Chapter Summaries

Shen Qing confronted Zhao Meng and a Second Rank swordsman as Lin Yuan helped corner the rebels in the street. Zhao Meng died, while the swordsman turned his attack on Lin Yuan to escape.

• Shen Qing confronted Zhao Meng, who admitted that the Zhao Clan intended to rebel.
• Shen Qing fought the swordsman while Lin Yuan killed the swordsman’s black-clad subordinates outside.
• The swordsman escaped through a window with Zhao Meng, but Lin Yuan blocked their landing with Saber Qi.
• Shen Qing resumed fighting the swordsman as Lin Yuan killed Zhao Meng and revealed that he was Lin Dafu’s son.
• The wounded swordsman decided to break through by attacking Lin Yuan with a fifty-foot streak of Sword Qi.

Lin Yuan and Shen Qing killed a second-rank sword-bearing man, then Lin Yuan used a Qi and Blood Pill to restore Lin Jiu and revealed his Wu Lineage cultivation breakthrough to Master Wu. After recovering three illusory internal organs overnight, Lin Yuan headed to the drill ground with Lin Jiu for the next day's events.

• Lin Yuan clashed head-on with the second-rank sword-bearing man, and Shen Qing stabbed him from behind and killed him.
• Shen Qing ordered the officers and constables to keep the fight secret, then told Wu Wei and Wang Ruogu to purge Zhao Meng's loyalists from the county office.
• Lin Yuan asked Shen Qing for a Qi and Blood Pill, and she gave him a bottle containing five.
• Lin Yuan gave Lin Jiu a Qi and Blood Pill, which restored him and raised him to body tempering perfection.
• Lin Yuan told Master Wu and Lin Jiu about his breakthrough, and Master Wu confirmed that Lin Yuan had formed five illusory internal organs through the Wu Lineage's method.
• After cultivating overnight, Lin Yuan had recovered three illusory internal organs and set out for the drill ground with Lin Jiu.

Lin Yuan exposed Zhao Meng’s rebellion to the city defense soldiers and used the rebels’ defeat, overdue wages, and promised rewards to secure their loyalty. With the county yamen stabilized, he turned his attention toward the Lin estate.

• Lin Yuan announced that the Zhao Clan had plotted rebellion and revealed Zhao Meng’s severed head to the soldiers.
• Several dozen armored soldiers charged the platform to avenge Zhao Meng, but Lin Yuan cut down the leaders and the constables subdued the rest.
• Lin Yuan promised to pay the soldiers’ overdue wages and offered silver rewards for rebel heads, injuries, and deaths in battle.
• Wu Wei and Wang Ruogu guaranteed the payments, winning the soldiers’ trust as they lined up to collect their wages.
• Lin Yuan left the parade ground with Shen Qing and Lin Jiu, then fixed his gaze on the Lin estate in the south of the city.

Lin Yuan returned to the Lin residence and found the Zhao Clan occupying it and desecrating the Lin ancestors’ spirit tablets. He killed the Zhao and Lin guards and the Zhao Clan grand elder, then prepared to kill Lin Shan before someone inside ordered him to stop.

• Shen Qing told Lin Yuan that the Zhao Clan had left its den and moved into the Lin residence.
• Lin Jiu recognized the Lin ancestors’ spirit tablets, and after a servant threw them aside, he killed the servant; Lin Yuan killed the Zhao Clan guards and returned Lin Dafu’s tablet to Lin Jiu.
• The Zhao Clan grand elder claimed the residence belonged to the Zhao Clan, while Lin Shan emerged with thirty Lin residence guards and insulted Lin Yuan.
• Lin Yuan killed the thirty guards with three strikes of Saber Qi and killed the grand elder with a kick through his abdomen.
• Lin Yuan restrained Lin Shan and placed his saber against his neck, but a voice from inside the residence ordered him to stop.

Lin Yuan confronted Zhao Yan and Lin Shan at the Lin household, where Zhao Yan tried to portray him as a murderous brother. Lin Yuan ignored warnings from Shen Qing and Song Mo, killed Lin Shan, and left Song Mo facing him in stunned silence.

• Zhao Yan arrived with Song Mo and tried to persuade Lin Yuan to spare Lin Shan, while Lin Shan learned that Lin Yuan was the brother he had once despised.
• Lin Yuan slapped Lin Shan twice and severed both of his arms after mocking his attempt to claim the moral high ground.
• Zhao Yan ordered Song Mo to kill Lin Yuan, and Song Mo warned Lin Yuan to stop because Lin Shan was under his protection.
• Shen Qing recognized Song Mo as a rebel-aligned swordsman of second rank late stage and warned Lin Yuan about his strength.
• Lin Yuan beheaded Lin Shan despite Song Mo's warning, then mocked Song Mo as the severed head landed at his feet.

