Chapter Summaries

Lian Youming returned home to a warm family dinner with Zhao Xiaozhi and Yan Tao, then delivered food to the Junk King, the old scavenger who had helped raise neighborhood children and given Lian Youming his name. The Junk King sensed that Lian Youming had brought tiger bones and recalled a legendary Tiger King from Zhongnan Mountain.

• Zhao Lanxiang hosted Zhao Xiaozhi and Yan Tao for dinner and warned Lian Youming not to play with women's feelings.
• Lian Youming and his family shared a meal, and Zhao Lanxiang asked him to take food to the Junk King.
• Lian Youming brought the meal to the Junk King, who was playing Chinese chess alone in his cluttered room.
• The Junk King smelled tiger bones on Lian Youming and described a fearsome Tiger King that had once lived on Zhongnan Mountain.
• Lian Youming returned home, and Zhao Lanxiang reminded him that the Junk King had named him after taking her to the hospital during a snowstorm.

After returning to Xijing, Lian Youming reunited with his family and helped Yan Tao and Sun Duhe reunite safely. He then faced a major decision about whether to study and take the university entrance exam.

• Lian Youming examined the items he had brought from the Northeast and resolved to return to the Logging Camp’s secret chamber to uncover its mysteries.
• Lian Bin returned home, warmly greeted Lian Youming, and promised to spar with him that night.
• Lian Youming took Yan Tao and Zhao Xiaozhi around Textile City before meeting Sun Duhe at the train station.
• Sun Duhe reunited with Yan Tao and thanked Lian Youming, who advised them to keep her safe at home.
• Zhao Xiaozhi revealed she was about to become a railway police officer, and Lian Youming warned her to seek help if she faced danger.
• After seeing Zhao Xiaozhi, Yan Tao, and Sun Duhe off, Lian Youming considered studying for the university entrance exam.

Lian Youming struggled to decipher the mysteries of Journey to the West and nearly let his frustration overwhelm him, but a new way of reading its pictures revealed hidden monkeys. He uncovered a faint inscription in the seventy-second picture, giving him a crucial clue about the book’s martial arts.

• Lian Youming visited the Junk King, who identified Yan Lingyun’s Tiger Bone Wine prescription and offered to gather its ingredients with him on Zhongnan Mountain.
• The Junk King sensed Lian Youming’s troubled state and warned that mastering the turmoil in his heart was harder than defeating bandits.
• At home, Lian Youming fixated on Journey to the West, growing restless as he failed to understand its Seventy-Two Small Pictures and Elixir Formula.
• Lian Youming calmed himself with the Five-Animal Exercise and realized the pictures showed both visible and invisible monkeys.
• Lian Youming matched the hidden monkeys across the pictures and found six faint characters in the seventy-second: “Heavenly Dipper Strength! Earthly Fiend Stance!”

Lian Youming resisted the temptation to keep studying Journey to the West, then found clarity and broke through his Golden Bell Cover while practicing in the Ba River. Back home, he refused his parents’ offer to buy a Steel Plant job and prepared to settle the question of his future by sparring with his father.

• Lian Youming realized that Journey to the West tested his state of mind, closed it, and put it away despite his desire to uncover more of its secrets.
• Lian Youming ran to the Ba River, struggled to rein in his thoughts through fighting, and found inspiration in the sunset, a wild duck, and a fish in the water.
• Lian Youming developed a new understanding of martial arts, declared, “With the heart unbound, the world opens wide,” and broke through his Golden Bell Cover.
• Lian Youming returned home with two crucian carp, where Zhao Lanxiang and his father discussed paying twelve hundred yuan for him to take an injured worker’s place at the Steel Plant.
• Lian Youming said he wanted to keep studying, and his father challenged him to a sparring match to decide whether he could make his own choices.

Lian Youming practiced the Witnessing Art, obtained a sleeping skill from the Junk King, and discovered that a thief from the train gang was tracking him for a bounty. The chapter ended with Lian Youming learning the bounty was only a thousand yuan.

