming left the cave and hurried toward the Wudang Golden Summit to carry on the past and open a new path.

After returning to the Golden Summit, Lian Youming learned from Xie Ruomei's letter that the battle there had been won, but he encountered a mysterious expert in the Golden Hall who offered him a legendary sword. Following the expert's directions, Lian Youming discovered that the wooden sword on the cliff was a decoy and uncovered a hidden sword inside a statue's clay weapon.

• Lian Youming found Xie Ruomei's letter saying the true Daoist cultivators had been freed and the victorious group was returning south.
• Lian Youming sensed a hidden presence in the Golden Hall and saw mysterious hands sheltering its oil lamp.
• The unseen expert praised Lian Youming's victory and told him that a sword was waiting for him at Nanyan Palace.
• Lian Youming retrieved the Gall-Illuminating Sword and found that the wooden sword on the cliff crumbled when he touched it.
• Lian Youming followed the cliff sword's direction into Nanyan Palace, removed a clay sword from a guardian statue, and opened its hidden case to reveal a strange wooden sword.

While racing home with severe injuries, Lian Youming overheard Gu Feiyan recruiting several Old-Era Martial Artists to seek a rumored Sword Immortal Inheritance on Mount Lu. He followed after them, then paused to recover beneath the stars, sensing that his Iron Shirt was close to a breakthrough.

• Lian Youming concealed himself on Wanshi Mountain after sensing six people gathered there, including four Old-Era Martial Artists and two foreigners.
• Gu Feiyan met the group and claimed that clues linked the Sword Immortal Inheritance to Mount Lu, persuading them to investigate before other experts arrived.
• Lian Youming decided to follow the group, believing the inheritance could become dangerous in their hands and that the battle in the South was likely ending.
• After Gu Feiyan's group departed, Gu Chan and White Bone Daoist followed them, while Lian Youming stayed behind to meditate and recover.

Lian Youming reached Mount Lu after reflecting on Gu Feiyan’s desperate bid for the Sword Immortal Inheritance, and the Dragon-Slaying Sword’s pure yang warmth healed much of his internal damage and aided his cultivation. At the mountain’s foot, he spotted Mangus, Nalan Wushe, White Bone Daoist, and Gu Chan together, then slipped away as they discussed Gu Feiyan and the strange rise of the Three Teachings Chief Seat and Alliance Leader.

• Lian Youming concluded that Gu Feiyan was making a final gamble for the Sword Immortal Inheritance after losing the contest for Grand Momentum.
• Lian Youming met Pao Ge members by Poyang Lake, then discovered that the Dragon-Slaying Sword’s pure yang warmth was healing his injuries and accelerating his bodily transformation.
• Lian Youming reached Mount Lu and saw Mangus meeting with White Bone Daoist, Nalan Wushe, and Gu Chan.
• Nalan Wushe and White Bone Daoist sensed Lian Youming watching them, but he withdrew before they could catch him.
• Nalan Wushe warned Mangus that Mount Lu held many experts and that a Mystic Connection Grand Realm master might be present, while White Bone Daoist discussed Gu Feiyan’s prospects.
• Nalan Wushe recalled how the Three Teachings Chief Seat and Alliance Leader had risen from a foolish young man, and the four entered Mount Lu.