Lin Yuan killed Zhao Yan and her allies after revealing that the Zhao Clan’s rebellion had been exposed, avenging his father. Meanwhile, Shen Qing was badly wounded fighting Song Mo, whose sword was about to pierce her chest.

• Shen Qing fought Song Mo while Lin Yuan advanced on Zhao Yan, and the six stewards she summoned backed down after Lin Yuan killed one of them.
• Lin Yuan killed the five remaining stewards and then killed Zhao Yan after telling her that Zhao Meng had died because of the Zhao Clan’s rebellion.
• Lin Jiu told Lin Yuan that his master had been avenged, and Lin Yuan felt his long-held resentment finally lift.
• Song Mo wounded Shen Qing’s right arm and pressed his attack, driving his sword toward her chest as she tried to retreat.

Lin Yuan and Shen Qing defeated Song Mo after Lin Yuan unleashed a devastating saber technique, but the arrival of Zhao Wuya’s thirty-thousand-strong army threatened Ping’an County. The chapter ended as they heard battle cries from the city walls and turned toward the approaching army.

• Lin Yuan asked Shen Qing to create an opening, and she fought Song Mo despite her wounded arm.
• Song Mo knocked Shen Qing aside and repelled the six Dragon Guard cavalrymen, while Lin Jiu attacked him from behind.
• Lin Yuan used a powerful saber technique to clash with Song Mo’s sword strike, devastating the street and leaving Song Mo fatally wounded.
• Song Mo died after Lin Yuan taunted him, and Shen Qing caught Lin Yuan as the shock wave threw him backward.
• Lin Yuan and the others saw that the Lin residence’s front courtyard had collapsed, while people remained inside the rear courtyard.
• A firework signaled the arrival of Zhao Wuya’s thirty-thousand-strong army, and battle cries rang out near the city walls.

Lin Yuan purged the Lin estate’s servants, sparing those identified as honest and killing suspected Zhao Clan loyalists. As he struck down the last group, a remarkably fast groom escaped across the rooftops, and Lin Yuan sent three saber strikes after him.

• Lin Yuan killed Zhou Fu, the estate’s head steward, after suspecting him of involvement in Zhao Yan’s rebellion, then spared Yunniang when Lin Jiu identified her as his wet nurse.
• Lin Jiu helped identify servants with no ties to the Zhao Clan, while Lin Yuan killed three Zhao Clan servants who tried to flee and spared Zhao Liu after he agreed to change his surname to Lin.
• Lin Yuan recognized and killed a servant who had tried to assassinate him in Blackstone Town, along with three other men.
• Lin Yuan had the remaining servants identify honest workers, sparing more than half and killing the twenty-one people left in the courtyard.
• A tall groom evaded Lin Yuan’s saber Qi and fled over the rooftops, so Lin Yuan launched three saber strikes at his back.

Lin Yuan retook control of the Lin estate, then reached the city wall as order collapsed inside the city and Zhao Wuya threatened to slaughter its people. After Shen Qing sent a delaying reply, Lin Yuan warned that Zhao Wuya was about to attack again, and the war horns sounded.

• Lin Yuan killed Sun Wu, discovered the Human Grade Flowing Cloud Steps manual, and sent Lin Jiu and Lin Liu to take over the Lin businesses.
• Lin Yuan killed two men who tried to rob him, then found a murdered woman in an alley and continued toward the city wall.
• Lin Yuan met Shen Qing on the battlements and learned that roaming bandits had led the latest assault while Zhao Wuya's troops harassed the defenders.
• Shen Qing read Zhao Wuya's demand to release the Zhao Clan members and sent back a reply meant to buy time for reinforcements.
• Lin Yuan warned Shen Qing that Zhao Wuya would attack again, and war horns and drums sounded.

During the siege, Lin Yuan and Shen Qing fought off Zhao Wuya’s Shadow Guard on the city wall. The seven surviving assassins merged their strength into a late-stage second-rank presence and sent a giant dagger phantom toward them.

• Li San sacrificed himself to kill a marauder, while Lin Yuan and Shen Qing fought off attackers on the western and eastern walls.
• Zhao Wuya ordered the Shadow Guard to carry out a decapitation strike, and ten black-clad assassins attacked the northern wall.
• The assassins killed six Dragon Guard riders, but Lin Yuan arrived and used Flowing Cloud Steps to evade their attacks and kill two of them.
• Shen Qing killed one assassin, and Lin Yuan saved a squad leader from another; the remaining seven assassins then formed a back-to-back formation.
• The seven assassins merged their presences into the late stage of the second rank and launched a thirty-meter dagger phantom at Lin Yuan and Shen Qing.

Lin Yuan and Shen Qing survived the rebels’ second assault, but the city’s defenders suffered heavy losses. Zhao Wuya abandoned his plan to capture Ping'an County and ordered his army toward Yun Prefecture, while Lin Yuan went to seek a cultivation technique before another attack.