• Zhao Lanxiang and Lian Father agreed to let Lian Youming study, and Lian Youming cared for his younger siblings before leaving home.
• Lian Youming helped the Junk King sort junk, received the Hibernating Dragon Skill, and learned it was the Sleeping Elixir Skill.
• The Junk King reflected on Lian Youming's newfound composure and wondered if Heaven had given him another chance.
• Lian Youming ran into Yang Hao, then sensed someone watching him near the Drum Tower and suspected the man belonged to the train thieves.
• Lian Youming evaded the short, thin pursuer, who revealed that a thousand-yuan bounty had been offered for him.

Lian Youming followed a man to the Wengcheng black market and confronted Song Xiehu, who had been looking for him. After learning that Tan Fei of the Eagle Claw Sect was behind the search, Lian Youming declared he would go to Cangzhou to settle the matter on the last day of the year.

• Lian Youming followed a suspicious man through Yongning Gate to a black market in Wengcheng and recognized his younger cousins among the sellers.
• Lian Youming entered Song Xiehu’s courtyard and demanded to know who had ordered him to investigate Lian Youming and his family.
• Song Xiehu drew his short sabers and fought Lian Youming, but Lian Youming quickly overpowered him.
• Song Xiehu revealed that Tan Fei of the Eagle Claw Sect was involved and that a thief boss at Xijing Railway Station had helped search for Lian Youming.
• Lian Youming learned that the Eagle Claw Sect was in Cangzhou and challenged them to meet him there on the last day of the year.

Lian Youming helped his cousins Lu Dazhuang and Lu Xiaozhuang after finding them trying to sell scavenged jars at the black market, then asked the Junk King to assess their goods. The Junk King dismissed the finds as worthless but offered Lian Youming the generation name “Tong” and told him to prepare for an early trip to Zhongnan Mountain.

• Lian Youming found Lu Dazhuang and Lu Xiaozhuang arguing with black market staff and learned they had spent a week trying to sell jars they found after a landslide in the Qinling Mountains.
• Lian Youming brought the hungry, unwashed brothers home, promised to check the value of their goods, and warned them not to run off without telling Third Aunt.
• Lian Youming asked Song Xiehu about selling gold and learned he could sell one of his gold bars for about twelve thousand yuan.
• Lian Youming bought treats and supplies for Lian Shuang and Lian Lei, then took the brothers’ jars and a bowl of noodles to the Junk King.
• The Junk King judged the jars worthless and explained the Three Teachings’ historical connections to underworld groups.
• The Junk King offered Lian Youming the generation name “Tong,” claimed members of the White Lotus Sect would have to kneel and listen to him, and told him to go to Zhongnan Mountain before dawn.

Lian Youming refined his martial understanding under the moon, then traveled with Junk King into Zhongnan Mountain to search for ancient Yellow Essence. At the ruins, a mandrill attacked and Lian Youming rescued a Giant Panda cub, but the beast’s extraordinary toughness left their confrontation unresolved.

• Lian Youming practiced the Sleeping Elixir Skill, climbed the Giant Wild Goose Pagoda, and developed his own ideas about the balance between humanity, bestiality, yin, and yang.
• At dawn, Lian Youming left with Junk King while Lu Dazhuang and Lu Xiaozhuang headed back to their village, and the pair traveled into Zhongnan Mountain.
• Following Junk King's directions, Lian Youming found the ruins of a Daoist temple and uncovered a large patch of ancient Yellow Essence.
• A mandrill attacked Lian Youming while carrying an injured Giant Panda cub, and Lian Youming struck the beast with a pebble and caught the cub.
• The mandrill recovered and roared at Lian Youming, who realized that the beast had an exceptionally tough body.

Lian Youming chased and fought a vicious mandrill through the mountain forest, following it to a cave on a sheer cliff. Inside, he found animal and human skeletons, including one dressed like the skeleton from the secret chamber at the Logging Camp.

