Chapter Summaries

Lu Sui learned that the Hundred Victories Martial Arts School had advanced techniques and considered what weapon to choose. Meanwhile, Zheng Rong encountered an evil calamity at Qiao Family Village and was confronted by a red-haired man from the Three Calamities Cult.

• Tan Jingzong explained that Fetus Embracing martial artists could draw in Yin Baleful Intent and suppress evil creatures, and said the Hundred Victories Martial Arts School had lost its Gale Swift Sword legacy.
• Tan Jingzong praised the value of footwork and movement techniques, urged Lu Sui to choose a weapon, and planned to have Zheng Rong take him to a bandit den.
• Zheng Rong killed mountain bandits at the abandoned Qiao Family Village and heard a dying bandit warn that Old Fox Gully had suffered an evil calamity.
• Gray fog spread through the village, revealing blue-faced, fanged figures as Zheng Rong recognized the evil calamity and prepared to fight.
• A red-haired man wearing a stone mask offered Zheng Rong a place in the Three Calamities Cult, then appeared in front of him when he tried to flee and declared that Changle County was their calamity ground.

Lu Sui completed another blood renewal after mastering the Dragon-Roving Movement Technique, then considered how strength could protect the Lu Family and chose to pursue swordsmanship. Meanwhile, Zhou Jing heard people gossiping about his family and returned to the Zhou residence in anger.

• Lu Sui practiced the Dragon-Roving Movement Technique at the Hundred Victories Martial Arts School, triggering another blood renewal and toppling nearly all the plum-blossom stakes.
• Lu Sui asked about weapons and decided to have a sword forged, while Liang Bao told him that Deng's Shop Weapon-Forging Shop now belonged to the Dacheng Trading Firm.
• Lu Sui left the school reflecting on the Lu Family's vulnerable position and concluded that power came from having a strong fist.
• At a tea stall on Broker Street, Zhou Jing overheard people accusing his family of wrongdoing and threateningly ordered his carriage back to the Zhou residence.

Zhou Jing learned that Zhou Guangsheng had surrendered the family’s warding object to settle the fallout from A-Qing’s alleged calamity, while Zhou Guangsheng secretly offered his own sons to the cult in exchange for a chance at immortality. At the Lu residence, Xiaotang and Xiaohuan watched Lu Sui’s intense breathing practice, and Xiaotang wondered whether she could endure his strength in the future.

• Zhou Jing visited Zhou Guangsheng and heard that the Lu Family had taken the Shi Gandang, while the Zhou Family planned to compensate those harmed by A-Qing’s alleged calamity.
• Zhou Jing told Zhou Guangsheng about Qi Beilin’s plans to buy property, and Zhou Guangsheng authorized him to entertain the merchant at the household’s expense.
• A crow asked Zhou Guangsheng for three unusually depraved living people, and Zhou Guangsheng offered his own sons as sacrifices to the Calamity-Free Old Mother.
• Zhou Guangsheng revealed that he hoped to learn to draw in Calamity Qi and gain an Imperial Embryo Holy Pill through the cult’s coming plans for Changle County.
• At the Lu residence, Xiaohuan failed to imitate Lu Sui’s breathing, while Xiaotang wondered whether she could withstand him after his body tempering.

Lu Sui asked Dou Xiaowen for advice on choosing a weapon and received the concealed flexible sword Finger-Wrapping Softness. Dou Xiaowen then took him to Yang Kunbing to seek another weapon, where Yang objected to giving the talented Lu Sui throwing knives.

• Xiaohuan imagined Lu Sui becoming an immortal, while Xiaotang doubted immortals existed in the world.
• Lu Sui trained diligently, strengthened his Qi and Blood, and resolved to reach Force Tempering as soon as possible.
• Lu Sui asked Dou Xiaowen what weapon suited him, and Dou recommended a concealed short weapon to complement his footwork.
• Dou Xiaowen gave Lu Sui the flexible sword Finger-Wrapping Softness, which Lu Sui gladly accepted.
• Dou Xiaowen brought Lu Sui to Yang Kunbing's quarters to seek another weapon, and Yang questioned why Lu Sui needed throwing knives.