• Lin Yuan sacrificed several body parts to power his saber strike, destroying the dagger phantom and killing the seven black-clad attackers before scrambling back onto the wall.
• The bandits sounded their retreat, and Shen Qing learned that 277 soldiers had been killed and fewer than 400 remained fit to defend the city.
• Cao Hu confronted Zhao Wuya over the failed assault, while Zhao Wuya blamed him for losing the men inside Ping'an County and his clan.
• Zhao Wuya ordered his army to march north for Yun Prefecture, and he told his strategist that he intended to absorb the Heaven-Pacifying Army.
• Lin Yuan returned home, ate lunch, and then headed to the Treasure Pavilion to find a primary cultivation technique and improve his cultivation.

Lin Yuan bought hundreds of Mortal Grade manuals and two flawed Human Grade cultivation arts, then used his hundredfold comprehension to combine them into an Earth Rank cultivation art. He left the chapter with the Primordial Chaos Limitless Art initiated and a new path toward breaking through to higher realms.

• Lin Yuan bought all 312 Mortal Grade manuals from the Treasure Pavilion and asked Xiao He to find flawed Human Grade internal cultivation methods.
• Xiao He sold Lin Yuan the Withered Essence Art and Blood Demon Scripture for fifteen thousand taels, earning a large commission and provoking the green-robed maid's jealousy.
• At his residence, Lin Yuan reached initiation in every Mortal Grade martial art after six hours of study.
• Lin Yuan tried to fuse the Withered Essence Art and Blood Demon Scripture, then used the yin-yang principle he recalled from Grasp the Sparrow's Tail to reconcile their opposing forces.
• Lin Yuan fused the two arts into the Earth Rank Primordial Chaos Limitless Art and reached its initial stage.

Lin Yuan discovered Zhao Wuya had abandoned his army and helped drive the remaining bandits from Ping'an County after Qing Prefecture reinforcements arrived. As he resumed cultivating and rejected Shen Qing’s invitation to join the Dragon Guard, Wang Ruogu brought news of a murder involving a girl named Xiao He.

• Lin Yuan investigated the silent rebel camp, discovered it was filled with decoys, and confirmed that Zhao Wuya had fled with his army.
• Shen Qing sent a message into the bandit camp, prompting the bandits to attack the rebels and then flee north as the camp burned.
• Uncle Fu arrived with five thousand Qing Prefecture cavalry, who pursued the fleeing bandits and slaughtered them through the night.
• Lin Yuan advanced his cultivation overnight, failed to deduce the next move of the Heaven-Questioning Saber, and declined Shen Qing’s invitation to join the Dragon Guard.
• Wang Ruogu rushed in to report a murder in the west of the city and asked Lin Yuan whether he knew a girl named Xiao He.

After learning that Xiao He and her mother were murdered for the nine hundred taels Xiao He had earned, Lin Yuan stormed into the Treasure Pavilion and tortured a green-robed attendant until she confessed to informing her cousin Liu Meng. The attendant tried to seduce Lin Yuan to save herself, while he remained silent.

• Wang Ruogu told Lin Yuan that Xiao He and her mother had been murdered and that the county office traced the case to Xiao He's commission.
• Lin Yuan went to the Treasure Pavilion, where Wang Ruogu said the attendants had alibis and asked to let the business resume.
• Lin Yuan dragged the green-robed attendant into a quiet room, hurt her, and demanded to know how Xiao He had died.
• The attendant confessed that jealousy over Xiao He's nine hundred taels led her to inform her cousin Liu Meng, a Wild Dog Gang hall master, who killed Xiao He and her mother.
• The attendant undressed and tried to seduce Lin Yuan, who watched her without responding.

Lin Yuan joined the Dragon Guard after killing a woman accused of a crime, then went to the Four Seas Gambling House to punish Liu Meng for murdering a mother and daughter. After Liu Meng’s death, a thousand Wild Dog Gang members surrounded the gambling house.

• Lin Yuan killed the woman in the Treasure Pavilion, and Shen Qing welcomed him into the Dragon Guard before Deputy Magistrate Wang could arrest him.
• Shen Qing promoted Lin Yuan to Dragon Guard commandant and left for Qingshan Commandery as a company commander.
• Lin Yuan attacked the Four Seas Gambling House and defeated its dozens of enforcers with three strikes of Saber Qi.
• Lin Yuan seized Liu Meng, severed his arm, and killed him after Liu Meng admitted murdering the mother and daughter.
• Lin Yuan continued hacking at the wounded enforcers as at least a thousand Wild Dog Gang members surrounded the gambling house.