• The Junk King warned Lian Youming that the mandrill was dangerous and held grudges, then reflected that Lian Youming had subtly shown he trusted him as a hidden master.
• Lian Youming followed the mandrill through the treetops and lured it into attacking, but its hardened body and fierce claws made it a formidable opponent.
• Lian Youming dislocated the mandrill's jaw and wrists, yet it kicked him hard and fled into the forest.
• Lian Youming pursued the wounded mandrill to a sheer cliff, spotted a cave, and climbed down to enter it.
• The mandrill lunged at Lian Youming inside the cave, and he seized it by the throat before noticing animal bones and four human skeletons, including one in Manchu clothing like the skeleton at the Logging Camp.
• Lian Youming stamped the mandrill to death as he surveyed the cave with a grave expression.

Lian Youming investigated a cave where two martial artists had died, uncovering clues linking them to the Wudang Lower Vehicle Elixir Sect and the Sticky Pole Office. Back at the Taoist temple, he found the mother bear eating a rich patch of yellow essence and was forced to wrestle her without hurting her.

• Lian Youming found a lotus brand on the mountain mandrill and examined two skeletons entangled in vines inside the cave.
• Lian Youming discovered a token identifying one skeleton as a deputy commander of the Imperial Hunting Reserve Office and found a decayed letter and a corroded sword nearby.
• Lian Youming read the dying inscription identifying a Wudang Lower Vehicle Elixir Sect disciple and wondered whether the cave’s deaths were connected to the skeleton in the Logging Camp’s hidden chamber.
• Lian Youming returned to the Taoist temple and found the mother bear and Junk King eating a large patch of yellow essence.
• Junk King told Lian Youming not to hurt the mother bear, then left to gather medicinal herbs while Lian Youming wrestled her for more than half an hour.

Lian Youming gathered herbs and hunted wild boars in the Qinling Mountains before arriving at the south gate's Wengcheng, where he fought an Eagle Claw Sect fighter who had come to avenge his junior brother. He defeated the black-clad young man, and the Eagle Claw Sect issued a challenge for the last day of the year.

• Lian Youming wrestled Mother Bear, gathered yellow essence and medicinal herbs with Junk King, and left much of the plant behind.
• Lian Youming toured Daoist ruins and inscriptions with Junk King, then caught two wild boars and seven piglets for the village.
• Song Xiehu faced a black-clad Eagle Claw Sect fighter who attacked his men for passing along a message for Lian Youming.
• Xiaowu accidentally lit his homemade explosives, but Lian Youming arrived and pinched out the fuse.
• Lian Youming challenged the black-clad young man, exchanged blows with him, and struck his spine with a Tai Chi Hammer, leaving him collapsed.
• An unseen person carried the defeated young man away, while a hoarse voice declared that the Eagle Claw Sect would await Lian Youming on the last day of the year.

Lian Youming trained in the Ba River to refine his Taiji force, using a vat set out by the Junk King as a test. After discovering how to create momentum by stirring the water, he found an old book titled Huo-style Wrestling and recognized the name Huo Shi Yuanjia.

• Song Xiehu warned Lian Youming that using Taiji Boxing had drawn the attention of the Taiji Gate and other martial artists, then paid him twelve thousand for a gold bar.
• Lian Youming returned home, rested, and began training in the Ba River to improve his control of force against the current.
• The Junk King left Lian Youming a vat to keep steady in the river, gradually adding water and eventually leaving it broken and leaking.
• After pondering the lesson for eight or nine days, Lian Youming realized he could create momentum by stirring the water inside the vat, making it stand and spin briefly on its own.
• Lian Youming searched for the Junk King and found a scorched old book labeled Huo-style Wrestling, hand-copied by Huo Shi Yuanjia, whose name astonished him.

After learning that Yan Lingyun’s family faced threats over the nearly finished Earth Spirit Heaven-Mending Powder, Lian Youming prepared to travel to Cangzhou and confront the Eagle Claw Sect. He left with Junk King’s blessing and Tiger Bone Wine, determined to return alive.