Lu Sui acquired a set of throwing knives and a manual for training hidden-weapon skills from Yang Kunbing. Meanwhile, Yu Tianci negotiated with Boss Zhao’s crow, proposing to join the Three Calamities Cult while infiltrating the Nine Ridges and Ten Mountains as a spy.

• Dou Xiaowen advised Lu Sui to conceal his abilities, use hidden weapons, and flee when a fight turned against him.
• Yang Kunbing sold Lu Sui seven throwing knives for five hundred taels and gave him the Thousand Rays Dotting Stars Hand manual.
• Lu Sui defended Yang Kunbing’s rules and left without asking Dou Xiaowen about the Iron Crotch Art.
• Boss Zhao’s crow met Yu Tianci at a coffin house and explained the Three Calamities Cult’s powers and its offer of insider skills.
• Yu Tianci rejected the crow’s choice between informing on the cult and helping destroy the Lu Family, then proposed becoming a cult spy inside the Nine Ridges and Ten Mountains.

Lu Sui practiced the Thousand Rays Dotting Stars Hand, sharpening his eyesight and landing a precise throwing-dagger strike. His father summoned him to the north courtyard study, where Lu Yulin began a serious conversation about his future path.

• Lu Sui considered his growing collection of arts and methods, planned his cultivation, and worried about finding ten wisps of Calamity Qi for the six-eared little monkey to transform.
• Lu Sui trained the Thousand Rays Dotting Stars Hand in the dark, using his keen eyesight to sever a thread with his sword and pin a flying insect to a pillar with a throwing dagger.
• Xiaotang told Lu Sui that Lu Yulin had summoned him, and Lu Sui wondered whether his father had chosen which path he should take.
• Lu Sui entered the north courtyard study, where Dou Xiaowen and others waited outside and Lu Yulin invited him to sit down for a conversation.

Lu Yulin revealed the Lu Family’s hidden fate and offered Lu Sui two paths: enter the Nine Ridges and Ten Mountains to pursue martial advancement, or return to Mute Hamlet and fulfill a marriage arrangement tied to his godmother. As Lu Yulin explained the second option, Lu Sui realized it meant settling there as a live-in son-in-law.

• Lu Yulin told Lu Sui that his root and nature made him eligible to enter the Nine Ridges and Ten Mountains, and explained why he had kept the family’s hidden affairs from him.
• Lu Yulin said the Yu survivor’s connection to Han Wenlong made him dangerous, then offered Lu Sui the choice of joining a mountain or returning to Mute Hamlet.
• Outside the study, Yang Kunbing explained to Dou Xiaowen that the Lu Family’s owl god fate could empower Lu Sui but also bring disaster, and warned that Lu Yulin might be his greatest obstacle.
• Lu Yulin recounted how his grandfather had driven him from the family and how he had later made a marriage arrangement with his godmother’s side in Mute Hamlet.
• Lu Yulin offered to send Lu Sui back to Mute Hamlet to fulfill the arrangement and live there, and Lu Sui suspected he was being asked to become a live-in son-in-law.

Lu Sui chose to pursue the Nine Ridges and Ten Mountains, and Lu Yulin revealed the Lu Family’s fate incense and ancestral treasures. The chapter ended with Lu Yulin urging Lu Sui to take the Seven-Apertured Golden Core from the secret vault.

• Lu Sui asked whether Lu Yulin’s godmother was human, then chose the Nine Ridges and Ten Mountains over a quiet life in Mute Village.
• Lu Yulin promised to shield Lu Sui from enemies and explained that the Owl God in the Lu Family’s fate needed fortune from a lit incense stick.
• Lu Yulin led Lu Sui through a hidden passage to the family’s secret chamber and explained the five fate incense sticks and their effects on past generations.
• Lu Yulin revealed that only Longevity Incense remained and that lighting it was required to enter the Lu Family’s secret vault.
• Lu Yulin explained the family’s hidden wealth and remedies, then told Lu Sui that the Seven-Apertured Exquisite Heart was a Golden Core he could take.