Lin Yuan slaughtered the Wild Dog Gang after its members attacked him, then honored the dead at their graves and took charge of rebuilding the Dragon Guard in Ping'an County. After advancing his cultivation, he received an invitation to an auction from the Treasure Pavilion.

• Lin Yuan killed more than two hundred members of the Wild Dog Gang and drove the rest away when they attacked him outside the Four Seas Gambling House.
• Wang Hai arrived with constables, recognized Lin Yuan as a Dragon Guard captain, and knelt; Lin Yuan killed Zhao Heihu when he tried to implicate Deputy Magistrate Wang.
• Lin Yuan visited two fresh graves outside town and mourned the dead, feeling the last warmth and mercy from his previous life disappear.
• Lin Yuan met Wang Cheng at Wang's Tea House and ordered him to recruit fifty loyal young mounted guards from respectable families.
• Lin Yuan cultivated the Five Qi Converging to the Origin Art and Primordial Chaos Limitless Art, reaching the peak of the Qi and Blood Realm.
• Lin Jiu delivered Lin Yuan an invitation to an auction from the Treasure Pavilion.

Lin Yuan attended an auction at the Treasure Pavilion, bought an indecipherable parchment and won the Earth Rank lightness art Swimming Dragon Steps after selling assets to fund his bid. As he left with both prizes, he sensed someone watching him and spotted a black-cloaked figure slipping into an alley.

• Lin Yuan arrived at the Treasure Pavilion, where the guests recognized him as the Dragon Guard captain feared for killing members of the Wild Dog Gang.
• Lin Yuan bought an ancient, indecipherable parchment for two thousand taels after deciding it was worth studying.
• The Treasure Pavilion auctioned the incomplete Earth Rank lightness art Swimming Dragon Steps, and Lin Yuan outbid the Wang Clan patriarch with a bid of six hundred thousand taels.
• Lin Yuan covered the bid by selling the Lin Clan Cloth Shop, refined iron, and his Flowing Cloud Steps manual, then won Swimming Dragon Steps.
• Lin Yuan collected the parchment and martial art and left the Treasure Pavilion, where he sensed a watcher and saw a black-cloaked figure disappear into an alley.

Cao Hu learned that Lin Yuan had killed Song Mo and planned to lure him out of the city, while Lin Yuan fused his movement techniques into the Earth-Rank Immortal Ascension Steps. The chapter ended with Lin Yuan receiving Cao Hu’s threat to come alone to Little River Village or face the slaughter of its people.

• Cao Hu learned that Lin Yuan had killed Song Mo and acquired an Earth-Rank lightness technique, then decided to lure him out of the city rather than risk attacking with his remaining men.
• Lin Yuan used his epiphany to fuse his movement techniques and create the Earth-Rank Immortal Ascension Steps.
• Lin Yuan tested the technique by walking through the air, but found it consumed more than half his blood and Qi in just a few breaths.
• Lin Yuan examined the tattered sheepskin scroll but could not decipher it without another epiphany.
• A constable delivered Cao Hu’s bloodstained letter demanding that Lin Yuan come alone to Little River Village before noon or Cao Hu would kill the villagers.

Lin Yuan took fifty new Dragon Guard recruits to Little River Village to confront Cao Hu and his bandits. After using saber Qi from the air to devastate the bandits, Lin Yuan landed to face Cao Hu directly, and the two unleashed their life-burning secret arts in a final clash.

• Lin Yuan inspected the fifty newly recruited Dragon Guards and took them to show them blood at Little River Village.
• Cao Hu and more than three hundred bandits mocked the youths, but Lin Yuan appeared in the air and began cutting down the bandits with saber Qi.
• Cao Hu charged at the recruits, and Wang Cheng stopped them from fleeing by warning that retreat would doom their families.
• Lin Yuan landed after exhausting much of his blood Qi and challenged Cao Hu, who activated the Blood-Burning Technique.
• Lin Yuan shattered three illusory internal organs to strengthen his saber, then met Cao Hu's thirty-five-meter axe Qi with Shake Kunlun.

Lin Yuan led the Dragon Guards in killing the bandits terrorizing Little River Village, then returned to his residence and used enlightenment on a parchment scroll. He learned that it contained the Heaven Grade Savage Bear Tyrant Body Art, which remained uninitiated.

• Lin Yuan killed Cao Hu with a saber strike, and the Dragon Guards pursued and killed the fleeing bandits.
• Wang Cheng led the youths and villagers back to Ping'an County with the bandits’ heads, where townspeople celebrated the Dragon Guards.
• Lin Yuan ordered Wang Cheng to collect the youths’ rewards and assemble them at the teahouse the next morning.
• Lin Yuan returned home, ate a meal prepared by Yunniang, and cultivated until nightfall.
• Lin Yuan activated enlightenment on the parchment scroll and revealed the Heaven Grade Savage Bear Tyrant Body Art.