• During a call from Guangxi, Yan Lingyun asked Lian Youming to send food and warned him that people had set their sights on her family’s Old Medicine, the Earth Spirit Heaven-Mending Powder.
• Lian Youming promised to go to Cangzhou after the New Year and told Yan Lingyun to put her safety first if her family lost the medicine.
• Lian Youming told Zhao Lanxiang he planned to travel to Hebei, and she agreed to let him go.
• Lian Youming bought Yan Lingyun’s requested food, packed his luggage, and prepared to leave at daybreak for Cangzhou, where he planned to face the Eagle Claw Sect and visit Third Brother Xie’s granddaughter.
• Lian Youming asked Junk King whether the Old Medicine could help his injured leg, and Junk King said its effect would likely be small.
• Junk King revealed that his surname was Liu, gave Lian Youming the ready Tiger Bone Wine, and asked him to come back alive.

Lian Youming arrived in Cangzhou and learned that Liu Danaodai’s Youming Sect had inspired a crowd of Qigong practitioners, then tracked down Third Brother Xie’s deaf-mute granddaughter. After noticing her hidden martial skills and suspicious figures around her courtyard, he decided to knock on her door.

• Lian Youming heard that Master Liu of the Youming Sect was a former village doctor from the Northeast who could breathe out clouds and retrieve objects, and suspected the story referred to Liu Danaodai.
• Lian Youming struggled to find Third Brother Xie’s granddaughter because the address was outdated, then learned she had been relocated near Dongfeng Market.
• A stallholder identified the deaf-mute girl selling buttons and criticized her family, while Lian Youming saw her trading goods with schoolgirls for books.
• Lian Youming followed the girl and noticed that she carried her button box with trained steadiness, suggesting she knew martial arts despite Third Brother Xie’s account.
• Lian Youming saw the girl enter a courtyard, spotted suspicious people nearby, and returned to knock on the door.

Lian Youming found Xie Ruomei, Third Brother Xie's deaf and mute granddaughter, and chose to protect her from martial artists seeking vengeance against her family. After defeating two challengers, he accepted a proposed street challenge to settle the feud if he survived his fight with the Eagle Claw Sect.

• Lian Youming entered Xie Ruomei's courtyard and realized that Third Brother Xie had entrusted her to him because she was being bullied.
• Xie Ruomei identified herself in writing and told Lian Youming to leave, but two young martial artists arrived and accused him of being connected to Third Brother Xie or the White Lotus Sect.
• Lian Youming defeated the two men, who revealed that their sects wanted Xie Ruomei to pay for her father's past enemies.
• An old man from the Baji Sect offered to hold a nine-bout street challenge to settle the feud and promised that no one would trouble Xie Ruomei while Lian Youming was away.
• Lian Youming agreed to the challenge if he survived his conflict with the Eagle Claw Sect, and the old man departed after confirming that his word carried authority.

Lian Youming prepared to face the Eagle Claw Sect, learned more of its techniques from Xie Ruomei, and received help from the old man and his junior martial uncle. Before he could leave for the fight, the old man stopped his attempt to go early and said someone from the Taiji Gate wanted to meet him.

• Lian Youming learned that Xie Ruomei wanted to fight to repay her family’s debt, gave her two thousand yuan, and promised to take on the Eagle Claw Sect himself.
• Xie Ruomei showed Lian Youming her drawings and explanations of Eagle Claw Fist, and he discovered bruises on her neck that he recognized as marks from the style.
• The old man brought his junior martial uncle, a Baji master, who demonstrated Yanqing throws to help Lian Youming prepare for the fight.
• Lian Youming sat in meditation through the heavy snowfall and decided to leave before dawn to eliminate future trouble rather than follow the formal challenge rules.
• The farmer intercepted Lian Youming outside, and the old man arrived, stopped the farmer from giving away more, and told Lian Youming that someone from the Taiji Gate had come to see him.

Lian Youming met an elderly Taiji Gate expert who reassured him that the sect would not take back his martial arts and showed him the power of Taiji Cloud Hands. At daybreak, backed by a crowd from various martial arts schools, he confronted the Eagle Claw Sect and declared that he had come to collect debts for its victims.

• The old man brought Lian Youming and Xie Ruomei to meet an elderly woman from the Taiji Gate, who praised Lian Youming’s grasp of soft force and promised not to take back his martial arts.
• The elderly woman demonstrated Taiji Cloud Hands by shielding a lamp flame from the wind and snow blowing through an open window, then left with Xie Ruomei.
• At daybreak, Lian Youming left with the old man and Uncle Wu, while members of many martial arts schools joined them on the way to the Eagle Claw Sect.
• Lian Youming arrived at the Eagle Claw Sect’s gate, rejected the formal language of settling old scores, and vowed to collect its debts for the people it had killed.

Lian Youming challenged Tan Fei and the Eagle Claw Sect, signed the Life-and-Death Agreement, and began the required three-gate fight. He killed the first two disciples and tore off the third disciple’s arms, then dragged the wounded man toward Tan Fei.

• Lian Youming demanded that the word “grudges” be crossed out of the Life-and-Death Agreement and openly accused Tan Fei and the Eagle Claw Sect of shielding criminals.
• Tan Fei accepted Lian Youming’s challenge but required him to defeat three disciples before he could fight the deputy sect leader.
• Lian Youming and Tan Fei signed the Life-and-Death Agreements, which the Eight Trigrams Sect senior announced before the duel began.
• Lian Youming countered Song Tianxiong’s Flower Fist and killed him with a strike to the spine.
• Lian Youming turned Song Tianxiang’s wrestling strength against him, then killed him with a knee strike to the chest.
• The third disciple attacked Lian Youming, who tore off both of his arms and dragged him toward Tan Fei, leaving a streak of blood on the wall.

Lian Youming killed three Eagle Claw Sect disciples and challenged Tan Fei, who attacked with a cloak that concealed his punches and kicks. Their fight left Lian Youming wounded, and a token falling from his pocket made Tan Fei react to the words “The Sticky Pole Office.”

• Lian Youming killed the last of three Eagle Claw Sect disciples in front of Tan Fei and declared that he would beat him to death.
• Spectators marveled at Lian Youming’s ruthless fighting, while Xie Ruomei watched anxiously in his clothes and hat.
• Tan Fei flung his hat and cloak at Lian Youming, then used the swirling cloak to hide a barrage of attacks and knock him backward.
• Tan Fei pursued Lian Youming through the wind and snow as spectators cleared away the corpses.
• Lian Youming hung from a wall and fought back, but Tan Fei’s eagle claws tore his shirt and wounded him.
• A small token fell from Lian Youming’s pocket, and Tan Fei’s pupils contracted when he saw it: “The Sticky Pole Office?”

Lian Youming fought Tan Fei through a snowstorm, surviving Tan Fei’s cloak trap and crippling him with a final sequence of attacks. After learning Tan Fei had ties to imperial palace experts, Lian Youming hurled him into the Eagle Claw Sect’s gate, ending the battle.

• Tan Fei recognized the gold token Lian Youming had dropped and asked which banner’s nobility he belonged to, but Lian Youming denied knowing anything and ground the token underfoot.
• Tan Fei launched a fierce attack, and Lian Youming used the Golden Bell Cover and Toad-Fishing Skill to endure it before Tan Fei wrapped him in his cloak and threw him toward a stone lion.
• Lian Youming escaped the cloak, clawed out one of Tan Fei’s eyes, and survived the throw by dispersing its impact with the Toad-Fishing Skill.
• Lian Youming used a Gaze Attack to distract Tan Fei, then struck his wrist and heart, leaving him numb, unbalanced, and vomiting blood.
• Lian Youming asked about Tan Fei’s connection to the imperial palace experts, and Tan Fei promised that someone would avenge him.
• Lian Youming hurled Tan Fei into the Eagle Claw Sect’s main gate, shattering its plaque and ending the battle.